Using Research on How Students Learn Astronomy to Improve Teaching Tim Slater

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Using Research on How Students Learn Astronomy to Improve Teaching

Tim Slater
University of Arizona
Department of Astronomy
Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team
http://caperteam.as.arizona.edu

Overview

Recent RESULTS you need to know about how students learn astronomy
RESOURCES you can use to measure the impact of your programs
Pathways you can use to CONNECT with other people teaching astronomy topics

A Short Video Clip: State of the Union

Students enter the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not fully engaged, they may fail to grasp new concepts in meaningful ways that last beyond the purposes of an exam.

Students enter the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not fully engaged, they may fail to grasp new concepts in meaningful ways that last beyond the purposes of an exam.
To fully develop competence, students must: (1) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (2) understand interrelationships among facts and concepts and (3) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application
A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning and monitor their own progress.

In other words …

Lectures from classroom teachers or visitors, no matter how enthusiastic or articulate have very, very, very limited impact BECAUSE
Its not what the instructor does that matters; rather, it is what the students do!

Lecture works… for some things

Can you teach someone to swim through lecture?

Lecture works… for some things

Can you teach someone to swim through lecture?
Can you teach someone astronomy through lecture?
Bottom Line
Depends on what you want them to learn

Declarative Meaningful Knowledge VS Understanding (FACTS) (CONCEPTS)

Which planet is the 3rd rock from the Sun?
Which star is the brightest start in the sky?
How many miles in an AU?
What is the density of Saturn?

Declarative Meaningful Knowledge VS Understanding (FACTS) (CONCEPTS)

Which planet is the 3rd rock from the Sun?
Which star is the brightest start in the sky?
How many miles in an AU?
What is the density of Saturn?

Declarative Meaningful Knowledge VS Understanding (FACTS) (CONCEPTS)

Which planet is the 3rd rock from the Sun?
Which star is the brightest start in the sky?
How many miles in an AU?
What is the density of Saturn?

What do students struggle with?

The Big Three
Seasons
Moon Phases
Gravity

What Causes the Seasons?

New Technology Solutions

What do students struggle with?

The Big Three
Seasons
Moon Phases
Gravity

What Causes Moon Phases

The diagram below shows Earth and the Sun as well as five different possible positions for the Moon. Which position of the Moon best corresponds with the phase of the Moon shown in the figure at the right?

What Causes Moon Phases

The diagram below shows Earth and the Sun as well as five different possible positions for the Moon. Which position of the Moon best corresponds with the phase of the Moon shown in the figure at the right?

Some New-Untried Technology

http://astro.unl.edu/naap/lps/animations/lps.swf

What do students struggle with?

The Big Three
Seasons
Moon Phases
Gravity

The Big Three

The Big Three
Seasons
Moon Phases
Gravity

What do students struggle with?

The Big Three
Seasons
Moon Phases
Gravity

An Example on Star Formation

Formation of Stars Starting Questions

Q1: Describe what you think a star is.
Q2: Describe where you think stars come from.
Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed.

Preliminary Results Q1: Describe what you think a star is. (N = 120)

74% said something like “a ball of gas” or “a ball of gas and dust”

N = 5 made references to The Lion King!

The “Complete” Response Q2: Describe where you think stars come from. Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed. (Ntotal = 203)

If we asked this on a final exam, what might a complete response have to included?

Region of gas or gas/dust
Gravitational collapse of material in the region
Temperature & Pressure increase
Fusion begins

 And now we have a star!

Preliminary Results Q2: Describe where you think stars come from. Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed. (Ntotal = 203)

Answer Component #1:
Region of gas or gas/dust

55% of the students said something about a region of gas or gas/dust

Example: “I think stars start from gas and dust. The gas and dust starts in a cloud. The cloud starts out kind of loose and spread out….”

Preliminary Results Q2: Describe where you think stars come from. Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed. (Ntotal = 203)

Answer Component #2:
Collapse - Matter comes together in some way

48% included some sort of volume reduction of matter
Only 19% of the total specifically include gravity

Example: “Stars are formed when there is a large force of gravity somewhere in space that pulls a bunch of little space particles together and they all collide somewhere in the middle of all this gravity and wham bam. .”

Preliminary Results Q2: Describe where you think stars come from. Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed. (Ntotal = 203)

Answer Component #3:
Temperature increase

Only 11% clearly define a temperature increase
Enormous difficulty in distinguishing responses because of how temperature and heat are misused

Example: “…These gasses, over a period of time, contract to form a with (sic) high density. After this, as the mass keeps contracting, the temperature becomes hot enough for nuclear fusion to take place….”

Preliminary Results Q2: Describe where you think stars come from. Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed. (Ntotal = 203)

Answer Component #4:
Fusion or nuclear reactions occur

Only 8% include fusion in response

Example: “From a collection of a large amount matter and gasses enough to cause a chain reaction starting the fusion process (sic). Once that has begun the process will continue until the star runs out of fuel in billions of years.”

Preliminary Results Q2: Describe where you think stars come from. Q3: Describe how you think a star is formed. (Ntotal = 203)

Other common categories found include:

25% describe explosions, fire, and/or burning to describe emission heat, light, and/or energy-not a star’s formation

BOTTOM LINE: Students think stars are spherical burning clouds of soup

An Example on Life in the Universe

Question probing students’ beliefs about limiting environments on Earth

Limiting Environments on Earth

Question probing students’ beliefs about necessary elements for life

Summary of students’ ideas

An Example on the Topic of Cosmology – The Big Bang

Initial Question
Have you ever heard of the Big Bang?

Describe what you think it is, and provide a sketch, if possible, to illustrate your answer.

Summary of Students’ Pre-instruction Ideas on the Big Bang

86% of students (N=167) report that they have heard of the Big Bang. Only 54% of these students describe the Big Bang as a theory about the creation of the universe.
69% of students (N=133) describe some configuration of matter existing in the universe prior to the Big Bang.
49% of students (N=133) describe the Big Bang as an explosion that distributes matter throughout the universe.
17% of students (N=133) describe the Big Bang as event that combined matter together to form objects in the universe.

What’s wrong with these students?

Two Models Of Students’ Understanding

Students enter your lecture hall 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 the classroom.

Students enter your lecture hall 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 the classroom.

How Do “Primitive-like” Ideas Impact Teaching and Learning Astronomy?

What’s wrong with our students?

What’s underlying their thoughts about the beginning of everything?

You can’t make something from nothing!!

How Do “Primitive-like” Ideas Impact Teaching and Learning Astronomy?

Just the tip of the iceberg

1. Seasons depend on the distance between the Earth & Sun
2. There are 12 zodiac constellations
3. The constellations are only the stars making the patterns
4. The North Star is the brightest star in the night sky
5. Stars last forever
6. All stars are same color
7. Stars really twinkle
8. All stars are isolated
9. Pulsars are pulsating stars
10. Asteroid belt is densely packed, as in “Star Wars”
11. Meteors, Meteorites, Meteoroids, Asteroids, and Comets are the same things
12. A shooting star is actually a star falling through the sky
13. Comet tails are always behind the comet
14. Comets are burning and giving off gas as their tails
15. All planetary orbits are circular

1. Seasons depend on the distance between the Earth & Sun
2. There are 12 zodiac constellations
3. The constellations are only the stars making the patterns
4. The North Star is the brightest star in the night sky
5. Stars last forever
6. All stars are same color
7. Stars really twinkle
8. All stars are isolated
9. Pulsars are pulsating stars
10. Asteroid belt is densely packed, as in “Star Wars”
11. Meteors, Meteorites, Meteoroids, Asteroids, and Comets are the same things
12. A shooting star is actually a star falling through the sky
13. Comet tails are always behind the comet
14. Comets are burning and giving off gas as their tails
15. All planetary orbits are circular

**Student (mis)-Understandings** the beliefs and reasoning difficulties students bring to the classroom

Stuff they can’t name (or simply name incorrectly)
Alternative Conceptions

Robust, locally consistent, naturally acquired, historically rooted, common default position

Reasoning Difficulties

Misapplied details of underdeveloped conceptual models; confusion between model results and the model itself

FIRST RESPONSE

Buy computer video projectors
Provide students with copies of our PowerPoint slides
Create JAVA & FLASH simulations so we can demonstrate complicated models to students
Create extensive www sites for students to read outside of class

Assumption #1 - Lecture is largely ineffective at promoting deep conceptual change

Single group, multiple-measures, quasi-experimental research design (no randomized control group)
Non-science majors enrolled in ASTRO 101 at UAz
Instrument used: A 68-item, research-based multiple choice questionnaire
Pre-Course: two forms, A&B, which each contained a subset of questions
Post-Lecture: questions administered in subsets that directly reflected topic of lecture

Celestial Motion of Objects

What Causes Moon Phases

The diagram below shows Earth and the Sun as well as five different possible positions for the Moon. Which position of the Moon best corresponds with the phase of the Moon shown in the figure at the right?

What Causes Moon Phases

The diagram below shows Earth and the Sun as well as five different possible positions for the Moon. Which position of the Moon best corresponds with the phase of the Moon shown in the figure at the right?

What Causes Moon Phases

The diagram below shows Earth and the Sun as well as five different possible positions for the Moon. Which position of the Moon best corresponds with the phase of the Moon shown in the figure at the right?

The graph at right shows the blackbody spectra for three different stars. Which of the stars is at the highest temperature?

The graph at right shows the blackbody spectra for three different stars. Which of the stars is at the highest temperature?
a) Star A
b) Star B
c) Star C

The graph at right shows the blackbody spectra for three different stars. Which of the stars is at the highest temperature?

The graph at right shows the blackbody spectra for three different stars. Which of the stars is at the highest temperature?
a) Star A
b) Star B
c) Star C

The graph at right shows the blackbody spectra for three different stars. Which of the stars is at the highest temperature?

The graph at right shows the blackbody spectra for three different stars. Which of the stars is at the highest temperature?
a) Star A
b) Star B
c) Star C

Volcanoes are usually found in places where a) the low pressure of the atmosphere pulls the lava/magma to the surface. b) earthquakes occur from oceanic plates colliding with continental plates. c) deep-rooted mountains have cracked Earth's crust. d) Earth's rotation has caused weak spots in its crust.

A planet that still has numerous craters from meteorite impacts visible on its surface likely has a) no ocean to cover the craters. b) no atmosphere to protect the surface. c) a cold, solid interior.

The change in position of the continents over time is primarily caused by a) continental plates floating on the ocean. b) mantle material circulating inside Earth. c) Earth's slow shrinking as it cools. d) global wind patterns and sustained ocean currents.

If you were to build a telescope on Earth's surface, which of the following wavelengths of light would be most easily observed by this telescope? a) gamma ray b) X-ray c) ultraviolet d) radio

Assumption #1 - Lecture is largely ineffective at promoting deep conceptual change

Instrument used: A 68 items research based multiple choice questionnaire
Pre-Course: two forms, A&B, which each contained a subset of questions

Assumption #1 - Lecture is largely ineffective at promoting deep conceptual change

Instrument used: A 68 items research based multiple choice questionnaire
Pre-Course: two forms, A&B, which each contained a subset of questions

FIRST RESPONSE

Buy computer video projectors
Provide students with copies of our PowerPoint slides
Create JAVA & FLASH simulations so we can demonstrate complicated models to students
Create extensive www sites for students to read outside of class

A Commonly Held Inaccurate Model of a Student’s Conceptual Framework

A Commonly Held Inaccurate Model of Teaching and Learning

FIRST RESPONSE

Buy computer video projectors
Provide students with copies of our PowerPoint slides
Create JAVA & FLASH simulations so we can demonstrate complicated models to students
Create extensive www sites for students to read outside of class

FIRST RESPONSE

Buy computer video projectors
Provide students with copies of our PowerPoint slides
Create JAVA & FLASH simulations so we can demonstrate complicated models to students
Create extensive www sites for students to read outside of class

So What Can You Do About It?

Lecture more loudly?

So What Can You Do About It?

It’s not what the instructor does that matters; rather, it is what the students do that matters
Create an learner-centered environment that promotes the intellectual engagement of students

Development of Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy

Based on the topics faculty most often cover
Require 15-minutes and are designed for easy implementation into existing traditional lecture courses
Socratic-dialogue driven, highly-structured collaborative learning activities designed to:

elicit misconceptions
confront naïve, incomplete, or inaccurate ideas
resolve contradictions
demonstrate the power of THEIR conceptual models

Volcanoes are usually found in places where a) the low pressure of the atmosphere pulls the lava/magma to the surface. b) earthquakes occur from oceanic plates colliding with continental plates. c) deep-rooted mountains have cracked Earth's crust. d) Earth's rotation has caused weak spots in its crust.

A planet that still has numerous craters from meteorite impacts visible on its surface likely has a) no ocean to cover the craters. b) no atmosphere to protect the surface. c) a cold, solid interior.

The change in position of the continents over time is primarily caused by a) continental plates floating on the ocean. b) mantle material circulating inside Earth. c) Earth's slow shrinking as it cools. d) global wind patterns and sustained ocean currents.

If you were to build a telescope on Earth's surface, which of the following wavelengths of light would be most easily observed by this telescope? a) gamma ray b) X-ray c) ultraviolet d) radio

Assumption #1 - Lecture is largely ineffective at promoting deep conceptual change

Instrument used: A 68 items research based multiple choice questionnaire
Pre-Course: two forms, A&B, which each contained a subset of questions

Assumption #1 - Lecture is largely ineffective at promoting deep conceptual change

Instrument used: A 68 items research based multiple choice questionnaire
Pre-Course: two forms, A&B, which each contained a subset of questions

Qualitative Results (focus group)

Students believe that the tutorials are one of the greatest strength of the class
“We are able to discuss topics with other students and therefore, we help each other!”
“Why don’t all professors use tutorials during class?”
“The tutorials were definitely a big part of my learning in the class.”

Qualitative Results (interview)

“And then the tutorials? I don’t know who ever thought of that. But it’s really how classes should be taught….The tutorials [review concepts] because they break it down. You start with something so simple…and then it slowly gets to more.” –Marti

Qualitative Results (interviews)

“I know the worksheets are real helpful. I found it sometimes hard to talk to as many people as I wanted to talk to and finish the worksheet in time.” – Joe

Don’t forget …

Its not what the instructor does that matters; rather, it is what the students do!

Activity or activity

activity = Just having students DO STUFF
OR
Activity = Repeatedly intellectually engage students with meaningful phenomena to create deep conceptual understanding

Activity or activity

activity = Just having students DO STUFF
HOW DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?
Activity = Repeatedly intellectually engage students with meaningful phenomena to create deep conceptual understanding

Activity or activity

Rigorous evaluation

We made this stuff, they liked it, they had a good time, they manipulated data and got reasonable results

Activity or activity

Rigorous evaluation

We made this stuff, they liked it, they had a good time, they manipulated data and got reasonable results
Assessment of pre-existing student ideas and reasoning difficulties learners bring to the table
Repeated evaluation of pre- to –post learning gains cause interactive improvements
Triangulated with other data (other diagnostics, interviews, observations, etc.)

Activity or activity

Rigorous evaluation

We made this stuff, they liked it, they had a good time, they manipulated data and got reasonable results
Assessment of pre-existing student ideas and reasoning difficulties learners bring to the table
Repeated evaluation of pre- to –post learning gains cause interactive improvements
Triangulated with other data (other diagnostics, interviews, observations, etc.)

Activity or activity

Active learning is when students take active responsibility for participating in and monitoring of their own learning by engaging in critical reasoning about the ideas presented in the class.
The educational effectiveness of activities must be meaningfully evaluated both to make improvements and for our community to make progress.