Other education

The teaching of physics to engineering students has remained stagnant for close to a century. In this novel team-based, project-based approach, we break the mold by giving students ownership of their learning. This new course has no standard lectures or exams, yet students’ conceptual gains are significantly greater than those obtained in traditional courses. The course blends six best practices to deliver a learning experience that helps students develop important skills, including communication, estimation, problem solving, and team skills, in addition to a solid conceptual understanding... Read more about Flat space, deep learning

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.

We studied the collaborative construction of knowledge facilitated by an online annotation system in a flipped class. Students used the online system to collaboratively annotate the pre-class reading assignments by asking questions, responding to questions, or placing comments. The annotation threads reveal the students’ knowledge structures. For example, asking questions (or answering them) exposes lack of knowledge or misconceptions that persist after the pre-class reading. At the same time, even just reading annotation threads without contributing to them can help spread knowledge.... Read more about Collaborative Knowledge Construction using an Online Annotation System

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.

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

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.

This poster will present the findings of a case study research project designed around an innovative approach to faculty development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project trained over 75 professors from research universities in Chile,Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. The program currently measures four dimensions of pedagogical change: knowledge, attitudes, practice and dissemination. We will solicit feedback on our faculty development and program assessment model so that we may further improve our ability to potentiate pedagogical change in Latin American higher education and... Read more about Knowing as the Stage for Doing: Developing Professors’ Pedagogical Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, and Dissemination During Cross-­‐national Faculty Development Programs

The syllabus is the blueprint for learning in higher education; it narrates the story of the larger learning experiences instructors and students should expect to encounter as they navigate the terrains of a course. It also represents the "logic" or "theory" of a course: If instructors and students use the syllabus as a guide, engage seriously in the content and activities laid out, then learning experiences should occur. Innovative syllabi bring together and make clear instructors' expectations for student learning (Learning Goals), the evidence and performance tasks (Evaluation Plans)... Read more about Flipping your syllabus from teacher to student centeredness

The teaching of physics to engineering students has remained stagnant for close to a century. In this novel team-based, project-based approach, we break the mold by giving students ownership of their learning. This new course has no standard lectures or exams, yet students’ conceptual gains are significantly greater than those obtained in traditional courses. The course blends six best practices to deliver a learning experience that helps students develop important skills, including communication, estimation, problem solving, and team skills, in addition to a solid conceptual understanding... Read more about Flat space, deep learning

Simply putting lectures online is one way to flip a class, but it is not the best way. In this workshop, Dr. Julie Schell will introduce two research-based strategies teachers can use to design learning environments that boost student engagement with subject-matter both in and outside of class. Attendees will experience live demonstrations of one flipped class technique called Peer Instruction, developed at Harvard University and backed by 20 years of research, that can be used in any discipline and with any class size. We will also test out a new classroom response system that facilitates... Read more about Innovative Flipped Classrooms

Advances in cognitive science have changed what we know about how people learn, but pedagogical approaches have not adapted to use this knowledge to help our students learn better. In this workshop, Dr. Julie Schell will demo three simple tips educators can use to catalyze learning in any educational context.

The Center actively promotes interdisciplinary education and outreach through a variety of initiatives. Participants contribute to outreach to the general public through collaboration with the Boston Museum of Science, outreach to K-12 in-service teachers, research experiences for undergraduates and K-12 teachers, interdisciplinary courses for graduate students, and postdoctoral fellowships for women and minorities. The program involves faculty, postdoctoral fellows, collaborators and graduate students associated with the Center and benefits a broad constituency of society.

In this seminar, we will construct an understanding of what blended learning is and what it is not. Participants will generate their own definitions of blended learning and identify elements of their classroom teaching that qualify. We will also collaborate to determine why blended learning is important.

Classroom demonstrations and textbook illustrations are often considered to be key tools in improving student understanding of physical concepts. Vizualization alone, however, does not necessarily improve student understanding and can even create additional misconceptions. Active engagement of the students is essential to avoid the creation of a “wrong picture”.