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Re: [Phys-L] science education articles



The question below is important. It was my experience over most of my teaching career that the quality of reading was constantly dropping over the years. When doing some extra MCAT prep sections some years ago it became painfully obvious (and these were semi-motivated Bio majors). In my group of 6 students doing this extra work, only one could read 'scientific' passages well and answer the questions that the MCAT was then using (read a short section on physics that should be unfamiliar to the student then answer (simple) questions about the passage.) Even though I would have them read the passages TWICE before answering, they really couldn't. Whether truthful or not, in my Gen Ed classes students having trouble almost always insisted that they were religiously reading the book or provided materials. So....I wonder if the questions used to test readings or the care taken in reading logs really can speak to how well the students UNDERSTAND what they are reading. Of course it is 'probably' better that they have read rather than not, although despite always having 10-20% of my quizzes for the Gen-Ed class come directly from the book, at the end of the semester a show of hands proved that over half the class didn't even have the book. For the last 3 years of my teaching I gave up entirely on having a book and simply provided extensive Power Points from the class...but they still either failed to re-read these outside of class or really didn't understand the material despite it being written specifically for this level of class. Point is, there is opening the book and reading the words and there is reading the book to better understand the material. I fear that many students today are very, very unskilled at the latter.

rwt

On 9/24/2015 1:57 PM, rjensen@ualberta.ca wrote:
Daniel

Thanks. I work with upwards of 1000 students per term. However, I
believe this reading log could be adapted into something that is
entered and graded electronically.

What guidance do you provide students on 'how to read a textbook'?

Thanks,
Dr. Roy Jensen
(==========)-----------------------------------------¤
Lecturer, Chemistry
W5-19, University of Alberta
780.248.1808




On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:39:35 -0400, you wrote:

I have noted similar issues with our freshman (bright, semi-articulate, super dependent on others and very good at externalizing accountability for their own learning). One strategy we use to address this is to require freshman to read the course text and write some minimally reflective reaction to each chapter via a two-sided, one page reading log <http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/danmac/ReflectiveWriting/ReadingLogV7.doc>
and have each log turned in for fast cursory grading weekly, 10-12 logs worth about 10% of the final grade (about 1 letter grade). Then student grade is visibly and solidly linked to this expectation for diligent student performance. We do this for our courses where students are expected to start developing strategies for making sense of technical writing although the form does not actually require extended sense-making, which we work on via class time activity.

A suggestion I have for realtime assessment of student understanding is whiteboard use. I’m long part the point where whiteboards are in any way invasive or time-absorbing in my class because I use them for so many other reasons but monitoring and guiding student thinking is certainly something important to me. There are many many videos, URLs and blogs detailing whiteboard use extant at least in HS / Intro physics. I know they are used widely in HS modeling chem, but am unfamiliar with URLs supporting that.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Associate Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College
462SciBldg BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY 14222 USA 1-716-878-3802
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu> <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu>
Physics Graduate Coordinator & NSF Investigator for ISEP (MSP) and Noyce

On Sep 23, 2015, at 10:09 PM, rjensen@ualberta.ca wrote:


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Professor Emeritus
Saint Mary's College

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