Preparing to Teach 3: Supporting expert-like thinking

Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars

Preparing to Teach 3:

Getting your students to think

more like experts via

2 minute pause

peer instruction

May 13 and 15

1 sgts.ucsd.edu

“What the best college teachers do”

“More than anything else, the best teachers try to create

a natural critical learning environment:

natural because students encounter skills, habits,

attitudes, and information they are trying to learn

embedded in questions and tasks they find fascinating—

authentic tasks that arouse curiosity and become

intrinsically interesting

critical because students learn to think critically, to

reason from evidence, to examine the quality of their

reasoning using a variety of intellectual standards, to

make improvements while thinking, and to ask probing

and insightful questions about the thinking of other

people.”

(Bain (2004), p. 99) sgts.ucsd.edu 2

What is expertise?

“To develop competence in an area of

inquiry, student must

(a) have a deep foundation of factual

knowledge

(b) understand facts and ideas in the

context of a conceptual framework, and

(c) organize knowledge in ways that

facilitate retrieval and application” (How People Learn, 2000)

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knowledge

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knowledge

framework

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knowledge

framework

retrieval

Thinking in more expert-like ways requires

modeling by the expert (that’s you!)

deliberate practice by each student:

1. Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it.

2. As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way your are.

3. After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Make changes in your behavior as necessary.

4. Continually build mental models of your situation – your industry, your company, your career. Enlarge the models to encompass more factors.

5. Do these steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work.

(from Tip Sheet: Perfect Practice (Colvin, 2006))

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Supporting deliberate practice

How much time? Aim for 10 min per hour?

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Stop to let students

think and discuss

Pose a question for

students to think

about and discuss

Give choices to

direct the students’

conversations

2-min

pause 2-min

pause Pro peer

instruction

2-minute pause

Every 15-20 minutes of your lecture, stop talking

and invite the students to take 2 minutes to:

review their notes

consult with neighbors to fill in missing points

check with neighbors if anything is confusing

formulate a question(s) that will clear up

confusion or fill in a gap

When conversations dies down (wait longer than

2 minutes, if necessary), lead a brief class-wide

discussion to answer questions, resolve confusion.

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Engineering Professor CAPEs

Quarter Enrollment Recommend

class

Recommend

instructor

SP10 25 91.7 % 58.3 %

SP11 47 89.5 % 73.7 %

FA11 123 91.7 % 56.3 %

SP13 105 94.6 % 83.8 %

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started using

2-minute pause

2-minute pause (Pro version)

Provide a question in case they

don’t have anything to talk about

don’t know how to have an expert-like conversion

summarize material just covered “What do you think would have happened if they ran the experiment with adults instead of children?”

motivate upcoming material “How do you think this will change when we apply it in 3 dimensions instead of 2?”

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Typical episode of peer instruction

1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging

multiple-choice question.

2. Students think about question on their own

and vote using clickers, ABCD cards

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3. The instructor prompts students, “Turn to your neighbors and convince them you’re right.”

4. After discussion, students vote again.

5. Instructor leads a class-wide discussion about why right answer(s) is right and wrong answers are wrong.

3. Instructor prompts students,

“Explain to your neighbor

why you made that choice.”

4. After discussion, instructor

leads a class-wide discussion

about each choice

Analytical skills

(typically one right answer)

Argumentation skills

(every choice can be defended)

Peer instruction with clickers

How many of these are characteristics of a

good peer instruction question?

assesses if students understand content just

covered

prepares students to engage with upcoming

content

checks if students are prepared for class

opportunity for expert-like thinking and talking

A) 2 of them B) 3 of them C) all of them

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In effective peer instruction

students teach each other while

they may still hold or remember

their novice preconceptions

students discuss the concepts

in their (novice) language

each student finds out what s/he does(n’t)

know

the instructor finds out what the students

(don’t) know and reacts, building on their initial

understanding and preconceptions. sgts.ucsd.edu 15

students learn

and practice

how to think,

communicate

like experts

Effective peer instruction requires

1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions

2. creating multiple-choice questions that

require deeper thinking and learning

3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that

spark and support student discussion

4. leading a class-wide discussion to clarify

the concept, resolve the misconception

5. reflecting on the question: note curious

things you overheard, how they voted, etc. so

next year’s peer instruction will be better

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before

class

during

class

after

class

t h e l e a r n i n g c y c l e

Peer instruction helps students learn...

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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning

Adapted from Rosie Piller, Ian Beatty, Stephanie Chasteen



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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning


The students have not

solved concept X.

But they’re know X exists

and why X is interesting.



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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning


Students have had

opportunities to

try, fail, receive feedback and

try again without facing a

summative evaluation. [Bain]



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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning


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What makes a good clicker question?

clarity Students waste no effort trying to figure out

what’s being asked.

context Is this topic currently being covered in class?

learning

outcome

Does the question make students do the right

things to demonstrate they grasp the concept?

distractors What do the “wrong” answers tell you about

students’ thinking?

difficulty Is the question too easy? too hard?

stimulates

thoughtful

discussion

Will the question engage the students and

spark thoughtful discussions? Are there

openings for you to continue the discussion?

(Adapted from Stephanie Chasteen, CU Boulder)

Sample Questions

Look through the collection of questions.

Some are good, some are not.

Try to identify at least one characteristic

(clarity, context,…) that makes each

question good (or not).

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SamplePIQuestions

Peer instruction helps you teach

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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning




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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning

Do they care about this?

Are they ready for the next topic?

What DO they care about, anyway?

What do they already know?

t h e l e a r n i n g c y c l e Did they notice key idea X?

Where are they in the activity?


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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning

Are they getting it?

Do I need to intervene?

t h e l e a r n i n g c y c l e How did I do?

Did they get it?


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BEFORE DURING AFTER

setting up

instruction

developing

knowledge

assessing

learning

Can I move to the next topic?

Did that activity work?

Preparing to Teach 3: Supporting expert-like thinking

Education

Transcript of Preparing to Teach 3: Supporting expert-like thinking