This document summarizes an workshop on alternatives to traditional lecture-based teaching. It discusses how lecture may not engage students or help them develop expertise. Alternatives presented include peer instruction using clicker questions, interactive demonstrations where students make predictions, and activities that draw on students' prior knowledge like discussions prompted by open-ended questions. The workshop emphasizes creating an interactive, student-centered approach to help students construct their own understanding as they learn.

1. CTD Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to Lecture
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
1
Alternatives to Lecture
impaled by Yersinia on flickr CC-BY-NC-SA

2. resources at ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/weekly-workshops-winter-2014/
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
ALTERNATIVES TO LECTURE
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu
#ctducsd
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
12:00 – 12:50 pm Marshall College Room, Price Center

3. Scholarly approach to teaching:
learning
outcomes
(Jan 22)
What should
students
learn?
What are
students
learning?
What instructional
approaches
help students
learn?
Carl Wieman
Science Education Initiative
cwsei.ubc.ca
3
Alternatives to Lecture
assessment
(Feb 5)
alt to lecture
(Jan 29)
peer instruction,
(Feb 12, 19)

4. Key Finding 1
Students come to the classroom 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 of the classroom.
(How People Learn [1], p. 14)
Instructors must
draw out students’
pre-existing
understandings.
4
Alternatives to Lecture
Instruction must be
student-centered.

5. Key Finding 2
To develop competence in an area, students must:
a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and
c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate
retrieval and application.
(How People Learn [1], p. 16)
These are
characteristics of
expertize
5
Alternatives to Lecture
Instructors need to
give students
opportunities to be
more expert-like.

6. Key Finding 3
A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help
students learn to take control of their own learning by
defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in
achieving them.
(How People Learn [1], p. 18)
Metacognition:
that voice in your
head that checks
if you understand
6
Alternatives to Lecture
Instructors need to
provide opportunities
for students to practice
being metacognitive

7. Constructivist theory of learning
Students need to construct their own understanding of
the concepts, where
 each student assimilates new material into his/her
own framework of initial understanding and
preconception
 each student confronts his/her (mis)understanding of
the concepts
A traditional, one-way lecture doesn’t give students an
opportunity to “try, fail, receive feedback and try
again, before facing a summative evaluation.” [2]
7
Alternatives to Lecture

8. traditional lecture
8
Alternatives to Lecture
student-centered instruction

9. Alternatives to Lecture
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
whiteboards
worksheets
discussions
videos
student-centered instruction
9
Alternatives to Lecture

10. Clicker Question
The molecules making up the dry mass of wood that
forms during the growth of a tree largely come from
A) sunlight.
B) the air.
C) the seed.
D) the soil.
Question credit: Bill Wood
10
Alternatives to Lecture

11. Typical Episode of Peer Instruction
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own and vote
using clickers, colored ABCD cards, smartphones,…
3. The instructor asks students to turn to their neighbors
and “convince them you’re right.”
4. After that “peer instruction”, the students vote again
and the instructor leads a class-wide discussion
concluding with why the right answer(s) is right and
the wrong answers are wrong.
11
Alternatives to Lecture

12. In effective peer instruction
 students teach each other while
they may still hold or remember
their novice preconceptions
 students discuss the concepts in their
own (novice) language
students learn
and practice
how to think,
communicate
like experts
 each student finds out what s/he does(n’t) know
 the instructor finds out what the students know (and
don’t know) and reacts, building on their initial
understanding and preconceptions.
12
Alternatives to Lecture

13. Effective peer instruction requires
1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions
2. creating multiple-choice questions that
require deeper thinking and learning
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that
spark student discussion
4. resolving the misconceptions
13
before
class
during
class
Alternatives to Lecture

14. To learn more about peer instruction
Upcoming Weekly Workshops at the CTD:
Feb 12 Peer Instruction I: Writing Good Peer Instruction (“Clicker”)
Questions A good episode of peer instruction requires a good
question. In this session, we’ll see a variety of questions and contrast
good vs bad questions, that you can adapt to your discipline
Feb 19 Peer Instruction II: Best Practices for Running Peer Instruction with
Clickers In this session, we’ll discuss best practices for choreographing
an episode of peer instruction in your class including how to pose the
question, when to open and close the poll, how many votes, and how
to get the most out of the class-wide discussion.
To register, look for the
Teaching and Learning Weekly Workshops
at ctd.ucsd.edu
14
Alternatives to Lecture

15. Alternatives to Lecture
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
whiteboards
worksheets
discussions
videos
student-centered instruction
15
Alternatives to Lecture

16. Chemistry Day 4 by pennstatenews on flickr CC-BY-NC
16
Alternatives to Lecture

17. In-class demonstrations
1. Instructor (meticulously) sets up the equipment, flicks
a switch, “Taa-daaah!
2. Students



don’t know where to look
don’t know when to look, miss “the moment”
don’t recognize the significance of the event amongst
too many distractions
To engage students and focus their attention on the key
event, get students to make a prediction (using clickers,
for example)
17
Alternatives to Lecture

18. Clicker question
A ball is rolling around
the inside of a circular
track. The ball
leaves the track
at point P.
B
C
D
A
E
P
Which path
does the ball
follow?
18
Alternatives to Lecture
(Mazur)

19. Interactive Lecture Demos (ILD)
[3]
By making a prediction, each student
 cares about the outcome (“Did I get it right?”)
 knows when to look (can anticipate phenomenon)
 knows where to look (sees phenomenon occur)
 gets immediate feedback about his/her
understanding of the concept
 is prepared for your explanation
19
Alternatives to Lecture

20. Alternatives to Lecture
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
whiteboards
worksheets
discussions
videos
student-centered instruction
20
Alternatives to Lecture

21. What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
21
Alternatives to Lecture
impaled by Yersinia on flickr CC-BY-NC-SA

22. Start teaching before the bell rings
Students arrive, ready to engage with you, your content:
 Project a picture related to today’s lesson
 Add prompts:
“What do you notice? What do you wonder?” [4]
 Spend first few minutes leading a discussion:



every student can contribute
you learn their pre-existing knowledge
activates concepts in their memories
 Don’t let their enthusiasm slip away!
22
Alternatives to Lecture

23. Alternatives to Lecture
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
whiteboards
worksheets
discussions
videos
student-centered instruction
23
Alternatives to Lecture

24. What do you see?
A) old lady
B) young woman
 If you’re studying human
behavior, let your students
generate authentic data
 Clickers can be set to
“anonymous”
24
Alternatives to Lecture

25. Alternatives to Lecture
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
whiteboards
worksheets
discussions
videos
student-centered instruction
25
Alternatives to Lecture

26. Showing video in class
There are times when a video is the perfect resource.
Archimedes’ Principle
In today’s Physics class, we’re
going to study buoyancy and
Archimedes’ Principle.
http://tinyurl.com/TCCdemo
(Paul Hewitt video)
(Image: Wikimedia Commons – public domain)
26
Alternatives to Lecture

27. Videos in class
Unlike you, the students do not
 select the video
instructor does this
 check it contains key events before class
 anticipate key events instructor does this unconsciously,
 recognize key events the “curse” of expertise
 interpret key events This is what you want to do in class!
 relate key events to Anticipate & recognize are
pre-requisites.
class concepts
27
Alternatives to Lecture

28. Videos: implications for instructors
 Coach the students how to watch the video like an
expert:
As you watch this video, try to…
watch for when the A starts to B.
count how often the C does D.
watch the needles on the scales as water drains.
 Don’t “give away” the key event (Notice the buoyant
force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.)
That’s what the follow-up discussion is for: help the
students get prepared for that discussion.
28
Alternatives to Lecture

29. Is Lecture Dead?
No! There is still a time and place for lecture. You can
lecture (for 10-15 minutes) when the students are
prepared to learn:
 the alt-to-lecture activities have activated the
concepts in their memories
 they’ve tried, failed, received feedback, tried again
and are waiting for confirmation
 they’re prepared to intellectually appreciate your
expertise you’re about to share with them
29
Alternatives to Lecture

30. Alternatives to Lecture
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
To enhance
reading quizzes
students learning and
whiteboards
retention, some instruction must
worksheets
be interactive and student-centered.
discussions
videos
That’s how people learn.
30
Alternatives to Lecture

31. Scholarly approach to teaching:
learning
outcomes
What should
students
learn?
What are
students
learning?
What instructional
approaches
help students
learn?
Carl Wieman
Science Education Initiative
cwsei.ubc.ca
31
Alternatives to Lecture
assessment
(Feb 5)
Roosevelt
College Room
alt to lecture
peer instruction,
(Feb 12, 19)

32. References
1. National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. J.D.
Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking (Eds.),Washington, DC:
The National Academies Press.
2. Bain, K (2004). What the best college teachers do.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
3. Get the full story of interactive lecture demos (ILDs) at
serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/demonstrations/index.html
4. Read more about “What do you notice? What do you
wonder” at ctd.ucsd.edu/2013/08/you-dont-have-to-waitfor-the-clock-to-strike-to-start-teaching/
32
Alternatives to Lecture

33. resources at ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/weekly-workshops-winter-2014/
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
ALTERNATIVES TO LECTURE
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu
#ctducsd
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
12:00 – 12:50 pm Marshall College Room, Price Center