1. Revolution in Education Addressing Paradigm Shifts to Benefit Today’s Students
Amanda L. Lewis
Collaborator: Dr. John J. Feldmeier
November 17th, 2011

2. ASTRO 1504 YSU general science course
Descriptive Astronomy (ASTRO 1504)
1,200 students
per year at YSU

3. Dr. Feldmeier’s 1504 Utilizes Student-Centered Learning (SCL)
Paradigm shift from traditional lecture
Uncommon in modern introductory science courses
Revolutionizing the way general sciences are taught

4. How often has this happened?

5. Tools of SCL in ASTRO 1504 Student Assistants Socratic Dialogue
Lecture Tutorials (LTs)
Think Pair Share

6. Student Assistants Science or non-science majors
Used as exemplar students

7. Socratic Dialogue in SCL
Lecture itself
Interaction between instructors and students
Found in LTs
“Most ideas about
teaching are not new,
but not everyone knows
the old ideas.” –Euclid

8. Lecture Tutorials Reinforce Lecture Students helping students
Contain Socratic Dialogue

9. Lecture Tutorial Example
Consider the following discussion between two students.
Student 1: Since all the galaxies we observe are moving away from us, we must be at the center of the universe.
Student 2: If you look… it is pretty clear that all the galaxies move away from each other, so I think each galaxy must be at the center of the universe.
Do you agree or disagree with either or both of the students? Explain your reasoning.

10. Think Pair Share Poll Students Ungraded Informative Assessment
Low-cost

11. An Interactive Example of Think Pair Share
A first quarter moon can be seen rising on the eastern horizon at what time? A. 6:00 pm B. 12:00 am (midnight) C. 6:00 am D. 12:00 pm (noon)

12. Something Closer to Home
This statement is false. A. True B. False

13. Philosophical Underpinnings of SCL
Normative Approaches
Progressivism
Perennialism
Unschooling

14. The Problem Average first exam grade is 55% Two ways to fix:
Make test easier
Improve students’ behavior
Suspected lack of metacognition
Student population background
Self-regulated learning

15. Metacognition Studies
First Day Questions: Collected from Fall 2007 – Fall 2010

16. Metacognition Studies
Peer Feedback: Collected from Fall 2008 – Fall 2010

17. The Proposed Solution
Develop a formative self-assessment survey

18. The Survey Goal: change student behavior 20 optimal behaviors
Use results to seek correlation and any other useful information

19. Results: Nonexistent Correlation

20. Claimed Prevalence of Behaviors in Fall 2011

21. Compared to Regrets of Previous Classes

22. Results Show Student Improvement
Shift to higher grades
Bootstrap Sampling

23. Statistical Data Mean shift Median shift
Fall 2010: 54.26%
Fall 2011: 58.48%
Median shift
Fall 2010: 54%
Fall 2011: 58%
Bootstrapping Sample: 80% success rate
Overall gain of 4%, believed to be caused by survey

24. Future Plans Revise Survey
Only humor
Anonymous
Compare next semester’s results for additional verification
Publish work
Continue looking for other ways to improve student metacognition

25. Why bother with future work?

26. “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of the youth.” -Aristotle