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Teaching Introductory Physics Courses at University of

Minnesota

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Outline

• Orientation goals, schedule and structure

• What physics classes for • For whom?• What’s important to teach?• How should we teach it?

• What does a TA do within our course structure?

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Orientation: Goals and Structure• Goals:

To help you come up to speed in teaching/coaching

To give you some ideas about our teaching/coaching methods.

And convince enough of you enough about soundness of our approach so that you will do a good job and contribute to our education mission.

• Structure: Typically 2.5 hours in morning/afternoon covering:

• Demonstration of how lab and discussion sections are structured.

• Discussion about teaching/coaching methods• Practice coaching aspects of teaching

Reading and other assignments • To get you think about teaching/coaching physics

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History of TA orientation

• Pat and Ken Heller re-structured Introductory Physics classes in terms of how the discussion and lab sessions are run.

• Pat designed TA orientation so that TA’s know what to do in the discussion and lab sessions.

• This is the first year that I am taking over the TA orientation.

• I am not an expert in education, while Pat was.

• I probably need frequent feedback from you to make the orientation as meaningful as possible.

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A few big questions (mine)

• What do you want your students to take away from your class.

• How do you feel about focusing on teaching/coaching problem solving?

• Does it make sense to use a lot of Group learning to teach/coach problem solving?

• What should you do as a TA to make the best out of our course structure?

• Which Question do you most identify with?

• Are there any other questions you have?

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What do you want your students to take away

from your class?

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How do you feel about focusing on

teaching/coaching problem solving?

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What did you find out on Monday from your advisers?

• “thinking like physicists?”

• Importance/frequencies of “problem solving” in professional physicist’s life.

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Martinez Article – problem solving

• What did you find as his main points?• What struck you as obvious?• What was surprising to you, but you

agree with?• What was surprising to you, and you are

skeptical about its truthfulness and/or relevance.

• What part you did not understand?

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Topics

Demos

Questions

Discussion

Procedures

Exams

Lecture

OfficeHours

Discussion Labs OutsideModeling Coaching Fading

Lecturer TAs Student

Mentor TA

Orientation

Grading

Seminars

Reading

Studying

Homework

Predictions

Lab Reports

Quizzes

Cooperative Groups

Context RichProblems

ProblemSolving

Team

OUR MODEL FOR LARGE INTRODUCTORY COURSES

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How do we teach/coach problem solving?

• Lectures (professor), Examples of good problem solving techniques. Explain physics concepts and Apply to simple situations to help students

develop physics intuition, etc.

• Discussion sessions, Students solve a problem while the TA coaches*

them. - giving feedback to students, - giving a little push or some hints, if needed, to get

students moving again when they are stuck. - manage less-than-optimally operating groups:

• a group member not participating much, or • a member too dominating and not utilizing the

intellectual resources within the group.

＊

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How do we teach/coach: Lab• very similar to the discussion sessions (time for

students to solve problems.) NOT meant to have students confirm fundamental physics

laws. Neither to teach students experimental techniques or details

of errors analysis • Instead of the TA summarizing which groups’ solutions

are right and which are wrong, they do experiments to see themselves if their solutions make sense against the results of the experiments.

• TA’s role is very similar to that in the discussion session.

• Additionally, you need to be cognizant to Where the experiments tend to go wrong, How computers tend to misbehave, When and how you need to get help on malfunctioning

equipment, etc. so that • students won’t justify wrong problem solutions with wrong

experimental results and • avoid delay in their experiments due to equipment problems.

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Lecture 3 IndividualDiscussion/Labs 3 Collaborative groupsStudy/Homework 7-8 Individual

Component hours/week Mode

Students’ time use and importance of

TA’s work

23% of course time spent in cooperative groups with TA

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Who are your students?

• Algebra Based Physics – 300 students/term

• Calculus Based Physics – 1200 students/term

• Physics for Biology Majors – 500 students/term

• Where are Physics majors?• More details follow

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Pre-majorsArchitecture 45%Paramedical 26%

Physical therapydentistrypharmacychiropracticmedical techveterinary

Agriculture / ecology 9%Others 20%

Freshman 30%Sophomores 30%Juniors 30%Seniors 10%

Male ~50%Had Calculus 50%Had HS Chemistry 40%Had HS Physics 50%

Algebra-Based Physics

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MajorsEngineering 75%Physics/Astro 5%Chemistry 6%Mathematics 5%Biology 9%

Male 79%Had Calculus 80%Had HS Physics 87%

Freshman 64%Sophomores 22%Juniors 10%Seniors/high school, etc.

Expect A 61%Work for money 53%Work more than 10 hrs/wk 25%

Calculus Based Physics

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MajorsBiological Science 49%Allied Health 19%Social Science 7%Architecture 3%Engineering 2%Other ~20%

Pre-Med 37%

Had U. Calculus 71%(Had HS Calculus) 50%

Had HS Physics 71%

Freshman 7%Sophomore 38%Junior 19%Senior 17%HS, etc

Expect A 48%Work for money 74%Work more than 10 hrs/wk 50%

Male 39%Female 61%

Physics for Biology Majors

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End

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What do you think is a TA?

• What is your image of a teaching assistant (TA)?

• What does a TA do? • What students does a TA work with?

Formulate an answer individually.Share your answer with a partner.Listen carefully to your partner's answer.Create a new answer through discussion.

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Response from previous year (2004)

• Work with groups of students;

• work with professors to grade and run course,

• make some decisions about content

• Help, guide students, • be there to answer

questions• Bridge between teacher

and student; • help with homework• One-on-one interaction

with student’ • explain to them

• Student more comfortable interacting with TA

• Learning to teach; master undergraduate material

• Share experience with students

• Evaluate his/her own education by reflecting on how students react to materials

• Work with students on personal problems

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Research-based Models for Teaching Introductory Courses

• Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite by E. Redish

• Recitations Tutorials in Introductory Physics (University of Washington

PER Group) page 146 Activity Based Tutorials (University of Maryland PER Group)

page 152 Cooperative Problem Solving (University of Minnesota PER

Group) page 158

All models are effective in improving students’understanding of physics

• Labs RealTime Physics (Tuffs University) page 164 Cooperative Problem Solving Labs

• Workshop and Studio Methods Workshop Physics (Dickinson College) page 176

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RPI OSU

UMd

UMn

DC

DC

S/W

Jeff Saul, Karen Cummings

Rel

ativ

e %

Gai

n o

n F

CI

Comparisons of effectiveness of various Models

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LECTURESThree hours each week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), sometimes with informal cooperative groups.

DISCUSSIONSECTION

One hour each Thursday -- groups practice using a logical problem-solving framework to solve problems.

LABORATORYSECTION

Two hours each week -- same groups practice using problem-solving framework to solve experimental problems.

TESTSFriday -- usually a problem-solving quiz every three weeks with some multiple-choice conceptual questions.

More on our model

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Example Quiz QuestionsSELECTED READING:

True or False. Clear, oral presentation of a concept is critical to overcoming alternative conceptions of students.

List 2 of the 3 sources of alternative conceptions as given by Wandersee, Mintzes, & Novak (1994).

OTHER READING Short Answer: A 50% appointment as a TA entails

teaching how many discussion sessions and laboratory sessions each week?

Multiple Choice: About what percentage of the 1301 (calculus-based) students will be physics majors?

(a)50% (d)5%(b)25% (e)0%(c)10%

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Hoursin Class

TA Orientation Course(about 1.5 Education Credits)

1. Course structure, students & TA duties 92. Alternative Conceptions of Students 33. Teaching the Discussion Sessions

Demonstration Discussion Session 3Student Difficulties with Problem Solving 3Characteristics of Good Problems 3

4. Teaching the Problem-solving LabsDemonstration Lab 3Writing Intensive Requirement 3

5. Cooperative Groups and Problem Solving 36. Peer Teaching of Labs/Discussion sessions 67. Professionalism and Diversity Issues 38. First Week Lesson Plans 3

Total 42

This has to

be revised

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Teaching Seminars(about 1 education credit)

Fall and Spring Semester Hours

in Class

1. Teaching Labs

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2. Teaching Discussion Session

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3. Grading and other Issues

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You will sign up for 1 credit in the Fall and 2 credits in the Spring semester.

Your grade for your work in this Orientation is counted in your grade for Spring Semester.

I don’t understa

nd this slide.