Teaching in Higher Ed

Meg Urry shares approaches we can use to help our students correct inaccurate mental models and grasp complex information.

At some moment it clicked and I understood what it meant. Not only was that the moment that I started to like physics, but also the moment I realized everybody can learn physics if they get this key that unlocks the door. You don’t want to leave them in the same state that I was in… of wondering why the heck we’re doing this… You want people to get over that hump and suddenly see that this is really simple, straightforward, beautiful, and useful.” – Meg Urry

“It was very typical for me to be one of the only women in the class and the guys just sort of took over.” – Meg Urry

“I always assumed that if someone claimed authority about something, that they must, indeed, know about it. It turns out lots of people do that all the time.” – Meg Urry

“When I entered graduate school in 1977 at John Hopkins university, it had allowed women in as undergraduates only since 1970.” – Meg Urry

It hasn’t been easy [for women].” – Meg Urry

People who feel different than the norm (who feel outside the tribe) have a harder time learning.” – Meg Urry

Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students

Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J. and Handelsman, J. (2012) ‘Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), p. 16474. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1211286109.

Despite efforts to recruit and retain more women, a stark gender disparity persists within academic science. Abundant research has demonstrated gender bias in many demographic groups, but has yet to experimentally investigate whether science faculty exhibit a bias against female students that could contribute to the gender disparity in academic science. In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student—who was randomly assigned either a male or female name—for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant. These participants also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant. The gender of the faculty participants did not affect responses, such that female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student. Mediation analyses indicated that the female student was less likely to be hired because she was viewed as less competent. We also assessed faculty participants’ preexisting subtle bias against women using a standard instrument and found that preexisting subtle bias against women played a moderating role, such that subtle bias against women was associated with less support for the female student, but was unrelated to reactions to the male student. These results suggest that interventions addressing faculty gender bias might advance the goal of increasing the participation of women in science.”(Moss-Racusin et al., 2012)

“Both the women and the men made this gender-biased judgment.” – Meg Urry

“I didn’t realize how hard these students were working.” – Meg Urry

The first year, I did straight lecture intro to physics, but, I realized something was missing.” – Meg Urry

“You listen to what the groups are saying and you can tell from that what their misperceptions are…” – Meg Urry

What they need to do is to explain it to someone else, because that is how they will come to understand it better.” – Meg Urry

Learning catalytics

They’re not going to get there by you talking at them. It just doesn’t work.” – Meg Urry

Real learning takes time. We often don’t allow students the time they need to get there.” – Meg Urry

“You can only get them to understand stuff when they have had to think about it and reject some possible alternatives.” – Meg Urry

“You have to make them care about what you’re saying before you say it, or they’re not going to hear you.” – Meg Urry

That moment when they don’t know what to do is a perfect teaching moment.” – Meg Urry

Meg’s prescriptive checklist for solving problems

“This book is a gift to any person who is a minority in science.”

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak share about ways to reduce the potential for introducing bias while grading exams.

In today’s episode, Dave Stachowiak and I share about ways to reduce the potential for introducing bias while grading exams.

Asking your students what they want to listen to before class

Coming Home, by Leon Bridges

Coaching for Leaders episode #211: How to be productive and present

Bonni and Dave Stachowiak revisit the topic of personal knowledge management and discuss how our processes have evolved.

James Lang’s article in The Chronicle about Teaching in Higher Ed

Harold Jarche

PKM is a set of processes, individually constructed, to help each of us make sense of our world, work more effectively, and contribute to society. PKM means taking control of your professional development, and staying connected in the network era, whether you are an employee, self-employed, or between jobs.

Ainissa Ramirez shares about how and why to make challenging subjects fun.

http://www.ainissaramirez.com/bio.html

https://youtu.be/H5TNkGC4p3Q

“I learned that this thing of investigating and being curious around the world was the thing that people called science.” -Ainissa Ramirez

https://youtu.be/-4273oOYy7s

“By seeing my reflection in this young [African American] lady on television doing science, it gave me permission to say, ‘maybe I should be doing this.’”. -Ainissa Ramirez

“When it comes to teaching, I try to come across as approachable.” – Ainissa Ramirez

“I don’t think I have the luxury to come off as extremely heady, because there’s so much stuff that’s going to prevent communication from [happening].” – Ainissa Ramirez

“I feel like it’s my job to get you there. I can’t get you there completely, but I can at least figure out where the gaps are and tell you where to head.” – Ainissa Ramirez

“If we think of failures as data collection, they lose their sting.” – Ainissa Ramirez

Materials research society

DemoWorks (a cook book for materials science experimentation with items you can buy at a local hardware store)

“It’s the messy stuff where you learn.” – Ainissa Ramirez

A call to get musicians involved in the call to make science fun

Ainissa’s TED talk

STEM education advocate via TED blog

“It’s vulnerability that people really resonate with… If you’re willing to be vulnerable, it is a position of power, because you’ll connect with many more people.” – Ainissa Ramirez

Great videos of Ainissa in action, getting people excited about science

Gina Barnett – Play the Part: Master Body Signals to Connect and Communicate for Business Success  (helps you get out of your way)

<br />

“Get back in touch with that thing that made you excited and then share that with other people. Be a beacon for that.” – Ainissa Ramirez

Making invitations to learn (my experimentation with extending Remind this semester)…

Learn from Einstein – “If you can’t explain it to your Grandmother, you don’t understand it.”

Josh Eyler, and Bonni Stachowiak talk about lessons in teaching from Pixar.

Dr. Joshua Eyler, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Rice University

Student-taught teaching, supported by Rice’s Center for Teaching Excellence

Brian Croxall – Toy Story 2

https://twitter.com/briancroxall/status/641298742843441152

Shyama – Finding Nemo and The Incredibles

https://twitter.com/MedievalPhDemon/status/641254627082641408

Edna Mode

https://twitter.com/MedievalPhDemon/status/641258572383428608

Sandie Morgan

Monsters Inc.

https://twitter.com/sandiemorgan/status/641327082807672833

Funny episode of Very Bad Wizards where they discuss the criticisms of the Inside Out movie, when it should have been clear to everyone that the movie wasn’t intended to actually represent how the brain works…

" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Finding Nemo

“If we only focus on [our role of imparting wisdom], we miss out on those moments when students can share something with us that opens our eyes to the material in a way we have never seen it before.” – Josh Eyler

Bonni shared about making assumptions on episode 63

Ratatouille

Great teaching begins with a boundless passion for our subject

“Passion is sometimes an underrated part of what we do as teachers that can be really effective in reaching our students.” – Josh Eyler

Finding Nemo

David Merrill’s advice on instructional design: Instructional guidance should be gradually reduced

“In order to learn anything, we need to confront the failure of faulty knowledge, of faulty mental models. Students aren’t given enough opportunity to do that and when they are, the stakes are way too high for them.” – Josh Eyler

Toy Story

“Understanding our intellectual development in more complex terms can help students wrap their minds around the learning process.” – Josh Eyler

Constructivism

“Curiosity is one of our most deeply rooted mechanisms by which human beings learn.” – Josh Eyler

“It’s that curiosity – that desire to know – that we need to be cultivating in our classrooms.” Josh Eyler

The knife that solves the butter problem

Up

“The reality is that learning is a very big idea and it happens everywhere.” – Josh Eyler

“My wife has been very sick for the last year and I’ve learned quite a bit about courage from her. I learn so much from my three year-old daughter about how to tackle life with a toddler’s zeal.” – Josh Eyler

Josh’s essays:

<br />