From Science Daily: Study shows for first time that a free, online course can
change students' mindsets towards their mathematical abilities, leading to
increased academic achievement. A free 'massive, open, online course' (MOOC)
designed to change students' attitudes towards mathematics makes them more
engaged in class -- leading to significantly higher test scores. Published in
open-access journal Frontiers in Education, these findings go against the
discouraging results of previous studies. It is the first of its kind to show
the impact of an online course in changing students' mindsets and beliefs about
mathematics and their achievement, with the potential for more widespread
dissemination. Continue reading here.
From Faculty Focus: So much of what determines the overall success or failure of
a course takes place well in advance of the first day of class. It’s the
thoughtful contemplation of your vision for the course — from what you want
your students to learn, to selecting the instructional activities, assignments,
and materials that will fuel that learning, to determining how you will measure
learning outcomes
From Univ. of Washington's The Daily: With all the recent advancement in science, from virtual
reality to genetic editing to artificial intelligence, one issue that
still plagues society is how best to teach students how these things
work. Dr. Carl Wieman, one of the world’s leading thinkers
on science education, spoke to a sizeable crowd at Kane Hall on
Thursday, April 26 to outline techniques for finding more effective
teaching tactics. Wieman holds a joint appointment as professor of
physics and of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.
He won the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his research in atomic and optical physics. Wieman,
67, argued for a shift away from lecture-style teaching toward what he
calls an “active learning” process where students spend more time
working with their peers than being talked to by professors. In his
physics classes, Wieman isn’t just teaching material, he is teaching his
students to become physicists through classroom activities, tests, and
critical reasoning.
From Education Week: Contrary to popular stereotypes, many young people are
acutely concerned about online privacy, spending significant time managing how
they present themselves on social media and worrying about what happens to the
digital trails they leave behind. That's the takeaway, at least, from new
research presented here Sunday at the annual conference of the American
Association of Educational Research by Claire Fontaine. As part of a small
study, Fontaine and colleagues interviewed 28 teens and young adults, ranging
from 16 to 26 years old. All were low-income New Yorkers, all owned a
smartphone or similar mobile device, and all regularly used at least one social
media platform.
