Sometimes we folks in secondary education are told we have to do things a certain way - the traditional way- because that's how it is done on college. In recent conversations I've had about exams, the proponents of exams point to preparing kids for college as a reason to give them.
Eric Mazur, Harvard physics professor, is becoming very well known in education circles for his non-traditional methods. After 7 years of lecturing and testing students on his lectures, he realized his students understood very little physics other than how to regurgitate answers. Consequently, he shifted his entire approach to teaching. You can listen him explaining his evolution here on the November Learning site.
A brilliant idea of Mazur's that I am going to add to my quiver is his practice of giving tests twice. It works like this: students take them alone and turn them in. Then students take the same test in groups, which he rotates during the course of the semester. He gives 50% credit for the test taken alone and 50% the test taken the the group. Mazur finds that learning skyrockets when students discuss, argue and think about correct answers on his tests.
Mazur uses a variant of this technique to begin class. He leads with a student-sourced question, then asks students to think the problem through and commit to an answer, which they record. Students then find a neighbor with a different answer and make a case for their own response. Each tries to convince the other.
Mazur walks through the room, eavesdropping on the conversations. He uses the incorrect reasoning he hears to, “re-sensitize myself to the difficulties beginning learners face.”
Some may worry that students who don't work hard will take advantage of those who do study. Remember, though, that our primary purpose is to foment student learning not sort kids.
Here's a longer article on Mazur. And here's his very polished website.
In reading Mazur, I'm reminded of this now ten year old video from Michael Wesch.
No comments:
Post a Comment