Purpose of Scientific Education

1
Purpose of Scientific Education

• Was Training the next generation of scientists
• Now Preparing a scientifically literate
  populace and workforce in our modern economy
  
• Consequence We need science education to be
  effective for the majority of the population
  
• Based on talk by Carl Weiman, Prof. of Physics,
  University of British Columbia

2
Traditional Science Teaching

• Faculty Member thinks about it very hard, gets it
  figured out clearly
  
• Faculty Member explains it to students so that
  they will understand it.
  
• This method doesnt work.

3
The Problem with Lecture

• Short term memory is very limited.
• Most people can retain up to 7 ideas, and process
  4 ideas at once.
  
• This is much less than found in the typical
  lecture.
  
• Long Term memory is much larger.

4
Research About Lectures

• On average, students learned 30 of the concepts
  they didnt know, or less.
  
• This percentage was unaffected by lecture
  quality, class size, instructor, etc.

5
Student Beliefs about Physics

• Novices believe
• Content is isolated bits of information to be
  memorized.
  
• Handed down by authority, unrelated to the real
  world.
  
• Problem solving is matching the pattern to the
  recipe.

6
Student Beliefs about Physics

• Experts believe
• Content is a coherent structure of concepts.
• Describes nature, established by
  experimentation.
  
• Problem solving is using systematic concept-based
  strategies. Widely applicable.
  
• Intro courses actually make students more
  novice-like!

7
Courses Should Emphasize

• Why is this worth learning?
• How is his connected to the real world?
• How does this connect to what the student already
  knows?
  
• That experts have factual knowledge, but also
  organizational structure.
  
• That experts monitor their own understanding (Do
  I really understand this?)
  
• Construction of understanding, built on prior
  thinking (i.e., use long-term memory development)

8
Effective Teaching

• Know where theyre starting from
• Get them actively processing ideas, then probe
  and guide their thinking
  
• Build with extended effortful practice focused
  on development of expert-thinking skills.
  
• Homework should consist of authentic problems and
  be provided with meaningful feedback.

9
Conclusions

• Students think/perceive differently from
  expertstheir brains are different
  
• Understanding is created/discovered. Attention
  is necessary, but not sufficient.
  
• Student needs to be actively engaged in trying to
  figure out new problems, with timely feedback and
  encouragement. This leads to mastery.
  
• There must be a link between support and
  incentives for a department and student learning