Discussion with TAs from the College of Professional Studies about best practices in teaching. Just-in-Time Teaching is discussed in specific detail.

1. THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OFTEACHING
@SPS 4500
…
OCTOBER 17TH, 2014
DR. JEFF LOATS
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

2. WARM-UP: BORNVS. MADE
"I've had great teachers and awful teachers... the
whole spectrum. The ones that are great seem
to have a natural knack for it while others seem
to have been born clueless about how to teach.
I'm not sure there will ever be teaching methods
that will make a bad teacher into a good one."
A) Teaching ability is essentially innate
B) Teaching ability is a matter of desire, effort
and time spent.

3. WARM-UP: BORNVS. MADE
“Maybe that teacher was just not for your learning
style. I am sure that either the professor just seemed
too dry for your taste, the content was probably not
appealing to you like you thought. But the professor
will adapt to their ways of teaching and maybe talking
with them and letting them know you're not getting
the content being administered in the course and
maybe you will be able to find a way to obtain that
information through different forms of teaching. Just
got to let the professor know of this. ”

4. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTHMINDSET
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5. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTHMINDSET
5

6. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTHMINDSET
6

7. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTHMINDSET
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8. WARM-UP: LECTURETIME
Think about the "average" college class you
have had. What fraction of class time was spent
on lecture-based delivery of content?
A) 0% - 19%
B) 20% - 39%
C) 40% - 59%
D) 60% - 79%
E) 80% - 100%
2%
10%
13%
38%
37%
(82 others)

9. ASIDE: LEARNING STYLES
Do you have a learning style?
In short: The evidence that learning styles actually exist
is very thin and “What this means for instructors, Mr.
Pashler says, is that they should not waste any time or
energy trying to determine the composition of learning
styles in their classrooms.”
References:
• “Matching Teaching Style to Learning Style May Not
Help Students” article by David Glenn
• YouTube: Learning Styles Don’t Exist
• Scholarly review: “Learning styles: Concepts and
evidence”, Pashler et al, 2008

10. THE EVIDENCE STANDARD
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Teachers can feel bombarded…
I strive to be a scholarly teacher …
• Apply the rigor we bring to the discipline of
physics to the discipline of teaching.
• Choose teaching methods that are strongly
informed by the best empirical evidence
available.
Contrast teaching your subject with treating
diabetes

11. PHYSICS EDUCATION REVOLUTION
Eric Mazur, Physicist at Harvard:
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12. 14
“ALL SIMILARLY (IN)EFFECTIVE…”

13. 15
University of Washington
University of Colorado
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

14. Think about an the “typical” college class you’ve
had. Is there a method for holding students
accountable for preparing for class?
A) Stern threats and/or playful pleading.
B) A paper method (quiz, journal, others?)
C) A digital method (clickers, others?)
D) Just in Time Teaching.
E) Some other method.
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18%
49%
10%
5%
17%
From
~190
others

15. JUST INTIMETEACHING
Online pre-class assignments
(“WarmUps”)
First half:
• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences
• Graded on thoughtful effort
Learner Teacher
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16. JUST INTIMETEACHING
Online pre-class assignments
(“WarmUps”)
First half:
• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences
• Graded on thoughtful effort
Second half:
• Responses are read “just in time”
• Instructor modifies the plan accordingly
• Aggregate and individual (anonymous)
responses are displayed in class.
Learner Teacher
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17. JUST INTIMETEACHING
A different student role:
• Actively prepare for class
(not just reading/watching)
Learner Teacher
• Actively engage in class
• Compare your progress & plan accordingly
A different instructor role:
• Actively prepare for class with you
(not just going over last year’s notes )
• Modify class accordingly
• Create interactive engagement opportunities
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18. Students have developed a robot dog
and a robot cat, both of which can
run at 8 mph and walk at 4 mph.
A the end of the term, there is a race!
The robot cat must run for half of its
racing time, then walk.
The robot dog must run for half the
race distance, then walk.
Who wins the race? Why?
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19. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
Predict which one will win the race, and explain
why you think so.
~1/4 → Robocat!
~0/4 → Robodog!
~3/4 → They tie!
~0/4 → Can’t tell!
Others before you…
~12% → Good math
~4% → Bad math
~27% → Good reasoning
~35% → Bad reasoning
~19% → Invalid arguments

20. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“Cats rule - dogs drool!”
“Robot dog. Because dogs naturally walk more
thaan cats. ”
“The cat--it won the flip of the coin.”
“The cat.... To be honest, I used the resources I
have and asked my colleague who is a physics
major.”

21. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“They tie. The are both running half of the
course and walking the other half. If the racing
time has been predetermined (wouldn't you
have to, to get half of it?) then running half of it
and walking half of it would be the same as
running half of the course and walking half of
the course. (I kept changing my mind, still not
sure, but my 10 minutes has been up for some
time!)”

22. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“The cat. The fact the cat is programed to run for
half of its racing time will probably mean that it
will get past the half way point, but by the time
it starts to walk, it will be much further ahead
than the dog (considering it runs 8 mph). ”

23. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“The robot cat will win. My reasoning for this is:
-the dog will run for half the distance, but then
walk the rest, which means he will be walking
the same amount of distance but that also
means that will take him longer to do the last
half of the race.
-the cat will run, no matter what, half the time,
so her walking time is definitely less than the
dogs walking time”

24. For your “typical” college class, estimate the
fraction of students who do their preparatory
work before class?
A) 0% - 20%
B) 20% - 40%
C) 40% - 60%
D) 60% - 80%
E) 80% - 100%
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28%
33%
21%
13%
5%
~215
others

25. Mean on 1-5 scale
STUDENT SURVEY RESULTS
How did WarmUps affect your...
Preparation Engagement Learning
Preparation for class 4.06
Engagement during
class 3.93
Learning the material 3.79
N = 781
9% 10%
81%
10%
18%
73%
10%
22%
68%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Harmful Neutral Helpful

26. MORE ON JITT?
Much more information to be had:
• Theoretical basis for effectiveness
• Empirical evidence for effectiveness
• Writing good questions
• Best and worst implementation tools
• Practical questions and pitfalls
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27. MAZURAFTER 1 YEAR
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28. ELSEWHERE?
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29. MY SUMMARY
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JiTT may be among the easiest research-based
instructional strategies that you can
consistently integrate into your teaching.
From an evidence-based perspective, JiTT
addresses often-neglected areas.
We must be prepared to find that students know
less than we might hope. (Perhaps freeing?)

30. YOUR SUMMARY
For yourself… or to share?
What one “nugget” do you most want to keep from
our discussion today?
Contact Jeff: Jeff.Loats@gmail.com
Slides: www.slideshare.net/JeffLoats
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31. JITT REFERENCES & RESOURCES
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Simkins, Scott and Maier, Mark (Eds.) (2010) Just in Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, Stylus Publishing.
Gregor M. Novak, Andrew Gavrini, Wolfgang Christian, Evelyn Patterson (1999) Just-in-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with
Web Technology. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River NJ.
K. A. Marrs, and G. Novak. (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Biology: Creating an Active Learner Classroom Using the Internet.Cell
Biology Education, v. 3, p. 49-61.
Jay R. Howard (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Assignment. Teaching
Sociology, Vol. 32 (No. 4 ). pp. 385-390. Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3649666
S. Linneman, T. Plake (2006). Searching for the Difference: A Controlled Test of Just-in-Time Teaching for Large-Enrollment
Introductory Geology Courses. Journal of Geoscience Education, Vol. 54 (No. 1)
Stable URL:http://www.nagt.org/nagt/jge/abstracts/jan06.html#v54p18