CTL Newsletter – Page 2 – Science Edventures

(Each month, I write a “From the Director” column for the UBC Okanagan Centre for Teaching and Learning newsletter.)

Take a moment to answer this question:

WhatWillHappenChocolate

No, seriously, think it over and deliberately pick A, B, or C. Maybe even write it down on a scrap of paper.

I’ve helped many instructors integrate peer instruction to their courses. Peer instruction, recall, is an evidence-based, active learning strategy where

the instructor poses a conceptually challenging, multiple-choice question
students think about the question on their own and vote for one of the choices using a clicker
students turn to their neighbors and discuss the question and their answers
students may vote a second time, depending on the nature of the question
the instructor leads a class-wide discussion where students share their thinking, finishing with
the instructor models expert-like thinking and confirms why the right answers are right and the wrong answers are wrong

Each episode of peer instruction can take anywhere from 2 to 10 or more minutes, depending on the question, the answers, and the richness of the discussion.

This question about chocolate is one of my favourites because it reveals how a good peer instruction question can spark and drive discussion. A learning outcome behind this question might be

students will be able to name the six phase changes (evaporate, sublimate, freeze, etc.) and translate back and forth between the technical name (“melt”) and plain English (“when something changes from solid to liquid”)

When I demonstrate peer instruction to instructors, after the second vote I start the class-wide discussion by asking student to tell me what “evaporate” means. “Great, yes, liquid to gas! What’s the opposite called when it goes from gas to liquid?” They have to give me the technical name, “condense.” Together, we touch on all six processes before going back to this particular question about chocolate. Sure, you could put up a PPT slide with a table showing all the phase names and changes but students could simply scan the table without activating the ideas and practicing saying the words. And imagine giving a 50-minute lecture only to discover there are students who misinterprets what you mean by “condense” — the technical definition (gas to liquid) is different than the plain English meaning in “condensed milk.”

So what will this chocolate do? It’ll change from liquid to solid. In other words, C) it will freeze.

“What!?! How can it freeze? It’s not even cold!!!”

That’s the other beauty of this question, and peer instruction questions in general. If there’s a strong misconception (“freezing is cold because, you know, ice”), you can build that misconception into the question, giving students low-stakes opportunities to activate and then confront their own misconceptions.

A good peer instruction question is not simply an assessment of fact. Instead, peer instruction allows the instructor to drive a discussion, giving each student an opportunity to think on their own and then practice talking like an expert with their peers.

For more information, check out this post I wrote about getting the most out of peer instruction.

(Each month, I write a “From the Director” column for the UBC Okanagan Centre for Teaching and Learning newsletter.)

How do you get students to do the pre-class tasks in a flipped class? Perhaps have a reading quiz for marks – students who don’t do the tasks will fail the quiz.

That’s a stick. Make your reading quiz a carrot, though, and you can get more students completing the tasks and even better engagement in class.

You’re asking students to invest time and effort into your class so it’s reasonable that you reward them. Each pre-class assignment should have a matching reading quiz with a handful of questions that test the material presented in the readings and other resources. The questions are typically drawn straight from the material and don’t require higher-order analysis, synthesis or creation (that’s what you’ll be doing in class.) The quiz is typically multiple choice because that’s easier to run and assess. Any student who follows your pre-class guidance with reasonable care should score 100% on the quiz.

Some instructors use clickers to run the reading quiz at the beginning of class but I recommend you run the quiz online through the LMS, Connect:

There’s more variety of questions: multiple-choice, “select all that apply”, students can type in words, phrases, sentences, and more.
Include the question, “What did you find most confusing?” This is a great way to promote metacognition — students thinking about their own understanding of the concepts. There’s no right and wrong answers here – students can get a point for answering.
Create the opportunity for students to contribute to the upcoming class. You can ask your students for examples of where they think Concept X might be important (“Besides airplane wings, where else is it important to determine lift?”). Find out who has had Experience Y (“Have you ever been scuba diving?”) and if they’d be willing to share those experiences with the class. Survey them to gauge their interest in Historical Event Z. Again, there are no wrong answers – every answer is valuable.

Use the tools in Connect to set the quiz to close at midnight the day before you teach (that is, late on Wednesday night before your Thursday class.) This gives you time to come to work in the morning, look over their responses, and adapt the lesson based on their needs and experiences. If many students are confused about a concept that you think is so easy you weren’t planning to explain it, well, you have time to change your lesson. And if half the class talks about the lift around wind turbine blades and no one mentions spoilers on race cars, you can change your race car example.

Imagine the feeling of empowerment when a student sees the example they suggested being analyzed or when they’re invited to share an experience. That’s a big carrot, big enough that the student will definitely do the pre-class tasks for the next class!

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