Peer-Led Team Learning: Evaluation, Dissemination, and Institutionalization of a College Level Initiative PDF Download

Author: Leo Gafney
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402061862
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
There seems to be no end to the flood of conferences, workshops, panel discussions, reports and research studies calling for change in the introductory science courses in our colleges and universities. But, there comes a time to move from criticism to action. In 1993, the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation called for proposals for systemic initiatives to change the way int- ductory chemistry is taught. One of the five awards was to design, develop and implement the peer-led Workshop, a new structure to help students learn science. This book is a study of 15 years of work by the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) project, a national consortium of faculty, learning specialists and students. The authors have been in the thick of the action as project evaluator (Gafney) and co-principle investigator (Varma-Nelson). Readers of this book will find a story of successful change in educational practice, a story that continues today as new institutions, faculty, and disciplines adopt the PLTL model. They will learn the model in theory and in practice and the supporting data that encourage others to adopt and adapt PLTL to new sit- tions. Although the project has long since lost count of the number of implem- tations of the model, conservative estimates are that more than 100 community and four year colleges and a range of universities have adopted the PLTL model to advance student learning for more than 20,000 students in a variety of STEM disciplines.

Author: Joel J. Mintzes
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303033600X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 989

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Book Description
This book explores evidence-based practice in college science teaching. It is grounded in disciplinary education research by practicing scientists who have chosen to take Wieman’s (2014) challenge seriously, and to investigate claims about the efficacy of alternative strategies in college science teaching. In editing this book, we have chosen to showcase outstanding cases of exemplary practice supported by solid evidence, and to include practitioners who offer models of teaching and learning that meet the high standards of the scientific disciplines. Our intention is to let these distinguished scientists speak for themselves and to offer authentic guidance to those who seek models of excellence. Our primary audience consists of the thousands of dedicated faculty and graduate students who teach undergraduate science at community and technical colleges, 4-year liberal arts institutions, comprehensive regional campuses, and flagship research universities. In keeping with Wieman’s challenge, our primary focus has been on identifying classroom practices that encourage and support meaningful learning and conceptual understanding in the natural sciences. The content is structured as follows: after an Introduction based on Constructivist Learning Theory (Section I), the practices we explore are Eliciting Ideas and Encouraging Reflection (Section II); Using Clickers to Engage Students (Section III); Supporting Peer Interaction through Small Group Activities (Section IV); Restructuring Curriculum and Instruction (Section V); Rethinking the Physical Environment (Section VI); Enhancing Understanding with Technology (Section VII), and Assessing Understanding (Section VIII). The book’s final section (IX) is devoted to Professional Issues facing college and university faculty who choose to adopt active learning in their courses. The common feature underlying all of the strategies described in this book is their emphasis on actively engaging students who seek to make sense of natural objects and events. Many of the strategies we highlight emerge from a constructivist view of learning that has gained widespread acceptance in recent years. In this view, learners make sense of the world by forging connections between new ideas and those that are part of their existing knowledge base. For most students, that knowledge base is riddled with a host of naïve notions, misconceptions and alternative conceptions they have acquired throughout their lives. To a considerable extent, the job of the teacher is to coax out these ideas; to help students understand how their ideas differ from the scientifically accepted view; to assist as students restructure and reconcile their newly acquired knowledge; and to provide opportunities for students to evaluate what they have learned and apply it in novel circumstances. Clearly, this prescription demands far more than most college and university scientists have been prepared for.

Author: Daniel D. Suthers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461489601
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 719

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Book Description
The key idea of the book is that scientific and practical advances can be obtained if researchers working in traditions that have been assumed to be mutually incompatible make a real effort to engage in dialogue with each other, comparing and contrasting their understandings of a given phenomenon and how these different understandings can either complement or mutually elaborate on each other. This key idea applies to many fields, particularly in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as education and computer science. The book shows how we have achieved this by presenting our study of collaborative learning during the course of a four-year project. Through a series of five workshops involving dozens of researchers, the 37 editors and authors involved in this project studied and reported on collaborative learning, technology enhanced learning, and cooperative work. The authors share an interest in understanding group interactions, but approach this topic from a variety of traditional disciplinary homes and theoretical and methodological traditions. This allows the book to be of use to researchers in many different fields and with many different goals and agendas.

Author: Omayra Ortega
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 1470451301
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This volume is put together by the National Association of Mathematicians to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The articles in the book are based on lectures presented at several events at the Joint Mathematics Meeting held from January 16–19, 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland, including the Claytor-Woodard Lecture as well as the NAM David Harold Blackwell Lecture, which was held on August 2, 2019, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Author: Robert E. Yager
Publisher: NSTA Press
ISBN: 193894609X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
“Since K–12 students taught using the new [Next Generation Science Standards]will be arriving in college classrooms prepared in a different way from those in our classrooms currently, it would behoove college teachers to be prepared to alter their teaching methods ... or be perceived to be dinosaurs using the older teaching methods.” — From Exemplary College Science Teaching If you’re looking for inspiration to alter your teaching methods to match new standards and new times, this book is for you. As the first in the Exemplary Science series to focus exclusively on college science teaching, this book offers 16 examples of college teaching that builds on what students learned in high school. Understanding that college does not exist in a vacuum, the chapter authors demonstrate how to adapt the methods and frameworks under which secondary students have been working and make them their own for the college classroom, adding new technologies when appropriate and letting the students take an active role in their learning. Among the innovative topics and techniques the essays in this book explore are • Lecture-free college science teaching • Peer-led study groups as learning communities • Jigsaw techniques that enhance learning • Inquiry incorporated into large-group settings • Interactive video conferences for assessing student attitudes and behaviors The clichéd image of the professor droning on before a packed lecture hall is a thing of the past. The essays in this book explain why—and offer the promise of a better future.

Author: Tania Smith
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0739179322
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Whether or not a college currently offers a Supplemental Instruction program, uses peer leaders in First-year Learning Community, or assigns Peer Tutors to courses, Undergraduate Peer Mentoring Programs will provide educators with concepts, examples, and findings useful for pr...

Author: Beno Csapó
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031147561
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 587

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Book Description
This book constitutes selected, revised and extended papers from the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2021, held as a virtual event in April 2021. The 27 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 143 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: artificial intelligence in education; information technologies supporting learning; learning/teaching methodologies and assessment; social context and learning environments; ubiquitous learning; current topics.

Author: Erin Rinto
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Written specifically for academic librarians and library administrators, this book identifies the myriad benefits of peer-assisted learning, exploring how the implementation of peer-assisted learning benefits information literacy instruction, cocurricular outreach, and reference services. In this era of accountability—and stretched budgets—in higher education, librarians need to make instructional programming both highly effective and sustainable. Peer-assisted learning is a methodology that has long been accepted in teaching but is relatively new as applied to academic library instruction, outreach, and reference. This book brings together the most innovative applications of peer-assisted learning in these contexts, explaining specific ways to apply peer-assisted learning in a variety of academic library settings for maximum benefit. This guidebook begins with an extensive literature review of the theoretical underpinnings of peer-assisted learning and the various benefits these programs can provide academic librarians and peer mentors. The bulk of the book's content is organized into three sections that address the subjects of information literacy instruction, cocurricular outreach, and reference services separately. Each section showcases real-world examples of peer-assisted learning at a variety of academic institutions. Through these case studies, readers can fully understand the development, implementation, and assessment of a peer-assisted learning program, and librarians and administrators will see the practical benefits of enriching the experiences of student employees. Practitioners will receive inspiration and guidance through chapters that discuss training activities, identify lessons learned, and explain the implications for further research.

Author: Rahma Al-Mahrooqi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319326015
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
This book examines acknowledged practices and demonstrates to teachers how to make the most out of their assessment practices. It also explores different assessment methods for skills such as reading, writing, listening and speaking. Forecasting the future of assessment and where concepts like alternative assessment and dynamic assessment are heading, it also shows how relatively new teaching methods such as communicative methodologies and problem-based learning are reflected in assessment. This book represents a forum where contributors have presented their research and innovative ideas and practices on the important topic of assessment and opened a fresh debate on it. It offers an excellent reference guide for EFL teachers, practitioners, researchers and testing and assessment specialists. Each chapter examines central issues in assessment and their connection with teaching and learning in EFL contexts.

Author: Gregory Light
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674075226
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
For many college students, studying the hard sciences seems out of the question. Students and professors alike collude in the prejudice that physics and molecular biology, mathematics and engineering are elite disciplines restricted to a small number with innate talent. Gregory Light and Marina Micari reject this bias, arguing, based on their own transformative experiences, that environment is just as critical to academic success in the sciences as individual ability. Making Scientists lays the groundwork for a new paradigm of how scientific subjects can be taught at the college level, and how we can better cultivate scientists, engineers, and other STEM professionals. The authors invite us into Northwestern University’s Gateway Science Workshop, where the seminar room is infused with a sense of discovery usually confined to the research lab. Conventional science instruction demands memorization of facts and formulas but provides scant opportunity for critical reflection and experimental conversation. Light and Micari stress conceptual engagement with ideas, practical problem-solving, peer mentoring, and—perhaps most important—initiation into a culture of cooperation, where students are encouraged to channel their energy into collaborative learning rather than competition with classmates. They illustrate the tangible benefits of treating students as apprentices—talented young people taking on the mental habits, perspectives, and wisdom of the scientific community, while contributing directly to its development. Rich in concrete advice and innovative thinking, Making Scientists is an invaluable guide for all who care about the future of science and technology.