7 Oct 2008
10:30 AM in PRB 4138

Title: Building knowledge without building an underlying structure

Ken Heller, University of Minnesota, Dept of Physics


Abstract:
At the University of Minnesota, the Physics Education Research Group has
been able to institute long-lasting systemic change in the Physics
Department by analyzing each course as a system.  This systems approach
requires the identification of the important parameters of that system,
followed by implementing change using an engineering approach.  That means
we identify specific goals for students in a course, determine the state
of the students entering the course, identify the parts of the course
(students, instructors, physical environment, content, pedagogy) that
affect the performance of the students in meeting the desired goals of the
course, determine the performance of the students after the course, and
identify the critical failure modes of the pedagogy.  The entire process
is guided by modern learning theory.  This talk will give a brief review
of these processes and give the results of some of our recent
measurements.