HOME / PRESENTATIONS /

2012

Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?, at 2012 International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED2012) (Bangkok, Thailand), Monday, July 23, 2012:
talk_1947.pdf
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing... Read more about Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?
Peer Instruction, at 2012 International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED2012) (Bangkok, Thailand), Monday, July 23, 2012:
talk_1948.pdf
The basic goals of Peer Instruction are to encourage and make use of student interaction during lectures, while focusing students' attention on underlying concepts and techniques. The method has been assessed in many studies using standardized, diagnostic tests and shown to be considerably more effective than the conventional lecture approach to teaching. Peer Instruction is now used in a wide range of science and math courses at the college and secondary level. In this workshop, participants will learn about Peer Instruction, serve as the "class" in which Peer Instruction is demonstrated,... Read more about Peer Instruction
The Tyranny of the Lecture, at ISEE 2012, International Symposium for Engineering Education (Sheffield, UK), Thursday, July 19, 2012:
talk_1923.pdf
Most -- if not all -- of the important skills in our life are acquired outside the traditional classroom setting. Yet we continue to teach using lectures where students passively take down information. Instead, we should really focus on the assimilation of that information and shift the focus from teaching to helping students learn. Over the past 20 years, instructors world-wide have begun to adopt Peer Instruction to get students to think in class. With the advent of new technology the process can be significantly improved. A new data-analytics driven audience response system does away with... Read more about The Tyranny of the Lecture
Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at ISEE 2012, University wide lecture, St George’s Church, The University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK), Wednesday, July 18, 2012:
talk_1922.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
Catalyzing Learning Using Peer Instruction and Learning Catalytics, at BLC12 (Boston, MA), Tuesday, July 17, 2012:
talk_1817.pdf
Most -- if not all -- of the important skills in our lives are acquired outside the traditional classroom setting. Yet we continue to teach using lectures where students passively take down information. Peer instruction is a research-based pedagogy that actively engages students in the classroom and has been shown to dramatically improve conceptual understanding, even in large classes. While successfully implementing peer instruction doesn't require any technology, using the right technology can improve student engagement, increase learning, and make it easier to implement peer instruction in... Read more about Catalyzing Learning Using Peer Instruction and Learning Catalytics
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Forty Forth Conference of the European Group on Atomic Systems (Gothenburg, Sweden), Thursday, July 12, 2012:
talk_1811.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
The scientific approach to teaching: Research as a basis for course design, at Forty Forth Conference of the European Group on Atomic Systems (Gothenburg, Sweden), Thursday, July 12, 2012:
talk_1931.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.
Small decisions, big consequences, at REU Responsible Conduct in Research Workshop, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Tuesday, July 3, 2012:
talk_1960.pdf
An interactively, case-based workshop to explore the principles of responsible conduct and ethics in research.
Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at Summer Technology Academy of the Catholic Schools Foundation, Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA), Thursday, June 28, 2012:
talk_1958.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
Flipping your classroom using college readiness assignments: Research-Based Strategies for your Classroom, at CRAFT Professional Development Institute, University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX, USA), Tuesday, June 26, 2012:
talk_1956.pdf
How can I help my students learn in ways that pique their interest and enrich their subject matter understanding? We will explore this perennial question by considering an innovative, research-based teaching method called Peer Instruction (PI). Originally developed by Dr. Eric Mazur to address major gaps in students' conceptual knowledge of physics at Harvard University, this interactive pedagogical method is now widely used by thousands of instructors across the world. PI leverages the power of social learning and the latest advances in cognitive science to confront students' misconceptions... Read more about Flipping your classroom using college readiness assignments: Research-Based Strategies for your Classroom

Pages