Section 5.1 Learning about a variety of active engagement strategies
The new faculty members needed to learn about active engagement strategies such as integrating laboratory activities, managing other small group activities, and facilitating a wide variety of whole group as well as individual activities. (See: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/strategy:start).
Integrating laboratory activities.
The paradigm courses differ from traditional physics courses in that laboratory experiences are an integral part of the course. In most physics programs, a separate laboratory course is taught by a different person in a different place, sometimes even in a different term. Integrated laboratories enable the faculty member to engage the students in thinking about a topic, exploring experimentally some aspects of relevant phenomena, and interpreting their experimental data in light of the theoretical underpinnings they have been discussing. (See, for example: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/strategy:labs:start). Such integration can merge the experimental and theoretical nature of physics in a motivating and educationally effective way for the students. For the instructor, however, such integration requires mastering the pragmatic details of the experimental setup, deeply understanding the theoretical underpinnings, and being cognizant of instructional issues such as monitoring timing and interpersonal tensions.
Managing small group activities.
In addition to managing such integrated laboratories, the new faculty members were expected to devote some portion of most class sessions to small group activities (See, for example: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/strategy:smallgroup:start). Typically the members of a small group gather around a large whiteboard lying on a table, on which they help one another work on a task at the edge of their physics understandings, such as how to visualize an electrostatic potential field produced by multiple discrete charge sources. (See: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/acts:vfdrawquadrupole). Members of small groups also often collaborate in interpreting computer visualizations and simulations. The faculty member moves among groups and provides nudges to the small group members' thinking as needed. An important skill is recognizing an appropriate moment to interrupt the small groups briefly to discuss with the whole group ways to handle an issue they have encountered or likely will soon, and then return the small groups to making progress on their own.
Facilitating whole group activities.
Whole group activities often build upon small group activities. In compare and contrast activities, for example, the small groups may have worked on slightly different versions of the same calculation. Then during a whole group wrap-up discussion, students are to identify patterns in the different cases and try to come up with general statements about what the different cases show (See, for example, http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/strategy:contrast:start). Sometimes whole group activities involve students getting out of their seats to act out some aspect of the abstract mathematics being presented. Such kinesthetic activities help develop geometric reasoning skills (See, for example: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/strategy:kinesthetic:start). In addition, faculty may ask a question, request that students write their responses individually on small white boards, collect a variety of responses, and then convey ways of thinking like a physicist by discussing the pros and cons of various answers as they hold the various small white boards up for contemplation (See, for example: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/strategy:smallwhiteboard:start)