1. …
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF TEACHING
@SPS 4500 , APRIL 25TH, 2014
DR. JEFF LOATS
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

2. WARM-UP: BORN VS. 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."
~1/4 → Agree that teaching quality is
essentially innate
~3/4 → Improvement is a matter of desire,
effort and time spent.

3. WARM-UP: BORN VS. MADE
“There are always ways to improve teaching quality,
and no one is a hopeless case.With enough
determination and the right instruction any teacher can
improve his or her teaching performance.”
“I would respond that I do agree that other people may
be naturally better or more comfortable with teaching
than others, however I believe that new teaching
methods can make someone become a better teacher. I
feel that most bad teachers did not learn new or better
teaching techniques while in school or- more
frequently- do not care so much about putting in the
necessary effort or are stubborn to change.”

4. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET
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5. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET
5

6. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET
6

7. DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET
7

8. WARM-UP: LECTURE TIME
Think about the "average" college class you
have had.What fraction of class time was spent
on lecture-based delivery of content?
You Others
0% - 19%
20% - 39%
40% - 59% 1
60% - 79% 1
80% - 100% 2
2%
10%
13%
38%
37%

9. WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”
What was the biggest "take away" idea that you
got from the article?
~4/4 → Engagement is key and
Lecture performs poorly
~1/4 → Difference was dramatic!
~1/4 → Research can give better teaching
~1/4 → Students enjoy interactive methods
~1/4 → Students less resistant than faculty

10. WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”
“Traditional lecture style is not the most
effective teaching method.When more
interactive methods are used within large
classrooms, student performance and
attendance greatly improved. Furthermore,
students seem to enjoy the non-traditional
style.”
“I think it was the drastic difference in the scores
from the different groups. I know people learn
differently, but I didn't realize it had that much
of an impact.”

11. 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:
• “MatchingTeaching 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

12. 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

13. PHYSICS EDUCATION REVOLUTION
Eric Mazur, Physicist at Harvard:
13

14. 14
“ALL SIMILARLY (IN)EFFECTIVE…”

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

16. 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 inTimeTeaching.
E) Some other method.
16
20%
45%
11%
7%
18%
(others)

17. JUST IN TIME TEACHING
Online pre-class assignments
(“WarmUps”)
First half:
• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences
• Graded on thoughtful effort
Learner Teacher
17

18. JUST IN TIME TEACHING
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
18

19. JUST IN TIME TEACHING
A different student role:
• Actively prepare for class
(not just reading/watching)
• 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
Learner Teacher
19

20. 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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21. 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

22. 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.”

23. 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!)”

24. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“The robot cat will win the race because by
running for half of its race time the cat will cover
a lot of distance allowing the robot cat to cover
twice the distance.The robot dog can only run
for a fixed amount of space.”

25. 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”

26. 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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25%
35%
21%
14%
6%
(others)

27. STUDENT FEEDBACK
315 students in 7 classes over 4 terms (roughly ±6%)
The WarmUps have…
Agreed or
Strongly Agreed
…helped me to be more prepared
for class than I would otherwise be.
70%
…helped me to be more engaged in
class than I would otherwise be.
80%
…helped me to learn the material
better than I otherwise would
64%
…been worth the time they
required to complete
57%
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28. 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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29. MAZUR AFTER 1YEAR
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30. ELSEWHERE?
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31. 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?)

32. 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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33. JITT REFERENCES & RESOURCES
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Simkins, Scott and Maier, Mark (Eds.) (2010) Just inTimeTeaching:Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, Stylus Publishing.
Gregor M. Novak, AndrewGavrini,Wolfgang Christian, Evelyn Patterson (1999) Just-in-TimeTeaching: BlendingActive Learning with
WebTechnology. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River NJ.
K.A. Marrs, and G. Novak. (2004). Just-in-TimeTeaching in Biology: Creating an Active LearnerClassroom Using the Internet. Cell
Biology Education, v. 3, p. 49-61.
Jay R. Howard (2004). Just-in-TimeTeaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students toActually Read the Assignment. Teaching
Sociology,Vol. 32 (No. 4 ). pp. 385-390. Published by:American SociologicalAssociation
StableURL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3649666
S. Linneman,T. Plake (2006). Searching for the Difference:A ControlledTest of Just-in-TimeTeaching for Large-Enrollment
IntroductoryGeologyCourses. Journal of Geoscience Education,Vol. 54 (No. 1)
StableURL:http://www.nagt.org/nagt/jge/abstracts/jan06.html#v54p18