Learner Centered Astronomy College Teaching Excellence Workshop 9:00am

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Learner Centered Astronomy College Teaching
Excellence Workshop900am 500pm
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Learner Centered Astronomy A Teaching
Excellence Workshop

• Ed Prather and Gina Brissenden
• University of Arizona
• Center for Astronomy Education (CAE)
• Sponsored by the NSF CCLI PHASE III CATS Program
  and the NASA Navigator Public Engagement Programs
  and NASA Spitzer EPO
•  
• http//astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov

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Special Thanks To

• NASA CCLI Phase III C.A.T.S Program
• CATS NASA JPL Navigator Public Engagement and
  Spitzer EPO
• NSF Geosciences Education 9907755
• NSF DUE CCLI 9952232
•  
• NSF Chautauqua
•  
• Pearson Publishing, Brooks Cole Publishing
•   

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NOTE

• You are free to take a bathroom/walk-around break
  any time you wish
• Please do not check email or surf the web during
  sessions (tempting as it is)
• If you can, please disconnect from the outside
  world (turn off cell phones)

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Pre-Workshop Questionnaire

• We want your initial ideas!
• No Really Be Honest!
•   

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Introductions

• Take 10 seconds to tell us a little about
  yourself

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As Yet Unanswered Burning Questions
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Expectations

• This is an important time to share and to learn
  
• Engage yourself in as many discussions as
  possible (among the participants and presenters,
  there is enormous expertise and experience around
  the room)
• Critically examine your own beliefs about
  teaching and learning and respectfully question
  others rationale
• If you didnt learn anything new in a particular
  session, you may need to engage more actively!

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What we will NOT be able to cover

• Defend the educational research that suggests the
  majority of introductory science courses are
  ineffective at developing rich conceptual
  understanding
• Explain why students today are not as motivated
  or as prepared as they were when we were in
  school
• Tell you how to improve your teaching evaluations
  from students
• Debate about your class content choices, your
  textbook choices, labs, etc.

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You need YOU to be a part of all this!!!!

• Attendance is strongly encouraged
• Audience participation
• Demos are sometimes life-threatening

Eventually, Billy came to dread his fathers
lectures over all other forms of punishment.
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Astro 101 Setting the Academic Bar

• Do your best to work through these questions
  which are used in our Learner-Centered Astro 101
  course.
• Do your students ever achieve this level of
  understanding?
• WHY?
•   

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Some Quotes to Frame Our Teaching and Their
Learning
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The best learners often make the worst
teachers. They are, in a very real sense,
perceptually challenged. They cannot imagine
what it must be like to struggle to learn
something that comes so naturally to them.

• Stephen Brookfield

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Lecture has often been described as the process
of taking the information contained in the
teachers notes and transferring them into the
students notes without the information passing
through the brains of either
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Memorization is what we resort to when what we
are learning makes no sense.

• Anonymous

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The fatal pedagogical error is to give answers to
students who do not yet have questions
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What we need to learn before doing, we learn by
doing

• Aristotle

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A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to
be filled

• Plutarch

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Thinking is the hardest thing in the world to do.
That'swhy so few people engage in it.

• Henry Ford

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Most ideas about teaching are not new, but not
everyone knows the old ideas

• Euclid

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It aint what you dont know that is the problem,
its what you already know that aint so

• Often attributed to Will Rogers and often to Mark
  Twain via Huckleberry Finn

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It's not what the teacher does that matters
rather, it is what the students do
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What you are doing is relentlessly searching for
the teachable moment
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Are you really teaching if no one is learning?
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• Our planet is not the center of our solar system.
• Our solar system is not the center of our galaxy.
• Our galaxy is not the center of the universe.
• And we are not the center of learning in our
  class.

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Getting Our challenges" on the Table

• Time, time, time!
• What to leave in and what to take out
• Knowing what activities are out there and how to
  fit them in my class
• How to create my own activities
• Getting students engaged, motivation, beliefs.
• Math
• Grading
• Assessment evaluation

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Critical Questions

• What are YOUR beliefs about teaching and learning
  and how do they guide your instruction?
• How do YOU want your students to be different as
  a result of the experiences you design?
• What do YOU know about the research on how
  STUDENTS learn?
• What strategies and resources are available that
  are proven to actively engage students and
  improve their understanding?
• What evidence would YOU accept that your students
  have made significant gains in conceptual
  understanding, as well as attitudinal and skill
  domains?

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Our Recent National Study

• When Fall 2006 to Fall 2007
• What A national study of learning in Astro 101
  classrooms
• Why To determine how instructional contexts
  affects student learning
• How The Light and Spectroscopy Concept
  Inventory (LSCI) was administered pre- and
  post-instruction

A National Study Assessing the Teaching and
Learning of Introductory Astronomy, Part I The
Effect of Interactive Instruction Prather, E.
E., Rudolph, A.L., Brissenden, G., Schlingman,
W.M., American Journal of Physics, 77(4), April
2009.
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The Instrument the LSCI

• The Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory
• 26 multiple-choice questions designed to test
  students conceptual understanding of these
  topics in the context of astronomy
• The topics of light and spectroscopy were chosen
  because they are common to all Astro 101 courses

Development of the Light and Spectra Concept
Inventory, Bardar, Erin M. (Weeks), Prather, E.
E., Bresher, Kenneth and Slater, T. F. Astronomy
Education Review, 5(2), 2007.
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Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI)
Concept Domains
Use the Luminosity vs. Temperature graph to
determine the correct ranking for the sizes
(diameters) of the 3 stars H, J, and K from
LARGEST to SMALLEST.

• H J gt K
• H gt J gt K
• J gt H gt K
• J gt K gt H
• K J gt H

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Participants

• Almost 4000 students
• 31 institutions
• 36 instructors
• 69 different sections
• Section sizes vary from lt10 to 180

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This was a truly national study
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Implementation is Key
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post - pre
ltggt
100 - pre
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Instructor Surveys

• To assess the level of interactivity in each
  classroom, we asked each instructor to fill out a
  survey detailing how they spent their class time
• This survey was used to construct an
  Interactivity Assessment Score (IAS) based on
  what percentage of total class time is used for
  interactive activities

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Rutherfords attitudes are common among Physicists

• All science is either physics or stamp collecting
• The only possible conclusion that social sciences
  can draw is some do, some don't
• If your result needs a statistician then you
  should design a better experiment

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Higher IAS (gt25)
Lower IAS (lt25)
Medium level ltggt gt 0.30
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Higher IAS (gt25) ltggtavg 0.29
Lower IAS (lt25) ltggtavg 0.13
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Demographic Survey

• We also asked 15 demographic questions to allow
  us to determine how such factors as
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• English as a native language
• Parental education
• Overall GPA
• Major
• Number of prior science courses
• Level of mathematical preparation
• interact with instructional context to influence
  student conceptual learning
• This survey also gives us a snapshot of who is
  taking Astro 101 in the US

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• We conducted a full multivariate modeling
  analysis of our data
• We confirm that level of interactivity is the
  single most important variable in explaining the
  variation in gain, even after controlling for all
  other variables

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The take home message Part I

• The results of our investigation reveal that the
  positive effects of interactive learning
  strategies apply equally to men and women, across
  ethnicities, for students with all levels of
  prior mathematical preparation and physical
  science course experience, independent of GPA,
  and regardless of primary language. These results
  powerfully illustrate that all categories of
  students can benefit from the effective
  implementation of interactive learning
  strategies.

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The take home message Part II

• Implementation is the most important factor to
  success in student learning.
• More work on professional development of faculty
  is needed if we are to side wide spread adoption
  and proper implementation of research-validated
  instructional strategies.

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Perspectives on Teaching Astronomy

• Take a moment, read each statement and then rate
  them (1 5) according to how much they align
  with your beliefs about teaching and learning.

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Most Important Goals In Astronomy 101

• American Astronomical Society Chairs Goals
• Society of College Science Teachers Goals for
  intro-science courses

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Most Important Goals In Astronomy 101

• Students Understand the Big Ideas Size and
  Scale, Nature of Light, Spectroscopy, Cosmology
• Students Understand How Science is Done Nature
  of Science, Scientific Method, Weaknesses of
  Pseudoscience, Careers
• Students Develop Positive Attitudes and Life-Long
  Learning Interests in Astronomy Read Newspaper
  Articles, Watch TV Shows, Visit their Local
  Planetarium, Desire to Look Through Telescopes

Slater, Adams, Brissenden, and Duncan, What We
Teach in ASTRO 101, The Physics Teacher, January
2001.
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What Syllabi Analysis Shows Are Mostly Taught
inASTRO 101

1. Nature of Light and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
2. Techniques in Astronomy
3. Cosmology and the Big Bang
4. Tools and Telescopes
5. The Solar System
6. Our Sun
7. Motions in the Solar System

1. Moon Phases
2. Stellar Evolution
3. Characteristics of the Milky Way
4. Naked Eye Astronomy
5. Stellar Magnitudes
6. Stellar Spectral Classification

• Slater, Adams, Brissenden, and Duncan, What We
  Teach in ASTRO 101, The Physics Teacher, January
  2001.

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Most Important Goals In Astronomy 101

• BOTTOM LINE Clearly defining your goals,
  course objectives and learning outcomes is an
  essential element for developing an effective
  ASTRO 101 course So let your students in on
  your secret!!

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Do you really want to know what your students
think?
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What Students Are Expecting from Astronomy
101? Possible Survey Questions What made you
decide to take this course? What do you expect
to learn in this course?
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What made you decide to take this course? in
order of frequency

• interested in astronomy
• fun sounding course
• recommendation by peer, advisor or orientation
  leader
• required general education fulfillment
• required for major or minor
• was available in the schedule
• inflate grade point average

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What do you expect to learn in this course?

• stars
• constellations
• planets
• galaxies
• black holes
• solar system
• comets
• asteroids

Moon Sun weather atmosphere UFOs and the
unexplained
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Basic Premise

• Professor-centered lectures, no matter how
  entertaining, can only go so far in helping
  students learn. It is our premise that the most
  effective courses are learner-centered courses
  which provide clearly stated course goals and
  learning objectives, use interactive teaching
  approaches to continually engage students, and
  use a variety of assessment strategies. 

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So why doesnt lecture work? OR Are you really
teaching if no one is learning?
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The Montillation of Traxoline

• It is very important that you learn about
  traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It
  is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians
  gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then
  brachter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may
  well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the
  future because of our zionter lescelidge.
• (attributed to the insight of Judy Lanier)

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The Montillation of Traxoline

• It is very important that you learn about
  traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It
  is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians
  gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then
  brachter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may
  well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the
  future because of our zionter lescelidge.
• Directions Answer the following questions in
  complete sentences. Be sure to use your best
  handwriting.

1. What is traxoline? 2. Where is traxoline
montilled? 3. How is traxoline quaselled? 4.
Why is it important to know about traxoline?
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from How People Learn

• Students enter your lecture hall with
  preconceptions about how the world works. If
  their initial understanding is not engaged, they
  may fail to grasp the new concepts and
  information that are taught, or they may learn
  them for the purposes of a test but revert to
  their preconceptions outside the classroom

HOW PEOPLE LEARN, National Research Council,
National Academy Press, 2000.
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A Commonly Held Inaccurate Model of a Students
Conceptual Framework
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A Commonly Held Inaccurate Model of Teaching and
Learning
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Student (mis)-Understandingsthe beliefs and
reasoning difficulties students bring to the
classroom

• Alternative Conceptions
• Robust, locally consistent, naturally acquired,
  historically rooted, common default position
• Reasoning Difficulties
• Misapplied details of underdeveloped conceptual
  models confusion between model results and the
  model itself
• Stuff they cant name (or simply name
  incorrectly)

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What do students struggle with?

• The Big Three
• Seasons
• Moon Phases
• Gravity

• Modern Topics Too
• Stellar Formation
• Cosmology
• Astrobiology

A Review of Astronomy Education Research,
Astronomy Education Review, 2(2), 2003. J.M.
Bailey and T.F. Slater
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Two Models Of Students Understanding
Misconception Model
Primitives Model
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Fundamental reasoning elements

• When children touch something on the stove, they
  learn that temperature increases with decreasing
  distance
• When children hear a cars horn, they learn that
  sound intensity increases with decreasing
  distance
• When children see a bright flashlight, they learn
  that brightness increases with decreasing
  distance
• ? CLOSE MEANS MORE

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How Do p-prims Influence the Teaching and
Learning of Astronomy?
CLOSE MEANS MORE Its hotter in the summer because we are closer to the Sun
INTERFERENCE I cant see all of the Moon because the Earth is in the way
OHMS P-PRIM All bright stars must be very hot
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Current State of Affairs

• Students have strongly held naive ideas and
  reasoning difficulties related to the topics we
  teach
• Students find introductory science courses to be
  boring, irrelevant, and incongruous with the
  stated course goals of nature of science
• Active Engagement learning approaches produce
  significant and long-lasting learning gains
  compared to even the most entertaining of lectures

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Key results from research into education and
cognition

• Learning is productive / constructive - learning
  requires mental effort.
• Knowledge is associative / linked to prior mental
  models and cognitive structures.
• The cognitive response is context dependent
  what and how you learn depends on the educational
  setting.
• Most people require some social interactions in
  order to learn deeply and effectively.

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Our Assumptions

• The introductory course for non-science majors
  could be significantly improved
• Although the lecture approach is largely
  insufficient, there are instructional strategies
  available to accompany lecture that
  intellectually engage students
• Large enrollment courses can use learner-centered
  instructional strategies
• Awareness of and exposure to active learning
  techniques will motivate faculty to try them

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Active Learning

• Active learning is when students take active
  responsibility for participating in and
  monitoring of their own learning by engaging in
  critical reasoning about the ideas presented in
  the class.

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What Can I do Besides Lecture to Engage Students
in their Learning?

• Ask students questions (not all questions are
  equal). Use demonstrations (interactive lecture
  demos)
• Surprise quizzes (graded/ungraded)
• In-class writing (with/without discussion)-
  muddiest point- summary of today's main points-
  5-minute free writing
• Think-Pair-Share (Peer Instruction-ConcepTests)
• Small Group Interactions (closed/open in/out of
  class)
• Student Debates (individual/group)
• Whole Class Discussions

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What Can I do Besides Lecture to Engage Students
in their Learning?

• Ask students questions (not all questions are
  equal). Use demonstrations (interactive lecture
  demos)
• Surprise quizzes (graded/ungraded)
• In-class writing (with/without discussion)-
  muddiest point- summary of today's main points-
  5-minute free writing
• Think-Pair-Share (Peer Instruction-ConcepTests)
• Small Group Interactions (closed/open in/out of
  class)
• Student Debates (individual/group)
• Whole Class Discussions

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Ways to Screw Up Your Lecture

1. Insufficient "Wait-Time"
2. The Rapid-Reward
3. The Programmed Answer
4. Non-Specific Feedback Questions
5. Teacher's Ego-Stroking Classroom Climate
6. Fixation at a Low-Level of Questioning

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Promoting a higher level of engagement and
feedback when doing demos and using media in the
classroom

• The teachable moment is extended when students
  thinking is made explicit and held accountable
  BEFORE an outcome is provided. This is your
  chance to make connections and build a desire for
  the answers your classroom activity will display.
• Tobias, S. Revitalizing Undergraduate Science-Why
  Some Things Work and Most Dont, Research
  Corporation, 1992.
• Sokoloff, David and Ronald Thornton, Using
  Interactive Lecture Demonstrations to Create an
  Active Learning Environment, The Physics Teacher
  35, 340-347 (1997).

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Check out this amazing Demo using an amazing
Movie Coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu
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What Can I do Besides Lecture to Engage Students
in their Learning?

• Ask students questions (not all questions are
  equal). Use demonstrations (interactive lecture
  demos)
• Surprise quizzes (graded/ungraded)
• In-class writing (with/without discussion)-
  muddiest point- summary of today's main points-
  5-minute free writing
• Think-Pair-Share (Peer Instruction-ConcepTests)
• Small Group Interactions (closed/open in/out of
  class)
• Student Debates (individual/group)
• Whole Class Discussions

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What Can I do Besides Lecture to Engage Students
in their Learning?

• Ask students questions (not all questions are
  equal). Use demonstrations (interactive lecture
  demos)
• Surprise quizzes (graded/ungraded)
• In-class writing (with/without discussion)-
  muddiest point- summary of today's main points-
  5-minute free writing
• Think-Pair-Share (Peer Instruction-ConcepTests)
• Small Group Interactions (closed/open in/out of
  class)
• Student Debates (individual/group)
• Whole Class Discussions
• Jigsawing

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Some Examples of Writing Prompts

• Illustrate the meaning of "standard candle" using
  one example taken from everyday life and one
  example from astronomy.
• What about the enterprise of science makes it
  different than business?
• If we establish communication with an
  intelligent, extraterrestrial civilization, who
  should speak for Earth and what should
  he/she/they say?
• What were the most important ideas we learned
  about today?
• What do you need to do to get high grades in this
  course and what will you do differently before
  the next exam?

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What Can I do Besides Lecture to Engage Students
in their Learning?

• Ask students questions (not all questions are
  equal). Use demonstrations (interactive lecture
  demos)
• Surprise quizzes (graded/ungraded)
• In-class writing (with/without discussion)-
  muddiest point- summary of today's main points-
  5-minute free writing
• Think-Pair-Share (Peer Instruction-ConcepTests)
• Small Group Interactions (closed/open in/out of
  class)
• Student Debates (individual/group)
• Whole Class Discussions

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Think-Pair-Share or Peer Instruction

• How using a combination of conceptually
  challenging questions, classroom feedback and
  student-to-student discussions can increase
  understanding and provide data on students
  learning for you and them.

Crouch, C. H. Mazur, E. 2001, Peer
Instruction Ten Years of Experience and
Results, American Journal of Physics, 69(9),
970, 2001 Development and Application of a
Situated Apprenticeship Approach to Professional
Development of Astronomy Instructors, Prather, E.
E., and Brissenden, G. The Astronomy Education
Review, 7(2), 2008 Clickers as Data Gathering
Tools and Students Attitudes, Motivations, and
Beliefs on Their Use in this Application,
Prather, E. E., Brissenden, G., The Astronomy
Education Review, 8 (1), 2009 .
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Effective Multiple Choice Questions
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Using multiple choice questions provides an
efficient and effective way to assess a wide
range of knowledge, skills, attitudes and
abilities (Haladyna, 1999).
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Consider your answer to these questions about
writing multiple-choice questions.

• In a multiple-choice question, when is the
  longest answer the correct answer?
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Its common for it to be the correct answer,
  and its often stuffed with new information
  that should have gone in the main part of the
  course but we forgot so now were putting it in
  the quiz because we cant possibly leave out
  the tiniest detail
• Occasionally

Adapted from http//blog.cathy-moore.com/2007/08
/can-you-answer-these-6-questions-about-multiple-c
hoice-questions/
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Consider your answer to these questions about
writing multiple-choice questions.

• When is it NOT a good idea to avoid negative
  questions?
• Never
• Sometimes
• Always
• What?

Adapted from http//blog.cathy-moore.com/2007/08
/can-you-answer-these-6-questions-about-multiple-c
hoice-questions/
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Consider your answer to these questions about
writing multiple-choice questions.

• How often is the correct choice A?
• Usually
• Frequently
• Often
• Almost never, because if A is the right answer,
  then the learner doesnt have to read all the
  other options we spent so much time writing and
  revising, and wheres the return on investment in
  that?

Adapted from http//blog.cathy-moore.com/2007/08
/can-you-answer-these-6-questions-about-multiple-c
hoice-questions/
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Consider your answer to these questions about
writing multiple-choice questions.

• When is All of the above the correct answer?
• With alarming regularity
• When we try to cover too much in one question
• When we use a question to teach instead of
  assess
• All of the above

Adapted from http//blog.cathy-moore.com/2007/08
/can-you-answer-these-6-questions-about-multiple-c
hoice-questions/
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Consider your answer to these questions about
writing multiple-choice questions.

• I opened an online course on a topic I know
  nothing about, clicked through without reading
  anything, and took the assessment. I passed! What
  does that suggest?
• I am a genius!
• The assessment was too easy.
• Maybe the online course was too easy, too.
• Maybe the course didnt even need to be
  written.
• B, C, and D

Adapted from http//blog.cathy-moore.com/2007/08
/can-you-answer-these-6-questions-about-multiple-c
hoice-questions/
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Consider your answer to these questions about
writing multiple-choice questions.

• We can confuse learners when we
• fail to actually complete the sentence we
  started in the question.
• inconsistent grammar in the options.
• sometimes we veer off into another idea
  entirely.
• wombats.

Adapted from http//blog.cathy-moore.com/2007/08
/can-you-answer-these-6-questions-about-multiple-c
hoice-questions/
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1. The promiscuous use of sprays, oils, and
antiseptics in the nose during acute colds is a
pernicious practice because it may have a
deleterious effect on A. the sinuses B. red
blood cells C. white blood cells D. the
olfactory nerve
2. Frequent use of sprays, oils, and antiseptics
in the nose during a bad cold may result in A.
the spreading of the infection to the sinuses B.
damage to the olfactory nerve C. destruction of
white blood cells D. congestion of the mucous
membrane in the nose
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1. In 1965, the death rate from accidents of all
types per 100,000 population in the 15-24 age
group was A. 59.0 B. 59.1 C. 59.2 D. 59.3

• 2. In 1965, the leading cause of death per
  100,000 population in the 15-24 age group was
  from
• respiratory disease
• rheumatic heart disease
• accidents
• cancer

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1. About how many calories are recommended daily
for a 14-year old who is 62 in. tall, weighs 103
lbs., and is moderately active? A. 1,500 B.
2,000 C. 2,500 D. 3,000
2. About how many calories are recommended daily
for a 14-year old who is 62 in. tall, weighs 103
lbs., and is moderately active? A. 0 B 500
C. 2500 D. 10,000
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Limitations to MC Questions and Tests

• Constructing good items (stem and choices) is
  difficult and time consuming.
• It is difficult to find/create plausible
  distracters.
• Ineffective for measuring some types of problem
  solving and the ability to organize and express
  ideas. Real-world problem solving involves
  proposing a solution versus selecting a solution
  from a set of alternatives.
• There is a lack of feedback on individual thought
  processes it can be difficult to determine why
  individual students selected incorrect responses.
  
• Often MC questions focus on factual information
  and fails to assess higher levels of cognitive
  thinking.
• They place a high degree of dependence on the
  students reading ability and the instructors
  writing ability. Students can sometimes read more
  into the question than was intended.
• May encourage guessing.

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Strengths of MC Questions and Tests

• - Learning outcomes from simple to complex can
  be measured.
• - Incorrect alternatives provide diagnostic
  information.
• - Scores are less influenced by guessing than
  true-false items.
• - Scoring is easy, objective, and reliable.
• Can cover a lot of material very efficiently
• Item analysis can reveal how difficult each item
  was and how well it discriminates between the
  strong and weaker students
• Performance can be compared from class to class
  and year to year

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Helpful Hints to Constructing Questions and
Tests?

• Base each item on an educational or
  instructional objective of the course, not
  trivial information.
• Try to write items in which there is one and
  only one correct or clearly best answer.
• The phrase that introduces the item (stem)
  should clearly state the problem.
• Test only a single idea in each item.
• Be sure wrong answer choices (distracters) are
  at least plausible.
• Incorporate common student naïve ideas or
  reasoning difficulties in distracters.
• The position of the correct answer should vary
  randomly from item to item.
• Include from three to five options for each
  item.
• Avoid overlapping alternatives
• The length of the response options should be
  about the same within each item (preferably
  short).

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Helpful Hints to Constructing Questions and
Tests?

• There should be no grammatical clues to the
  correct answer.
• Word the stem positively avoid negative
  phrasing such as not or except. If this
  cannot be avoided, the negative words should
  always be highlighted by underlining or
  capitalization Which of the following is NOT an
  example
• Avoid the excessive use of All of the above
  and None of the above in the response
  alternatives. In the case of All of the above,
  students only need to know that two of the
  options are correct (in a four or more option
  question) to determine that All of the above is
  the correct answer choice. Conversely, students
  only need to eliminate one answer choice as
  implausible in order to eliminate All of the
  above as an answer choice. Similarly, with None
  of the above, when used as the correct answer
  choice, information is gained about students
  ability to detect incorrect answers. However, the
  item does not reveal if students know the correct
  answer to the question.

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Do the questions you use intellectually
challenging your students or simply asses their
factual knowledge?
Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
evaluation
synthesis
analysis
application
comprehension
declarative knowledge
An Assessment Primer for Introductory Astronomy.
Astronomy Education Review, 1(1), 1-24, 2002. G.
Brissenden, T.F. Slater, and R. Matheiu.
101

• Around which object does the Moon orbit?
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn

102
You look to the western horizon as the Moon
is rising and discover that it is in the new moon
phase. Later that same day when the moon is
setting, which of the moon phases shown below
would the Moon have looked like?
103

• You look to the west at 10am and see the moon on
  the horizon. What is the phase of the moon that
  will be high in the sky in three weeks?
• Waning Gibbous
• Waxing crescent
• New
• Waxing Gibbous
• Waning Crescent

104

• Six hours after the moon rises where would you
  look to see it?
• North
• East
• South
• West

105

• If the Moon is in the Waxing Gibbous phase today,
  approximately how long will it be until the Moon
  is in the Waxing Crescent phase?
• a day
• one week
• three weeks
• two weeks
• a month

106

• If the moon is in the waxing gibbous phase today,
  how many of the moon phases shown above (A-E)
  would the moon go through during the next 11
  days.
• only one
• Two
• Three
• more than three
• none

107
Which of the situations shown above occurs at a
time closest to sunset?
108

• Which of the following groups of moon phases can
  be above the horizon at 4pm?
• Full, Waning Crescent, and Waxing Gibbous
• New Moon, First Quarter, and Waxing Gibbous
• Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous
• Waxing Crescent, Third Quarter, Waxing Gibbous
• None. The moon is only visible above the horizon
  during the night time.

109
Item Difficulty computed as the proportion of
students who got the item correct. So a low value
means a hard question and a high value means an
easy question on a scale from 0.00 to 1.00. It is
best to have a mix of difficulties some hard
ones to challenge top students some easy ones so
low-performing students will persist and the
bulk of items at a moderate difficulty level. The
average item difficulty across a test, for most
multiple-choice types, should be between 0.6 and
0.7 (Gronlund Linn, 1990).
Item Discrimination How well does the item
differentiate among students who have mastered
the content and students who have not? This is
calculated either as a correlation coefficient
between the item score and the total score or as
a proportion of high-scoring student who got the
item right to low-scoring students who got the
item right. Either way, it is expressed on a
scale from -1.00 to 1.00. Negative 1 means all
low scorers got the item right and all high
scorers got the item wrong. Given that we want
students who have mastered the content getting
each item correct, that's bad. A positive 1 means
the item worked exactly as it should. A zero
means the item doesn't distinguish between
mastery and non-mastery students. That's also
bad. There are a number of statistical issues at
work that cause 1.00 to be a rare occurrence, so
that a reasonable expectation for item
discrimination indices is between 0.3 and 0.5
(Oosterhof, 2001).
110
Distracter Analysis this approach looks to see
who is choosing each option for an item. Usually
the examinees are divided into low-scoring and
high-scoring groups, and the proportion of each
choosing each option is reported. High-scoring
students will usually pick the correct response
and low scoring students will usually pick a
distracter. If the opposite happens, that's a cue
to revise the item. Something about a distracter
is attracting high performance students
(Oosterhof, 2001).
Reliability Coefficient Reliability is the
degree of accuracy present in the score. For
multiple-choice tests, this is indexed using a
reliability coefficient like Cronbach's Alpha.
Both range from 0.00 to 1.00 with higher values
indicating higher reliability. Though there are
not strict cutoffs for "acceptable" reliability
coefficients, 0.60 to 0.70 are generally
considered acceptable lower values (Oosterhof,
2001). Having most item discrimination values at
or near .50, having a variety of item
difficulties, and having more items will all
increase estimates of reliability (Gronlund,
1988 Nitko, 2001 Oosterhof, 2001). In essence,
you are calculating internal correlations of
student responses between individual items.
111
Class Response System Low Tech
?????
112
Personal Responder Devices

• What are responders?
• IR or Radio wireless voting device
• Sometimes referred to as Classroom Communication
  Systems (CCS), clickers, etc.

113
Class Response System Low Tech
114

• Which of the descriptions given below best
  describes the sign a person will have if born on
  that day?

A. Taurus is high in the southern sky at
sunset. B. Aquarius is on the eastern horizon at
sunrise. C. Scorpius is on the western horizon at
noon. D. Leo is high in the southern sky at
midnight.
115
Think - Pair - Share?
Which of the following is the correct ranking for
the size of the objects A-E, from largest to
smallest. A) EAgtCBgtD B) DBgtCgtAE C)
DgtBCgtAgtE D) EgtAgtCBgtD E) None of the above
116
1
Orbit of star
20
Radial Velocity
4
2
Time
-20
Orbit of planet
3

• Given the location marked on the star's radial
  velocity curve, at what location in the planet's
  orbit would you expect the planet to be?

117
Think - Pair - Share?

• - Star A will be a main sequence star for
  4.5 billion years.
• - Star B has the same luminosity as the Sun.
• - Star C has a spectral type of M5.
• Which of the following is a true statement about
  these stars?
• Star A has the greatest mass.
• Star B has the greatest mass.
• Star C has the greatest mass.
• Stars A, B and C all have approximately the same
  mass.
• There is insufficient information to determine
  this.

118
Think - Pair - Share?

• Which of the following is true of a binary star
  system consisting of a Red Giant and a White
  Dwarf?
• You will receive more energy when the dwarf is
  behind the giant than when the giant is behind
  the dwarf.
• The time it takes for the dwarf to pass behind
  the giant is shorter than the time for the giant
  to pass behind the dwarf.
• The force of gravity exerted on the dwarf by
  giant is stronger than the force of gravity
  exerted of the giant on the dwarf.
• The orbital period of the dwarf is shorter than
  the orbital period of the giant.
• None of the above.

119
Given that a seed grows into a massive tree,
where does most of the mass of the tree come from?

• From water
• From dirt and soil
• From the air
• Its already in the seed.

120
Create a suitable questions to use for
think-pair-share?

• Work with a small group
• Make sure your question is multiple choice
• Select a member of your group who will model
  think pair share using your question
• On the topic of

121
If We Can ArticulateWhat Learner-Centered
Instruction Is How It Improves Student
Learning, Only Then Can We Be Effective At
Implementation!

• If you cant discuss it, in your own words, and
  make sense of your beliefs to others, do you
  really understand it?

122
How does learning occur during
think-pair-share? Who is responsible for doing
the learning?

• What are the learning and instructional goals
  when using TPS (for them and for you)
• What is needed in terms of the question used?
• When or why should you or should you NOT give
  answers?

123
Some Ideas TPS

• When should you use TPS did you provide the
  information they needed?
• How to explain to students why you do this get
  student buy in
• Why does it matter if the students talk to each
  other
• Why does it matter if the questions are MC
• What is a good MC from a bad MC question?
• Should you show the results data at the end of
  the first voting before they pair
• Do you read the question to them?
• Sweet spot
• Broadcast time to vote provide time limit
• Happy spot
• How do you debrief after second voting? When, if
  ever, do you provide the right answer?
• Clickers vs Cards and attendance/graded or not?

124
As Yet Unanswered Burning Questions
125
What Can I do Besides Lecture to Engage Students
in their Learning?

• Ask students questions (not all questions are
  equal). Use demonstrations (interactive lecture
  demos)
• Surprise quizzes (graded/ungraded)
• In-class writing (with/without discussion)-
  muddiest point- summary of today's main points-
  5-minute free writing
• Think-Pair-Share (Peer Instruction-ConcepTests)
• Small Group Interactions
• Student Debates (individual/group)
• Whole Class Discussions