New Faculty Workshop November 17 - 20, 2011 "Just-In-Time Teaching (JiTT)" Andy Gavrin, IUPUI

Introduction

In Preparation For The Session

Session Presentation (avalable after the session)

After the session

Sources of free warmup questions and other materials.

• Physics Warmup Archive
• Software: A blank warmup template and the script that processes the submissions are available. I would rather not post these, but send me an e-mail, and I will gladly provide them.

Additional JiTT Resources and References (other than your JiTT book, which you have, thanks to Pearson Education)

• The JiTT website (includes JiTT adopters/adapters)
• The JiTTDL Digital Library website ($850,000 NSF-funded grant to build a virtual meeting place of resources for the JiTT community)
• The JiTT Sample Materials Web Page (On the JiTT site: multidisciplinary, and includes stuff you can borrow/use!)
• The WebScience project: Multidisciplinary JiTT at IUPUI
• A Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Interview about JiTT

Implementations of JiTT

• Introductory Physics at IUPUI
• A lab course at Davidson College

A Few Papers about JiTT:

• Just-in-Time Teaching: Active Learner Pedagogy with WWW (1998)
• "What is Physics Good For?" Motivating Students with Online Materials (1999)
• The Best of Both Worlds: WWW Enhanced In-Class Instruction (2000)
• Marrs K.A. (2003), R. Blake, and A. Gavrin "Use of Warm Up Exercises in Just in Time Teaching: Determining Students' Prior Knowledge and Misconceptions in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics." Journal of College Science Teaching, September 2003, pp. 42-47.
• Gavrin A., (2003) J. X. Watt, K. A. Marrs, and R. E. Blake, "Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT): Using the Web to Enhance Classroom Learning." Computers in Education Journal, Vol. XIV (2), in press.
• Using On-Line Quizzes Outside the Classroom to Increase Student Engagement Inside the Classroom (2003)
• Dissemination of JiTT (2006)

Relevant Pedagogy/Student Learning References (non-JiTT-specific)

• Alexander W. Astin, "What Matters in College? Four Critical Years Revisited," Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1993.
  
  • Top 3 critical factors predicting college success:
  • student-student interaction
  • student-faculty interaction
  • time on task (students learn what students study)
  
  
• Richard Felder's Learning Styles References:
  
  • Publications related to Learning Styles
  • "Matters of Style" article (Also see ASEE Prism, 6(4), 18-23, December 1996.) [Mentioned in the Plenary.]
  • Index of Learning Styles (Instrument used to assess learning style preferences via 44 question survey, related references, etc.)
  • Complete index of Richard Felder Education Papers
  
  
• Jim Benedict's Cognition and Knowledge Taxonomy Table:
  
  Reference: Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J. & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

  
  
• Arnold Arons, "Some Thoughts on Reasoning Capacities Implicitly Expected of College Students," Cognitive Process Instruction: Research on Teaching Thinking Skills, Jack Lochead and John Clement, Eds. Philadelphia: The Franklin Press, 1979.

• Wiggins, G. (1989). “Teaching to the authentic test,” Educational leadership, 7, 41 – 47.

• McClymer, J. F., & Knoles, L. Z. (1992). “Ersatz learning, Inauthentic testing,” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 3: 33 – 50.

• Perkins, D. N. (1986). “Thinking Frames: An Integrative Perspective on Teaching Cognitive Skills.” In J. B. Baron & R. J. Sternberg, (Eds.) Teaching thinking skills. New York: W. H. Freedman, 41 – 61.

• Schoenfeld, A. H. (1979). “Explicit heuristic training as a variable in problem solving performance,” Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 10: 173 – 187.

• Mazur, E. (1997). Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Links to other relevant sites and references mentioned (maybe!) during the Session (non-JiTT-specific)

• Wolfgang Christian's (Davidson College) Physlets

• Eric Mazur's Project Galileo site.

Acknowledgments

Additional comments about JiTT

First, it is important to note that these activities are based on results from physics education research. The web outside-of-class (homework) component is followed up by a strong and central in-class component in which the instructor and the students address the ideas and explanations offered by the students via the web assignment.

To understand this technique, it is crucial to realize that the in-class activities start where the students are and address what the students think, rather than assuming the students know nothing about the topic at hand. In this way, we are trying to more closely match "what we teach" and "what the students learn." (Much of current Physics Education research specifically addresses this issue. See, for example, Lillian McDermott's American Journal of Physics article, "Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned -- Closing the Gap," Vol.  59, 1991, p. 301, and also her Ann. New York Acad. Sci. article, "How We Teach and How Students Learn," Vol.  701, 9, 1993.) Our in-class activities employ active learner and cooperative group problem solving techniques (a la Patricia Heller's American Journal of Physics articles, Vol. 60, Number 7, July 1992, pp. 627-636 and pp. 637-644). Thus our use of the web is founded upon and employs established techniques in addition to incorporating a new component.

In both the USAFA and IUPUI settings, where Just-in-Time Teaching first began, specific issues must be addressed if we hope to enhance our students' learning, and this just-in-time technique provides an unprecedented opportunity to do so. For both the IUPUI and USAFA students, time management is an absolutely critical issue. The IUPUI students generally have full time jobs, family responsibilities, and are taking courses on top of already full schedules. The Air Force Academy cadets are expected to uphold demanding academic, military, and athletic responsibilities and find their 6 or 7 courses per semester very challenging. As their instructors, we must help them make the best possible use of their outside-of-class (and in-class!) time, motivate them to spend the necessary time, and help them to see that others are sharing their situation and that they are not alone in their efforts to complete the courses successfully.

The key specific goals of our courses are to:

• Encourage frequent, short study sessions
• Connect textbook physics to the real world
• Encourage the development of
  • critical thinking
  • estimation skills
  • the ability to deal with ill-defined problems
• Develop cooperative work habits and communication skills

Please, if you decide to adopt or adapt JiTT in your course(s), and/or if you have any questions, let me know. I'll be happy to help you if I can.

Andy Gavrin, IUPUI