Dr. Chris Creagh , OLT National Teaching Fellow School of Engineering & Information Technology

1. NEST 25thOctober Curtin University 30thOctober Dr. Chris Creagh, OLT National Teaching Fellow School of Engineering & Information Technology

2. Enhancing students’ problem solving skills by modelling how to “WorkIt Out” in a just-in-time learning environment Support for this presentation has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

3. OLT National Teaching Fellowships – promoting good practice in learning & teaching in Australian higher education. Work-It-Out Fellowship • Work-It-Out Teaching Strategy • Edge of ability activity (groups of 4) Group work • Expert video &worksheet (individual ) Just-in-time teaching & note taking • Analyse video (whole class) Understanding quality & modes of • communication • Focus activity (pairs) Practice and peer learning • Finish edge of ability activity (groups of 4) Practice and group work • Group presentation (groups of 4) Communication and judging quality • Dissemination • Word of mouth / via e-mail • Family & friends • Reference group • Reporting to line managers • Tutorials • Conferences • Seminars • Workshops • Presentations • Discipline home university • L&T home university • Discipline other university • L&T other university • Internet • University profile • YouTube • Facebook • Discipline friends • Personal friends • LiveJournal (blog the journey) • Research gate • LinkedIn • Others using your stuff • E-mail signature • Open Education Resources available on website or YouTube • Videos • Diagrams • Formula • Textbooks • Experimental design • Analysing data • Learning new material • Edge of ability activity materials • Video watching worksheet • Focus activity materials • Pedagogical background material available on website • My thoughts on the WIO teaching strategy • My research papers • Bibliographic references associated with the teaching strategy Fellowship paperwork is available on the OLT website.

4. Work-it-out! The talk • What is the problem? • Who are my target audience? • Master-apprentice approach. • What is the WIO teaching strategy? • How long does it take? • What is the response so far? • Generalizability? • Would you like to be involved? • More information. Thinking Hats – student, teacher, developer, researcher.

5. What is the problem? • Many students arrive at university without the basic skills and background they need to study Physics at a first year university level. • Which has a significant impact on their success rate in any degree that has first year physics as a core subject. • And results in fewer students going on to major in physics, or other areas that require physics. • Resulting in lower course completion rates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics compared to other disciplines.

6. What is the problem? Assumptions • Students are not very good at being metacognitive • They do not know what they do not know • They do not understanding what they need to do to be good students • They do not understand the modes of communication within their chosen discipline • They do not understand the culture of the discipline

7. What is the problem? • In first year we have large student to staff ratios • We may be service teaching for several different majors all within the same unit • We have no quick way of remediating the gaps that we find in student’s knowledge • We therefore have to find a way for students to be metacognitive, take charge of their education and bootstrap their own learning.

8. Who are my target audience? • Degrees • Physics • Chemistry • Engineering • Extractive Metallurgy • Mineral Science • Secondary Education • Background • First in family • Mature age (over 21) • Returning students (30+ yr old with/without previous qualifications) • ESL • Low socio-economic • Defence forces • Students preparing for degrees at other universities • Refugees • On-line domestic / overseas

9. Master-apprentice approach • Other training courses use the master – apprentice approach to help overcome gaps in the student’s knowledge and attitudes. • Physics teaching may use this approach at honours or PhD level but definitely not at the first year level. • The master – apprentice approach could work in first year except there are too many apprentices and not enough masters. • So capture what the masters do / think / say and get the students to analyse this. • More and more I keep coming back to the resonance between learning martial arts and learning the discipline of physics!

10. What is the WIOteaching strategy?

11. Edge of ability activity: Draw a free-body force diagram:-for the balancing rock in this picture. Previously a textbook problem was used.

12. Expert video and worksheet Video watching worksheet • Why are diagrams important? • Why do S&E use diagrams? • Are there typical diagrams? • Where would you look for them? • What are characteristics of good di’s? • What are limitations of di’s? • What are strengths of di’s? • Explain how the specific case you are looking at becomes a generalise di. • Identify modes of communication. • Identify methods of communication. • What background knowledge is assumed? • How do the experts link info to everyday knowledge? Video: A Toolbox of Diagrams • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0gVC_fg8bY • Students discover what they don’t know and identify ways of filling their knowledge, skills and communication gaps. • It also gives them the opportunity to identify the marks of quality in a presentation.

13. Analyse video • Plenary session to get feedback from the worksheet. • At this stage it may also be possible to discuss other modes of communication that could have been used in the presentation. • Students are learning from their peers how to judge quality in presentation and content.

14. Focus activity • Matching pictures and diagrams

15. Focus activity • Have students working in pairs to match pictures and diagrams.

17. Finish edge of ability activity • Allow the students to work on creating their presentation with the video and related activity as reference material. • Students are practicing what they have just discovered and can be assisted with leading questions from the tutor on a group by group basis.

18. Finish initial activity and presentations • Get 4 groups to give their presentation to their peers. (Worked well) • Students giving the presentation are learning about presentations as well as the knowledge they are presenting. • Students judging the presentation are learning about quality and modes of communication.

19. How long does it take? • Each skill could be covered in one 2hr tutorial or several smaller ones. • The tutorial is composed of smaller parts so educators can pick and mix if they wish. • The video material will be on-line so the students can access it afterwards as often as they feel they need to. They can stop it, start it, rewind it and play it again if they wish. • I don’t think everything should be taught this way it is just one teaching tool. • The video could also be used for tutor training.

23. Generalizability? • Other students • Other disciplines • Other universities with similar student cohorts • OUA / on-line students • Other countries (America similar problems in STEM) • People wishing to prep for university • Home schoolers • People taking advantage of MOOCs who need a bit of a boost • General interest scholars

24. Interrogating Formulas Tutorial • Used the same teaching strategy • Students asked to create a presentation about a related pair of formula • Video and worksheet • Plenary session • Focus activity • Students finish creating their presentation • Presentations given

25. Interrogating Formula Tutorial • Video • http://youtu.be/I2yOTtz3y8I

26. Which formula/s can be represented by this diagram? Focus Activity – Diagram 1 x

27. Focus Activity – Diagram 2 N Resistive forces mg • Which formula/s can be represented by this diagram?

28. Focus Activity – Diagram 3 • Which formula/s can be represented by this diagram? vfinal Fc vinitial

29. Focus Activity – Diagram 4 • Which formula/s can be represented by this diagram? y v g x

30. Focus Activity – Diagram 5 vi vf • Which formula/s can be represented by this diagram?

31. Focus Activity – Graph 1 • Which formula/s can sometimes be represented by this type of graph?

32. Focus Activity – Graph 2 • Which formula/s can sometimes be represented by this type of graph?

33. Focus Activity – Graph 3 • Which formula/s can sometimes be represented by this type of graph?

34. Focus Activity – Graph 4 • Which formula/s can sometimes be represented by this type of graph?

35. Focus Activity – Graph 5 • Which formula/s can sometimes be represented by this type of graph?

36. Other Tutorials

37. Would you like to be involved? • I would also like to build a community of scholars to trial and test the resources I will produce. • If anyone is interested in what I am doing please get in touch. Email me… • c.creagh@murdoch.edu.au

38. More information Dr. Christine Creagh Senior Lecturer Physics & Nanotechnology Murdoch University phone: (08) 9360 6715 email: c.creagh@murdoch.edu.au LiveJournal: http://chris-creagh.livejournal.com/

40. Bibliography • National Research Council, USA (2012). Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering. Editors: S.R. Singer, N.R. Nielsen, and H.A. Schweingruber • Committee on the Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline-Based Education Research. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. • Ghefaili, A. (2003) Cognitive Apprenticeship, Technology, and the Contextualization of Learning Environments, Journal of Educational Computing, Design & Online learning Volume 4 • Kirschner, P.A., Sweller, J. & Clark, R.E. (2006) Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41, 75-86. • McCarthy, T., Carew, A., Gardner, A., Goldfinch, T., Henderson, A. and Thomas, G. (project team) (2010) A pro-active approach to addressing student learning diversity in engineering mechanics. Office of Learning and Teaching, Australia. ISBN 978-1-921856-66-2 • Mills, D., Sharma, M. (Project Leaders) (2005) Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development in Physics: A report on tertiary physics learning and teaching in Australia commissioned by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee, Office of Learning and Teaching, Australia. ISBN: 0-7326-2063-5. http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/AUTC/autc/ • Redish, E.F., Steinberg, R.N. (1999) Teaching Physics: Figuring Out What Works. Physics Today, Vol. 52, pp. 24-30 • Wieman, C. (2007) Why not try a scientific approach to science education? Change, September/October pp. 9-15 http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/SEI_research/index.html

41. I gratefully acknowledge the support and encouragement of • Les Kirkup, David Parlevliet, Philip Jennings, David Macey, Parisa Bahri, Denyse MacNish, Rick Cummings, Rhonda Oshanek, Coral Newman, Ann Capling, Siobhan Lenihan, Francine Bailey, Lindy Baker, David Hill, Linda Butcher, Rob Phillips, Miriam Everall, Geoff Swan, Mario Zadnik, Jamie Quinton, John Daicopoulos, Rebbeca Fisher, Chris deSilva, Elaine Walker, Nik Radevski, Nick Wyatt, AfshinSadrich, Kris Borgraeve, Els Van de Veire, Eveline Masco, Pedro Sant’Ana, Helen Creagh, Robyn Creagh and Gareth Lee and also my colleagues at Murdoch University. Support for this activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views expressed in this activity do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.