Experiences in Collaborative Learning at the University of Rochester

– It’s all in the Shoes

Steve ManlyDepartment of Physics and Astronomy

University of Rochesterhttp://www.pas.rochester.edu/

thrilled honored

touched excited

Sexiest

astrophysic

ist

alive

How is innovative teaching like buying/wearing new shoes?

PI question

a) Discomfort with the current styles

b) Gotta get the fit right

c) The cost is prohibitive

d) No matter what you do, it’ll start to stink when you get comfortable with it

Get the right fit: shoes aren’t good if they don’t fit.

Get the right fit: students get upset if the basic fit isn’t right.

Teaching is not a “one size fits all” profession.

Gerry Wheeler’s (truth)(clarity) uncertainty principle

flexibility for institutionalization

What is a “workshop” at UR?

Institutionalized study groupInstitutionalized study group

Small group size (5-12)Small group size (5-12)

Comfortable, non-evaluative atmosphere – some profs Comfortable, non-evaluative atmosphere – some profs give points for attendance, others don’tgive points for attendance, others don’t

Meet 2 hours once a weekMeet 2 hours once a week

Trained peer leader (undergraduate) who facilitatesTrained peer leader (undergraduate) who facilitates

Work together through problem set designed by professor Work together through problem set designed by professor

No stacking - mix of abilitiesNo stacking - mix of abilities

Separate lectures/demo, labs, problem sets, help room, use PRS

A UR workshop is not…

Lecture

HomeworkHomework

RecitationRecitation

E.Page, S.Manly, V. Roth, Student perception regarding the helpfulness of different types of physics problems in a student-assisted learning environment at the University of Rochester, submitted to Am. J. Phys. (still in review, email steven.manly@rochester.edu for a copy)

L. Tien, J. Kampmeier, and V. Roth, Implementation of a Peer-Led Team Learning instructional approach in an undergraduate chemistry course, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 606-632 (2002).

A couple of references to some of the UR work:

P. Heller, R. Keith, and S. Anderson, Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping. Part 1: group versus individual problem solving, Am. J. Phys., 60, 627-636 (1992).

P. Heller and M. Hallabaugh, Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping. Part 2: designing problems and structuring groups, Am. J. Phys., 60, 637-644 (1992).

Fairly similar to Heller et al.’s Cooperative Group problem-solving strategy:

We are not the first people down this path …

Contains some elements similar to Laws’ Workshop Physics and Sokoloff and Thorton’s Interactive Lecture Demonstrations:

P. Laws, Workshop Physics Activity Guide Modules, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2002.

P. Laws and P. Schaffer, Tutorials in Introductory Physics, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2002.

D. Sokoloff and R. Thornton, Using Interactive Lecture Demonstrations to create an active learning environment, Phys. Teach. 35, 340-347 (1997).

Also very similar to Univ. Colorado’s Learning Assistant Model (Otero, Pollock, Finkelstein, Iona) and the CER Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model:

The structure of the workshop problems

Take advantage of group settingTake advantage of group setting

Mix of styles/types: Conceptual and analytical, simple and Mix of styles/types: Conceptual and analytical, simple and complex, context-rich and straightforwardcomplex, context-rich and straightforward

Structured for group exploration of the process of Structured for group exploration of the process of solving problems and analyzing casessolving problems and analyzing cases

Some hands-on and get-out-of-your-seat Some hands-on and get-out-of-your-seat exercisesexercises

M1

M2

What is a leader?What is a leader?

Facilitator, not a lecturerFacilitator, not a lecturer

Knowledgeable peer, not necessarily a major in Knowledgeable peer, not necessarily a major in the given fieldthe given field

Undergraduate Undergraduate andand graduate graduate (vertical integration!)(vertical integration!)

Peer

Social

gra

ces

Buy-in

to m

odel

Depth

of k

nowledge

Leader Training

Faculty & Learning Specialist Partnership

1.5 hour leader training meeting once a week with faculty member and a learning specialist

Quality control of the educational model and the content

Explore how students learn, how teams work, how best to facilitate the learning

Review content for week’s workshops

Communicate issues (good and bad) concerning rooms, students, course

Undergraduates get 2 hours credit and pay

Graduate students have requirement to teach for at least one year as part of degree (and get paid)

What do the students do in What do the students do in workshop for 2 hours/week?workshop for 2 hours/week?

Work on the week’s problems together as a group or in small subgroups

Come to closure together on how to approach the problems (may be multiple approaches to discuss!)

Work through shared and individual questions and misconceptions.

Step back together and explore the process of solving/thinking through the problems … metacognition (thinking about thinking)

Hopefully … have fun in a relaxed, non-evaluational environment

ENGAGE

Where is it done?Where is it done?

Biology Biology

Chemistry Chemistry

BiochemistryBiochemistry

Computer ScienceComputer Science

Electrical Engineering Electrical Engineering

EconomicsEconomics

Physics Physics

MathematicsMathematics

~25-30 faculty

Intro courses and some core major courses

Cross-departmental, interdisciplinary groupCross-departmental, interdisciplinary group

Seek to solve common problems Seek to solve common problems

Brainstorming sessions common Brainstorming sessions common

Seed group for other activitiesSeed group for other activities

Gang up on deans and chairs in fight for rooms Gang up on deans and chairs in fight for rooms appropriate to collaborative learning, leader training appropriate to collaborative learning, leader training resources, and seed money for new courses/faculty resources, and seed money for new courses/faculty

interested in trying modelinterested in trying model

Physics

Workshop Taskforce

Chemistry

Economics

Biology

Electrical engineering

Mathematics

Computer science

Writing program

Biochemistry

Warner School of Education

A significant number of undergraduate students have a workshop leader experience before graduation. Many repeat.

In 2005 ~120 workshop sections in ~10 courses

~1500 undergraduate students in a workshop course

Does it work?Does it work?By what measure …?By what measure …?

Improves faculty-student communicationImproves faculty-student communication

Happier students … students perceive it to be an attempt to help Happier students … students perceive it to be an attempt to help them … hopefully they are actively engaged in learningthem … hopefully they are actively engaged in learning

Great experience for the leadersGreat experience for the leaders

Student learning, retention, exam performance … Student learning, retention, exam performance …

Experience in group dynamics/team buildingExperience in group dynamics/team building

1999 P114 (non-physics and engineering science majors) 1999 P114 (non-physics and engineering science majors)

41 students randomly assigned to workshops41 students randomly assigned to workshops

110 assigned to “typical” recitations110 assigned to “typical” recitations

B- or better

Students attending >5 workshops 93%

Students attending recitations 63%

The initial attempt …

Similar results in the following years – not split classes, but grade success correlates strongly with attendance

Admittedly, could do much more careful assessment work. Just confirming our expectation based on what the PER and CER communities have established and getting a little local data for convincing others in dept/univ that it works.

(All but two students volunteered for workshops)

What are major strengths of this course?

“Workshops” (58 times)

“Workshops good” or “useful” (46 times)

“Workshops are an awesome teaching tool”

My personal favorite!

“This class is horrid. The workshops are good though.”

“The lectures do not seem to allow for information absorption. I do all my learning in workshop.”

“The workshops and workshop leaders. If it weren’t for workshop I wouldn’t know anything.”

Students chime in: selected comments from course evaluations

System “institutionalized” in physics at UR System “institutionalized” in physics at UR

Talk to the incoming faculty members, explain model and system and share assessment numbers

Make workshop problems available to newbie profs

Undergrad secretary now handles room scheduling issues that arise frequently with model (appropriate rooms in short supply and two-hour slots don’t fit registrar’s classroom schedule well)

During initial semester, have incoming faculty member do joint leader training with someone who has used the model (the pedagogical half, not content part)

Set up system so that financing is not an issue (in our case, grad students lead 4 sections with time freed up from reduced homework grading)

Happy surprises

System is in the student culture – taking courses using workshops, desire to lead workshops

Serious experimentation with adopting some core components of the model in advanced courses and non-science major courses.

Workshops helped create a culture of faculty acceptance that it’s “okay and even good” to try new things.

Perhaps half of 26 faculty in physics have adopted some aspects of the workshop model in classes.

A few of the struggles … A few of the struggles …

Workshop problem design

Some graduate TA’s want to lecture instead of facilitate the workshops

Typical college classrooms not suitable for workshops

2-hour timeslots don’t fit college class scheduling

Professors asking TA’s to cover four workshops AND grade all the problem sets – led to perception that system was busting the bank

Why do we need to spend so much effort training the TA’s? What is the value of the “pedagogical/learning about learning” component? – Hard sell for typical faculty member

You teach students to “cheat”

Non-uniformities in how different departments run/fund workshops

Not enough support for the learning specialist resource

Flexibility can lead to poor quality implementation

Photo by Sume on Flickr

Institutionalization

Development

Assessment

Go hand-in-hand, but often work against each other … keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish.

For example, sometimes assessment and quality control demand aspects of model be frozen, which hurts ability to develop model

further or institutionalize.

When trying something new, think about institutionalization from the start

Where possible minimize the new money and minimize changes to the current system

Make as professor independent as possible

Minimize newbie professor’s effort

Acquire some assessment data to convince locals it is worth doing – think hard about assessment vs. flexibility and quality vs. flexibility

Flexibility – educational innovation, like shoes, is not “one size fits all”

Physics

Chemistry

Economics

Biology

Electrical engineering

Mathematics

Computer science

Writing program

Biochemistry

Warner School of Education

Photo by Wokka on Flickr

Physics education research is not just for physics anymore … (if it ever was). “Allies for innovation” can be found

outside of the physics dept.

Thank you!