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2010

Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at Foro de Presidentes, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Monday, May 3, 2010:
talk_1629.pdf
Can we teach innovation? Innovation requires whole-brain thinking — left-brain thinking for creativity and imagination, and right-brain thinking for planning and execution. Our current approach to education in science and technology, focuses on the transfer of information, developing mostly right-brain thinking by stressing copying and reproducing existing ideas rather than generating new ones. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to team work and creative thinking greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom and promotes independent... Read more about Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century
Academic Researchers' Joint Ventures toward Undergraduate STEM Teaching Improvement at Major Research Universities, at American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting - Poster Session (Denver, Colorado), Sunday, May 2, 2010:
talk_1514.pdf
Based on a qualitative study of 20 research-active science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professors’ teaching improvement efforts, this paper suggests that some academic researchers engage in highly-intensive, joint ventures to enhance their introductory pedagogy at major research universities. The study casts professors’ participation in such communal teaching activities as voluntary and as enacted despite problematic career structures that promote collaboration in research, not in teaching. Based on interviews, observations and documentary analysis, the study posits that... Read more about Academic Researchers' Joint Ventures toward Undergraduate STEM Teaching Improvement at Major Research Universities
Using technology to engage students, at Faculty Development Workshop, University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA), Friday, April 30, 2010:
talk_1622.pdf
It has been suggested the lack of interaction in large lecture courses is to blame for the many problems facing these courses: declining enrollments, low attendance, poor evaluations, and disappointing retention. We offer a way of redesigning the classroom so interaction is introduced in many aspects of the course. This approach has shown to be effective by many instructors in a broad variety of environments. I will demonstrate some of the tools we have developed to foster this interaction.
Research as a basis for course design, at Faculty Development Workshop, University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA), Friday, April 30, 2010:
talk_1619.pdf
Discussions of teaching -- even some publications -- abound with anecdotal evidence. Our intuition often supplants a systematic, scientific approach to finding out what works and what doesn't work. Yet, research is increasingly demonstrating that our gut feelings about teaching are often wrong. In this talk I will discuss some research my group has done on gender issues in science courses and on the effectiveness of classroom demonstrations.
The make-believe world of real-world physics, at Public Lecture, University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA), Thursday, April 29, 2010:
talk_1620.pdf
That physics describes the real world is a given for physicists. In spite of tireless efforts by instructors to connect physics to the real world, students walk away from physics courses believing physicists live in a world of their own. Are students clueless about the real world? Or are we perhaps deluding ourselves and misleading our students about the real world?
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Faculty Development Workshop, University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA), Thursday, April 29, 2010:
talk_1621.pdf
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Stat 303 Guest Lecture, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Monday, April 26, 2010:
talk_1618.pdf
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly

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