Grant Recipient: Joseph Sanderson, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Project Team Members: Joseph Sanderson, Physics & Astronomy; Mary Power and Jane Holbrook, Centre for Teaching Excellence; Benji Wales*, Physics and Astronomy
*Graduate Student Project Assistant
(Completed. Project Timeline: August 2012 - July 2013)
Project description
The project is designed to improve education at Waterloo by utilizing one of the universities most valuable resources namely its own undergraduate students. There are two important aspects to the project which are designed to promote and facilitate peer instruction through group work. The first is to develop a web based framework necessary to allow widespread group work in large first year classes. The framework allows students to sign up for groups each week, and to obtain a grade by making a considered assessment of the contribution made by their colleagues during class. The second is to develop a learning impact study which can help us to assess the effect of group work on first year bio science majors in their introductory physics class, specifically their conceptual understanding and approach to physics. This will help us to adapt our approach to the needs of Waterloo students.
Question investigated
Do group problem classes help to develop an expert approach to problem solving?
Findings and insights
Findings indicate we would need to do more research on a larger pol of students to determine the effects. Feedback from the students is encouraging, along the lines that they were stimulated to learn more but there is no statistically significant improvement in class results. The results do suggest a follow up study using a different method of assessment cold be worth trying. Most likely this would involve splitting the classes into those who take the group work classes on subjects A,C and E and those which take the class on subjects B,D and F , then comparing the exam results on specific questions.
Dissemination and impact
Students attending the classes provided good feedback. Colleagues, including the Science Teaching Fellows, have also expressed interest in the project. Another faculty member has now also implemented the group work in his class. The project was shared with the University of Waterloo community at the spring Opportunities and New Directions teaching conference. The project was also one of the subjects informing the talk “Using Discussion Forums to Engage Students” at the Ignite D2L Users Conference in Guelph, ON.