Learner Centered Astronomy Lecture Tutorials and Ranking Tasks

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Learner Centered Astronomy Lecture Tutorials
and Ranking Tasks

• Ed Prather and Gina BrissendenUniversity of
  Arizona
• Center for Astronomy Education
• Sponsored by the NASA Navigator Public Engagement
  Programs
•  
• http//astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov

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Arizona Astronomy Education Study

• Population students enrolled in the
  introductory astronomy course for non-science
  majors
• Instrument used A 68 items research-based
  multiple choice questionnaire
• Pre-Course two forms, AB, which each contained
  a subset of questions
• Post-Lecture questions administered in subsets
  that directly reflected topic of lecture

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Celestial Motion of Objects

• Before Lecture (N42) 2 correct

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Celestial Motion of Objects

• Before Lecture (N42) 2 correct
• After Lecture (N 135) 19 correct

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Arizona Astronomy Education Study

• Instrument used A 68 items research based
  multiple choice questionnaire
• Pre-Course two forms, AB, which each contained
  a subset of questions
• Post-Lecture questions administered in subsets
  that directly reflected topic of lecture

Pre-Course mean 30 (nA39,nB42) Post-Lecture
mean 52 (n 100)
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So What Can Be Done?

• Lecture more loudly?
• Its not what the instructor does that matters
  rather, it is what the students do that matters
• Create a learner-centered environment that
  promotes the intellectual engagement
• For large-enrollment lectures, we created
  Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy

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Development of Lecture-Tutorialsfor
Introductory Astronomy

• Based on the topics faculty most often cover
• Require 15-minutes and are designed for easy
  implementation into existing traditional lecture
  courses
• Socratic-dialogue driven, highly-structured
  collaborative learning activities designed to
• elicit misconceptions
• confront naïve, incomplete, or inaccurate ideas
• resolve contradictions
• demonstrate the power of THEIR conceptual models

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Idealized Classroom Implementation

• Professor lectures for approximately 20 minutes
  on core ideas of the topic to prepare students
  for working on the activity
• Students are posed a conceptually challenging
  question on the presented lecture material to set
  the stage for the activity to come
• Class is divided into pairs or small groups and
  instructed to work collaboratively and reach
  consensus on the questions presented in the
  lecture-tutorial activity
• Professor debriefs the activity interactively
  highlighting the difficulties in reasoning and
  common problems
• Professor returns to lecture mode on next course
  topic

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Drum roll please
Lecture-Tutorial Motion
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• What Do You Do During a Small Group Activity?
• This is the chance to actually get to talk with
  your students about their learning of astronomy.
• Nudge groups with helpful question to steer their
  group discussion in the right direction.
• Ask two nearby groups to check their answer and
  to account for any differences to facilitate
  class interactions.
• Pull in non-participants by asking them what and
  why the other group members answered the way that
  they did.
• Offer thought provoking questions that help
  students engage with the concepts.
• Circle the wagons afterward ( i.e., debrief )
• Always in pursuit of the TEACHABLE MOMENT

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Celestial Motion of Objects

• Before Lecture (N42) 2 correct
• After Lecture (N 135) 19 correct
• After Lecture Tutorial (N134) 66 correct

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Arizona Astronomy Education Study

• Post Lecture-Tutorial questions administered in
  subsets

• Pre-Course mean 30 (nA39,nB42)
• Post-Lecture mean 52 (n 100)
• Post-Lecture Tutorial 72 (n 100)

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Student Feedback from Class Survey 4 Days Ago

• How effective have Lecture Tutorials been in
  helping you learn?
• 1 Very Ineffective
• 5 Very Effective
• Class Average 4.53
• 1 0
• 2 0
• 3 12
• 4 23
• 5 65

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References

• Prather, E. E., Slater, T. F., Adams, J. P.,
  Bailey, J. M., Jones, L. V., Dostal, J. A.
  2003, "Research on a Lecture-Tutorial Approach to
  Teaching Introductory Astronomy for Non-Science
  Majors," Astronomy Education Review, 3(2), 122.
• Brogt, Erik. 2007, A Theoretical Background on a
  Successful Implementation of Lecture-Tutorials,
  Astronomy Education Review, 6(1), 50-58.

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But wait there is more!!

• For those of you who prefer to emphasize
  quantitative or mathematical reasoning - Ranking
  Tasks

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Results over Eight Core Topics
Core Topics Seasons Keplers Laws Star Magnitude
Distance Motion of the Sky Phases of the
Moon Gravity Luminosity of Stars Doppler Effect
( N 100 )
100
75
Percent Correct
50
25
0
Pretest
Post-Lecture
Post-Ranking Tasks
Study Trial
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Results Averages for Eight Core Topics
( N 100 )
100

More difficult gains!
75
77
Best results with lecture!
Percent Correct
50
61
Post-Lecture to Post-Ranking Task Hakes
Normalized Gain 0.41 (moderately large
effect) Cohens d 0.62 (Large effect)
25
32
0
Pretest
Post-Lecture
Post-Ranking Tasks
Study Trial
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Integrating with Clickers and Voting Cards

• Clickers and Voting Cards can be used
• Before activity to ask conceptually challenging
  question to set the stage
• After activity to assess learning

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Possible Discussion Topics

• Other experiences or thoughts about LTs and RTs?
• LTs in other disciplines?
• Making your own Socratic-Dialogue Inducing
  activities