NameSchoolDepartment

JUST IN TIME TEACHINGA 21ST CENTURY LEARNING TECHNIQUE

@ COLTT 2014

DR. JEFF LOATSDEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

THE EVIDENCE STANDARD

Teachers can feel bombarded…

I strive to be a scholarly teacher …

• Apply the rigor we bring to the discipline of physics to the discipline of teaching.

• Choose teaching methods that are strongly informed by the best empirical evidence available.

Contrast teaching your subject with treating diabetes

In your teaching do you have a method for holding students accountable for preparing for class?

Previous anonymous poll results (compiled):

~18% → I don’t, but I ask/threaten really well

~48% → I use a paper method (quiz, journal…)

~11% → I use a digital method (clickers, etc.)

~5% → I use Just-in-Time Teaching

~17% → I have some other method

(N ~ 180)

OVERVIEW

1. Motivation for change

2. Basics of Just-in-Time Teaching

3. Mock example

4. Evidence for effectiveness

5. Summaries

PHYSICS EDUCATION REVOLUTIONEric Mazur, Physicist at Harvard:

“ALL SIMILARLY (IN)EFFECTIVE…”

University of Washington

CU Boulder

University of Illinois

at Urbana-Champaign

TECHNIQUE & TECHNOLOGY

Technique:Just-in-Time Teaching

Technology:Online question & response tools

Learner

Teacher

JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING

Online pre-class assignments called WarmUps

First half - Students

• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences

• Graded on thoughtful effort

Second half - Instructor

• Responses are read “just in time”

• Instructor modifies that day’s plan accordingly.

• Aggregate and individual (anonymous) responses are displayed in class.

Learner

Teacher

Consider a typical day in your class. What fraction of students did their preparatory work before coming to class?

Previous anonymous poll results (compiled):

0-20% 20-40% 40-60% 60-80% 80-100%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

28%33%

21%

14%

5%

N = 206

WARMUP QUESTIONS

• Every-day language• Occasional simple comprehension question• Mostly higher level questions (a la Bloom)• Perhaps any question is better than none

Connections to evidence:–Pre-class work reduces working memory load

during class.–Multimodal practice (not learning styles):

JiTT brings reading, writing and discussion as modes of practice.

METACOGNITION

Two questions in every WarmUp:

First: “What aspect of the material did you find the most difficult or interesting.”

Last: “How much time did you spend on the pre-class work for tomorrow?”

Connections to evidence:

–Forced practice at metacognition: Students regularly evaluate their own interaction with the material.

THE JITT FEEDBACK LOOP

Student responses:

• Graded on thoughtful effort

• Sampled and categorized for display

• Quoted anonymously

Closing the loop:

• Respond to some students digitally

• Class time shifts to active engagement.

EXAMPLE: WHIRLING BUCKETA bucket of water can be whirled in a vertical circle without the water falling out, even at the top of the circle when the bucket is upside down. Explain…

~15% → An outward force holds it in~30% → An inward force holds it in~20% → Talked (correctly!) about

acceleration & velocity… but didn't really answer.

~10% → Nailed it! (or close enough)

EXAMPLE: WHIRLING BUCKET“The water doesn't come out because you twirling the bucket is applying the force of spinning, and the water just kind of counteracts that motion.”

“Because the water naturally wants to keep traveling in the same direction its being whirled around in the water attempts to continue going up in a straight line but the bottom of the bucket forces it to stay in the bucket, like when you are pushed by the door of a car while making a turn.”

JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING

A different student role:

• Actively prepare for class(not just reading/watching)

• Actively engage in class

• Compare your progress & plan accordingly

A different instructor role:

• Actively prepare for class with you(not just going over last year’s notes )

• Modify class accordingly

• Create interactive engagement opportunities

Learner

Teacher

JITT STRUCTURE & RESPONSE RATES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 290

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Response Rate by Day

Class #

% R

esp

on

sed

College Physics I, N = 78

Worth 10% of final gradeDue 10 PM the night before classAssignments available for prior 2-3 days

College Physics I

JITT VS. FINAL GRADE CORRELATIONS

College Physics I, Fall 2013

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1000

20

40

60

80

100

WarmUps vs. Cumulative Score

WarmUp Score

Cum

ulati

ve S

core

(with

out w

arm

-ups

)

Correlation r = 0.71

PROGRESSIVE EXAMS CORRELATIONSCollege Physics I:

Important disclosure: This was not a hypothesis we were testing, it appeared as we analyzed the data. Could be spurious.

Mini Exam(week 4)

Exam 1(week 7)

Exam 2(week 11)

Final Exam(week 16)

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.18

0.33

0.43

0.54

Non

eW

eak

Stro

ngM

oder

ate

Correlations between Total WarmUp Score

and Sequence of Exams

MAZUR AFTER 1 YEAR

ELSEWHERE?

STUDIED EFFECTIVENESS

Used at hundreds of institutions

Dozens of studies/articles, in many disciplines:Bio, Art Hist., Econ., Math, Psych., Chem., etc.

– Increase in content knowledge

– Improved student preparation for class

– Improved use of out-of-class time

– Increased attendance & engagement in class

– Improvement in affective measures

Mean on 1-5 scalePreparation for class 4.06

Engagement during class 3.93

Learning the material 3.79

STUDENT SURVEY RESULTS

Harmful Neutral Helpful0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

9% 10%

81%

10%18%

73%

10%22%

68%

How did WarmUps af-fect your...

Preparation Engagement LearningN = 781

STUDENT SURVEY QUOTES

Physics:

“Initially, it was hard for me to get used to the warm-ups. It seemed like along with the homework assignments there was a lot of things to do. Eventually I got used to it and ultimately the warmups really helped me to learn the material and stay caught up with the class.”

“If it weren't for warm ups, the amount of time I spent reading the book would have dropped by 75%”

WHAT MIGHT STOP YOU?

In terms of the technique:

Time, coverage, not doing your part, pushback…

In terms of the technology:

Learning curve, tech. failures, perfectionism…

In any reform of your teaching:

Reinventing, no support, too much at once…

MY SUMMARY

JiTT may be among the easiest research-based instructional strategies that you can consistently integrate into your teaching.

From an evidence-based perspective, JiTT addresses often-neglected areas.

Be prepared to find that students know less than we might hope. (Perhaps freeing?)

YOUR SUMMARY

What part of JiTT concept/process is the fuzziest for you after this talk?

What is the biggest reason you might not give JiTT a try in one course next term?

Email: Jeff.Loats@gmail.comTwitter: @JeffLoatsSlides: www.slideshare.net/JeffLoats

Don’t hesitate to get in touch.

JITT REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Simkins, Scott and Maier, Mark (Eds.) (2010) Just in Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, Stylus Publishing.

Gregor M. Novak, Andrew Gavrini, Wolfgang Christian, Evelyn Patterson (1999) Just-in-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with Web Technology. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River NJ.

K. A. Marrs, and G. Novak. (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Biology: Creating an Active Learner Classroom Using the Internet. Cell Biology Education, v. 3, p. 49-61.

Jay R. Howard (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Assignment.  Teaching Sociology, Vol. 32 (No. 4 ). pp. 385-390. Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3649666

S. Linneman, T. Plake (2006). Searching for the Difference: A Controlled Test of Just-in-Time Teaching for Large-Enrollment Introductory Geology Courses. Journal of Geoscience Education, Vol. 54 (No. 1)Stable URL:http://www.nagt.org/nagt/jge/abstracts/jan06.html#v54p18

ON-DEMAND SLIDES

WHAT TOOLS TO USE?

The crucial part:

Daily reading, grading & using responses• Automatic full credit for any

response• View all responses to a question

together• Grade responses on the same page

with minimal clicks

Wishlist:

Easy (quick!) individual feedback

WHAT TOOLS TO USE?

• CMS/LMS (Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, etc.)Ready to use, tools… imperfect awful

• Free service from JiTTDL.org.Designed just for JiTT, but extra login, and the site has not been improved in ~5 years

• Students email responsesEasy! usually overwhelming and awful

• Blogging tools (WordPress)?

• New tools (TopHat, Learning Catalytics)?