Studying Student Beliefs About Science: their importance and what affects them
Studying Student Beliefs About Science: their importance and what affects them - July 2007
CUSEI
Helping students engage productively in active learning classrooms
A set of research-based recommendations, organized into a collection of web pages, for helping students to engage productively in active learning, along with concrete examples of how to incorporate these ideas in your classroom. This project arose from the Framing the Interactive Engagement Classroom project, led by Stephanie Chasteen (University of Colorado Boulder), with collaboration from Jon Gaffney (Eastern Kentucky University) and Andrew Boudreaux (Western Washington University).
Two-Stage Exams: Videos
In two-stage exams students complete a test as individuals and then immediately complete it, or a similar test collaboratively in groups. Typically the majority of the students' marks (e.g. 85%) come from the individual component. The excitement of the exam seems to create very focused and useful discussions among the groups. It's difficult or impossible to find students who aren't participating (see if you can find any in the video).
How to Use Clickers Effectively
Want to know more about just how to use clickers to best help your students learn? This video shares the best practices in clicker use, including tips on writing questions and getting students to talk about them, the finer points of running a class discussion about a question, and how long to allow for this process.
Group Work in the College Classroom
How can you use group work effectively in a college setting? Instructors and students share their experiences, and Carl Wieman explains what the research suggests for best practices in implementing group activities.
Clickers: Students and Teachers Speak
Instructors and students describe the benefits of clicker use in class when used to actively engage the students and get them thinking about the material.
Anatomy of a Clicker Question
Just what is a clicker? This video will give you a brief snapshot of what a clicker question looks like in the classroom, from start to finish.
Video: Writing Upper Division Clicker Questions
Struggling to figure out how to write a good question at this level? This short video gives a few quick tips from physics instructors.
Video: What Kinds of Questions Do We Ask in Upper Division?
Professor Steven Pollock walks through the questions that he asked in one day of Quantum Mechanics. He shares his strategies in choosing the questions and what he noticed about how students reacted to them.
Video: Upper Division Clickers in Action
What might clickers look like in a junior course? Take a look inside one of our classrooms, and hear students and instructors discuss how and why they think clickers can be useful at this level.
