Tutorials Getting started supervisor senior colleagues Contract what
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Tutorials • Getting started- supervisor, senior colleagues, • Contract- what is expected of you – Subject and hours of teaching – Pastoral care- generally not – Administration- reports, senior physics tutor – Admissions • Amount- one subject initially • Planning – Material to cover – Problem sets and solutions – Setting and marking – Pairing- sometimes three, tutorial times- email
• Reporting – Keep in touch with Senior Physics Tutor – No show, no work, find it hard, miserable, lazy – Record brief comments on work and on how the tutorial went – Feedback to students – Reports – Feedback from them • The Tutorial – Arrange room – Plan (flexible) strategy – What matters is what they learn not what you teach – Note taking – Essays
Problem Solving Physical phenomenon Interpretation of solution in physical terms Idealised conceptual model of relevant features Solution of mathematical equations Mathematical formulation and setup
Tricks of the Trade • • • Draw a picture What physical processes are involved Break the problem up into its essentials How can we model the process Check dimensions Check order of magnitude Look for symmetry Encourage different solutions Revisit a problem but pose it differently Use anecdotes Look for similar physical phenomenon Demonstrations
• Must involve students, ask questions, get them to work it out - not a lecture • Give context, importance of outcome • Don’t rush • Test understanding by giving a similar question • Don’t flannel- look up and email solution • Concentrate on concepts- classes more to go through problems • Develop a stock of questions that probe understanding • Through problem solving you are trying to equip them with the skills required to make a good physicist
Check List • Be prepared do all the problems • Think of things that illustrate the physics and make work interesting • When marking make comments, don’t put marks - note if difficult question • What year- for 1 st years quite a transition • Think about best conceptual structure- eg hierarchy of interactions in atoms • Direct tutorial but ask what they don’t understand in subject and in lectures • Do look up if you say you will
Checklist • Balance between classes and tutorials • Probe their understanding with questions • Encourage them to be critical • Go through a question and then ask a related question • Encourage them to discuss physics with each other • Revisit questions & concepts in later tutorials • Estimation and checking • Revision- write notes from memory • Use your experience- what did you find difficult • Suggest sections in books • Old notes that you found useful • Discuss your research
Summary W. G. Moore (St John’s 1968) sums it all up as follows: Here, I suggest, are the roots of the tutorial method. It is a sceptical method, a method that inquires, probes, scrutinises. It is not at its best in ex cathedra authoritative statement, but in criticism, theory, analysis, comparison.
