The document discusses alternatives to traditional lectures and emphasizes student-centered instruction strategies including peer instruction, interactive worksheets, and videos. It highlights the importance of engaging students through discussions, quizzes, and feedback to enhance learning outcomes. The author, Peter Newbury from the University of California, San Diego, offers resources and workshops aimed at teaching these alternative methods.

1. slides and resources: http://tinyurl.com/AlternativesToLecture
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
Thursday, January 10, 2013 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Center Hall, Room 316

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

3. how much of that you learned
by the end of the course
<g> =
how much you didn’t know
at the beginning of the course
3 Alternatives to Lecture

4. peer instruction w clickers
worksheets
videos
interactive demonstrations
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
discussions
student-centered instruction
4 Alternatives to Lecture

5. Clicker question
A pitching machine
throws baseballs at a
batter taking batting
practice.
Here are test pitches A B
from 4 different
machines. Which one
would you buy?
Daniel L. Schwartz & Taylor Martin (2004):
Inventing to Prepare for Future Learning: The
Hidden Efficiency of Encouraging Original
C D
Student Production in Statistics Instruction,
Cognition and Instruction, 22:2, 129-184
5 Alternatives to Lecture

6. Typical peer instruction episode
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own.
3. Students vote for an answer using clickers,
coloured cards, ABCD voting cards,...
4. The instructor reacts, based on the
distribution of votes.
6 Alternatives to Lecture

7. In effective peer instruction
 students teach each other immediately, students learn
while they may still hold or remember and practice
their novice misconceptions how to think,
 students discuss the concepts in their communicate
own language like experts
 the instructor finds out what the students know (and
don’t know) and reacts
7 Alternatives to Lecture

8. Effective peer instruction requires
1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions
before
2. creating multiple-choice questions that
class
require deeper thinking and learning
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that
spark student discussion during
class
4. resolving the misconceptions
Watch for our series of peer instruction workshops:
Jan 21: Intro to peer instruction
Jan 28: Writing clicker questions
Feb 7: Click it up a level
8 Alternatives to Lecture

9. In-class worksheets
Looking at Distant Objects
Recall that a light-year (ly) is a distance, the distance
light travels in one year.
In groups of 2 or 3, work on the worksheet. Make sure
everyone in your group agrees on the answer to each
question before you write it down.
9 Alternatives to Lecture

10. Clicker question
Imagine that you simultaneously receive the satellite transmission
of two pictures of two people that live on planets orbiting two
different stars. Each image shows the people at their 21st
birthday parties. Consider the following possible interpretations
that could be made from your observations. Which do you think is
the most plausible interpretation?
A) Both people are the same age but at different distances
from you.
B) The people are actually different ages but at the same
distance from you.
C) The person that is closer to you is actually the older of the
two people.
D) The person that is farther from you is actually the older of
the two people.
10 Alternatives to Lecture

11. In-class worksheets
 Worksheets guide students through a concept
 they can learn from the worksheet, not just practice
a skill
 Do not “go over” the worksheet afterwards
 encourages students to not do the work and just wait for
the answers
 Assess their work by, for example, asking a follow-up
clicker question
 successful on worksheet successful on clicker question
(not successful on clicker q not successful on worksheet)
11 Alternatives to Lecture

12. In-class worksheets: structure
 Worksheet is “stand-alone” and complete.
 students can complete it later, do it again when studying
 easier to integrate into lessons
 First questions are “trivial”
 check that student read intro
 gives them confidence to proceed
 Last question is the “zinger”
 questions build towards the deep question, each one
building the skill needed to answer next question
 Plenty of opportunity for formative feedback
12 Alternatives to Lecture

13. In-class worksheet: resources
Washington Tutorials (physics)
www.phys.washington.edu/groups/peg/tut.html
Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy
astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/teachingstrategies/teachingdetails/?StrategyID=9
Format and structure can be adapted to other fields:
use the astronomy LT’s as a template
13 Alternatives to Lecture

14. In-class video
There are times when a video is the perfect resource.
Paul Hewitt demonstrates Archimedes’ Principle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6aErhwFXsg
14 Alternatives to Lecture

15. In-class video
Was the Paul Hewitt demo
 engaging?
 entertaining?
 interactive?
 deep or surface learning?
15 Alternatives to Lecture

16. In-class video
Our expert eyes know
 what details or events to look for
 when to start watching carefully – we can anticipate
the key event
 what to ignore
Students don’t know what to look for. Before showing a
video, prime them, prepare them:
“In this video, pay particular attention to the…”
“I want you to count how many times she says…”
16 Alternatives to Lecture

17. In-class demonstrations
In most demos, the instructor sets up the equipment, flicks
a switch, “Taa-daaa!”
 students don’t know where to look, don’t see important
event amongst too many distractions
To engage students and focus their attention on the key
event, get students to make a prediction.
(Get the full story of Interactive Lecture Demos (ILDs) at
serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/demonstrations/index.html)
17 Alternatives to Lecture

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

19. student-centered instruction
peer instruction w clickers
worksheets
videos
interactive demonstrations
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
discussions
19 Alternatives to Lecture

20. slides and resources: http://tinyurl.com/AlternativesToLecture
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
Thursday, January 10, 2013
12:30 – 1:30 pm