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Correcting mental models

with Meg Urry

| October 8, 2015 | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Meg Urry shares approaches we can use to help our students correct inaccurate mental models and grasp complex information.

Correcting mental models

 

PODCAST NOTES:

Correcting inaccurate mental models

  • Guest: Dr. Meg Urry
  • Connect with Meg on Twitter

Interest in science

At some moment it clicked and I understood what it meant. Not only was that the moment that I started to like physics, but also the moment I realized everybody can learn physics if they get this key that unlocks the door. You don’t want to leave them in the same state that I was in… of wondering why the heck we’re doing this… You want people to get over that hump and suddenly see that this is really simple, straightforward, beautiful, and useful.” – Meg Urry

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Gender discrimination in the sciences

“It was very typical for me to be one of the only women in the class and the guys just sort of took over.” – Meg Urry

“I always assumed that if someone claimed authority about something, that they must, indeed, know about it. It turns out lots of people do that all the time.” – Meg Urry

“When I entered graduate school in 1977 at John Hopkins university, it had allowed women in as undergraduates only since 1970.” – Meg Urry

It hasn’t been easy [for women].” – Meg Urry

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People who feel different than the norm (who feel outside the tribe) have a harder time learning.” – Meg Urry

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Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students

Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J. and Handelsman, J. (2012) ‘Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), p. 16474. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1211286109.
(Moss-Racusin et al., 2012)

Despite efforts to recruit and retain more women, a stark gender disparity persists within academic science. Abundant research has demonstrated gender bias in many demographic groups, but has yet to experimentally investigate whether science faculty exhibit a bias against female students that could contribute to the gender disparity in academic science. In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student—who was randomly assigned either a male or female name—for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant. These participants also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant. The gender of the faculty participants did not affect responses, such that female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student. Mediation analyses indicated that the female student was less likely to be hired because she was viewed as less competent. We also assessed faculty participants’ preexisting subtle bias against women using a standard instrument and found that preexisting subtle bias against women played a moderating role, such that subtle bias against women was associated with less support for the female student, but was unrelated to reactions to the male student. These results suggest that interventions addressing faculty gender bias might advance the goal of increasing the participation of women in science.”(Moss-Racusin et al., 2012)

“Both the women and the men made this gender-biased judgment.” – Meg Urry

Early lessons in teaching

“I didn’t realize how hard these students were working.” – Meg Urry

The first year, I did straight lecture intro to physics, but, I realized something was missing.” – Meg Urry

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  • Video of Eric Mazur sharing his teaching approaches
  • Article about Eric Mazur: Twilight of the lecture
  • Mazur Group
  • Making large classes interactive with Dr. Chrissy Spencer

“You listen to what the groups are saying and you can tell from that what their misperceptions are…” – Meg Urry

What they need to do is to explain it to someone else, because that is how they will come to understand it better.” – Meg Urry

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Learning catalytics

More ways to teach complexity

They’re not going to get there by you talking at them. It just doesn’t work.” – Meg Urry

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Real learning takes time. We often don’t allow students the time they need to get there.” – Meg Urry

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“You can only get them to understand stuff when they have had to think about it and reject some possible alternatives.” – Meg Urry

  • Bonni’s blog about showing the “not” in the learning

Trying to tell students things, before they were in a state to listen.

“You have to make them care about what you’re saying before you say it, or they’re not going to hear you.” – Meg Urry

That moment when they don’t know what to do is a perfect teaching moment.” – Meg Urry

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Tool: How to solve problems

Meg's prescriptive checklist for solving problems

  • Always share a picture of what you’re trying to solve.
  • Figure out the principle of what you’re trying to solve.
  • Etc.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Bonni recommends:

  • David Wilcox's: Leave it like it is

IMG_0118

 

Meg recommends:

  • The Only Woman in the Room

“This book is a gift to any person who is a minority in science.”

Closing notes

  1. Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show.
  2. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests.
  3. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

Tagged With: STEM

Grading exams with integrity

with Dave Stachowiak

| October 1, 2015 | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak share about ways to reduce the potential for introducing bias while grading exams.

PODCAST NOTES

Grading exams with Integrity

In today's episode, Dave Stachowiak and I share about ways to reduce the potential for introducing bias while grading exams.

Risks of bias in grading exams

  • Halo effect
  • Exam-based halo effect
  • Inflating favorite students' grades
  • Vikram David Amar calls “expectations effect”
  • Exhaustion factor

Techniques to reduce potential bias

  • Blind grading (sticky notes, LMS-based, etc.)
  • Grade by question, not exam
  • Inner-rater reliability practices
  • Block time for grading during peak energy hours
  • Be transparent and over-communicate your practices and rationale
  • *** Re-grade the earlier exams, to avoid what Dave spoke about…

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

Asking your students what they want to listen to before class

Coming Home, by Leon Bridges

Dave recommends:

Coaching for Leaders episode #211: How to be productive and present

Closing notes

  1. Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show.
  2. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests.
  3. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

Personal knowledge management revisited

with Dave Stachowiak

| September 24, 2015 | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak revisit the topic of personal knowledge management and discuss how our processes have evolved.

Personal knowledge management

Podcast notes

Personal knowledge management revisited

James Lang's article in The Chronicle about Teaching in Higher Ed

Harold Jarche

PKM is a set of processes, individually constructed, to help each of us make sense of our world, work more effectively, and contribute to society. PKM means taking control of your professional development, and staying connected in the network era, whether you are an employee, self-employed, or between jobs.

Seek

  • Twitter
  • Peter Newbury on episode #053
  • Still Feedly and Newsify

Sense

  • Pinboard
  • Newsify to Pinboard
    Email to Pinboard
  • PushPin app
  • Evernote lists (list of potential podcast guests, blog topics, conferences, journals)
  • Getting real about Pocket
  • Instapaper

Share

  • BufferApp
  • Canva
  • Deposit photos
  • Copyright video

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

  • Mid-exam stretch break

Dave recommends:

  • TimeTrade

Closing notes

  1. Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show.
  2. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests.
  3. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

Tagged With: pkm, podcast, seek, sense, share

Making challenging subjects fun

with Ainissa Ramirez

| September 17, 2015 | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Ainissa Ramirez shares about how and why to make challenging subjects fun.

Making challenging subjects fun

Guest: Dr. Ainissa Ramirez

http://www.ainissaramirez.com/bio.html

“I learned that this thing of investigating and being curious around the world was the thing that people called science.” -Ainissa Ramirez

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Early influences

  • The television show 321 contact

 

“By seeing my reflection in this young [African American] lady on television doing science, it gave me permission to say, ‘maybe I should be doing this.’”. -Ainissa Ramirez

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  • Teachers as a big influence

Making learning fun

“When it comes to teaching, I try to come across as approachable.” – Ainissa Ramirez

“I don't think I have the luxury to come off as extremely heady, because there's so much stuff that's going to prevent communication from [happening].” – Ainissa Ramirez

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Service-oriented teaching approach

“I feel like it's my job to get you there. I can't get you there completely, but I can at least figure out where the gaps are and tell you where to head.” – Ainissa Ramirez

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More approaches for making learning fun

  • The importance of a hook
  • Experimentation vs memorization
  • Failure as data collection

“If we think of failures as data collection, they lose their sting.” – Ainissa Ramirez

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Materials research society

DemoWorks (a cook book for materials science experimentation with items you can buy at a local hardware store)

“It's the messy stuff where you learn.” – Ainissa Ramirez

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A call to get musicians involved in the call to make science fun

Adventures in giving a TED talk

Ainissa's TED talk

STEM education advocate via TED blog

“It's vulnerability that people really resonate with… If you're willing to be vulnerable, it is a position of power, because you'll connect with many more people.” – Ainissa Ramirez

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Great videos of Ainissa in action, getting people excited about science

Gina Barnett – Play the Part: Master Body Signals to Connect and Communicate for Business Success  (helps you get out of your way)

Importance of having passion in our teaching

“Get back in touch with that thing that made you excited and then share that with other people. Be a beacon for that.” – Ainissa Ramirez

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Recommendations:

Bonni recommends:

Making invitations to learn (my experimentation with extending Remind this semester)…

Ainissa recommends:

Learn from Einstein – “If you can’t explain it to your Grandmother, you don't understand it.”

Tagged With: fun, passion, podcast, teaching

Teaching lessons from Pixar

with Josh Eyler

| September 9, 2015 | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Josh Eyler, and Bonni Stachowiak talk about lessons in teaching from Pixar.

teaching-lessons-from-pixar

 

PODCAST NOTES

#065: Teaching lessons from Pixar

Guest:

Dr. Joshua Eyler, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Rice University

  • Former guest on episode #016, Biology, the Brain, and Learning
  • Josh Eyler's Blog
  • Josh Eyler on Twitter

Josh’s Pixar course

  • The hero's journey
  • Loss in children’s media
  • WallE – environmental messages, religious messages/themes

Student-taught teaching, supported by Rice’s Center for Teaching Excellence

Heard on Twitter: Pixar favorites

Brian Croxall – Toy Story 2

@bonni208 @joshua_r_eyler My favorite is probably Toy Story 2.

— Brian Croxall (@briancroxall) September 8, 2015

Shyama – Finding Nemo and The Incredibles

@bonni208 @joshua_r_eyler "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" are probably my favorites.

— Dr. Shyama R (@MedievalPhDemon) September 8, 2015

Edna Mode

@joshua_r_eyler @bonni208 Edna Mode is my favorite hahaha.

— Dr. Shyama R (@MedievalPhDemon) September 8, 2015

Sandie Morgan

Monsters Inc.

@bonni208 @joshua_r_eyler Pixar FAV is Monsters Inc

— Sandie Morgan (@sandiemorgan) September 8, 2015

Cautionary note

Funny episode of Very Bad Wizards where they discuss the criticisms of the Inside Out movie, when it should have been clear to everyone that the movie wasn’t intended to actually represent how the brain works…

Opportunities to learn from our students are abundant

Finding Nemo

“If we only focus on [our role of imparting wisdom], we miss out on those moments when students can share something with us that opens our eyes to the material in a way we have never seen it before.” – Josh Eyler

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Bonni shared about making assumptions on episode 63

Great teaching begins with a boundless passion for our subject

Ratatouille

Great teaching begins with a boundless passion for our subject

“Passion is sometimes an underrated part of what we do as teachers that can be really effective in reaching our students.” – Josh Eyler

tihe64-quote2

Gradually reducing coaching helps students learn

Finding Nemo

David Merrill’s advice on instructional design: Instructional guidance should be gradually reduced

“In order to learn anything, we need to confront the failure of faulty knowledge, of faulty mental models. Students aren’t given enough opportunity to do that and when they are, the stakes are way too high for them.” – Josh Eyler

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Mindset matters and so does proximal development

Toy Story

  • Mindset on episode #062 with Rebecca Campbell
  • James Lang on Mindset in The Chronicle
  • More than mindset: Josh’s writing on Vygotsky

“Understanding our intellectual development in more complex terms can help students wrap their minds around the learning process.” – Josh Eyler

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The pursuit of knowledge can be heightened through curiosity

Constructivism

“Curiosity is one of our most deeply rooted mechanisms by which human beings learn.” – Josh Eyler

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“It’s that curiosity – that desire to know – that we need to be cultivating in our classrooms.” Josh Eyler

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The knife that solves the butter problem

spreadthelove

Learning happens everywhere

Up

“The reality is that learning is a very big idea and it happens everywhere.” – Josh Eyler

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“My wife has been very sick for the last year and I’ve learned quite a bit about courage from her. I learn so much from my three year-old daughter about how to tackle life with a toddler’s zeal.” – Josh Eyler

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Bonni recommends:

Josh’s essays:

  • The Grief of Pain (mentioned on Vulnerability in Our Teaching)
  • Just Keep Swimming: A Semester of Teaching Pixar

Josh recommends:

  • The Pixar Theory
  • The Pixar Theory book

Closing notes

  1. Rate/review the show. Please consider rating or leaving a review for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast on whatever service you use to listen to it on (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.). It is the best way to help others discover the show.
  2. Give feedback. As always, I welcome suggestions for future topics or guests.
  3. Subscribe. If you have yet to subscribe to the weekly update, you can receive a single email each week with the show notes (including all the links we talk about on the episode), as well as an article on either teaching or productivity.

Tagged With: mindset, podcast, teaching

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