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2013

Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Alternative Pedagogy Workshop, Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, IN), Saturday, November 2, 2013:
talk_2146.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
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Neils Colloquium for Innovative Science, Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, IN), Friday, November 1, 2013:
talk_2132.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Stopping time, at Math & Science All Star Day, Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, IN), Friday, November 1, 2013:
talk_2131.pdf
Time is of philosophical interest as well as the subject of mathematical and scientific research. Even though it is a concept familiar to most, the passage of time remains one of the greatest enigmas of the universe. The philosopher Augustine once said: "What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know." The concept time indeed cannot be explained in simple terms. Emotions, life, and death - all are related to our interpretation of the irreversible flow of time. After a discussion of the concept of time, we will review... Read more about Stopping time
Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning, at Dudley Herschbach Teacher/Scientist lecture, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Tuesday, October 29, 2013:
talk_2130.pdf
Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our approach to... Read more about Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning
Flipped Classrooms 101—An Introduction to Flipped Learning, at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Southwestern University (Georgetown, TX), Friday, October 25, 2013:
talk_2196.pdf
Instructors all over the globe are turning their students' worlds around by flipping their classrooms. In a flipped class, teachers move information coverage out of the lecture hall so that they can better leverage in-class time to address student difficulties and misconceptions. In this interactive session, Dr. Julie Schell will flip the workshop by providing brief introductory, pre-workshop activities to participants. She will use responses from these activities in the workshop and discuss the why, what, and how of flipped classrooms by confronting and resolving a series common myths about... Read more about Flipped Classrooms 101—An Introduction to Flipped Learning
Memorización o comprensión: estamos enseñando lo correcto?, at Congreso Internacional sobre la Universidad Innovadora en América Latina, Universidad La Salle (Arequipa, Peru), Friday, October 25, 2013:
talk_2212.pdf
Educación es mucho más que transferencia de información, sin embargo es lo que comúnmente se hace en cursos introductorios de gran tamaño – los profesores presentan material (a pesar de que ese material puede estar disponible en su versión impresa) y para los estudiantes el principal propósito de las clases magistrales es tomar la mayor cantidad de notas que puedan. Pocos estudiantes tienen la habilidad, motivación y disciplina para sintetizar toda la información que se les entrega. Sin embargo la síntesis es quizás el más importante -- y el más eludido – aspecto de la... Read more about Memorización o comprensión: estamos enseñando lo correcto?
Confesiones de un profesor convertido, at Viceministerio de Gestión Pedagógica (Lima, Peru), Thursday, October 24, 2013:
talk_2211.pdf
Pensaba que era un buen profesor hasta que descubrí que mis estudiantes solo estaban memorizando información más que aprender a comprender el material. A quién debía culpar? A los estudiantes? Al material? Explicaré cómo llegué a la agonizante conclusión de que el culpable no era ninguno de estos. Era mi enseñanza la que causaba que los estudiantes fallaran! Mostraré como he ajustado mi método de enseñanza y cómo eso ha mejorado el desempeño de los estudiantes de manera significativa.
Multidimensional Measurement in Education, at Harvard Physics Research Scholar Retreat (Charlestown, MA), Friday, October 18, 2013:
talk_2213.pdf
Many of the Mazur Group Education research projects focus on measurement. Four areas of current interest to the group are learning, metacognition, interaction, and self-efficacy. This talk outlines some of our projects that measure interaction between students in and out of the classroom.
Assessment: The Silent Killer of Innovation, at Innovative Learning Conference, The Nueva School (Hillsborough, CA), Friday, October 18, 2013:
talk_2129.pdf
Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our approach to... Read more about Assessment: The Silent Killer of Innovation
The Tyranny of the Lecture, at Innovative Learning Conference, The Nueva School (Hillsborough, CA), Friday, October 18, 2013:
talk_2207.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

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