What Me Change Beth Chance Cal Poly San

What. . Me Change? Beth Chance Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo 1

Why do we need to change? n n Growing interest in field of statistics Common Core State Standards are coming New educational needs New educational demands q Administrative pressure for online courses 2

But what about ME? n Growing interest in field of statistics q q Enrollment in Cal Poly 300 -level statistics courses has grown 96% in last four years New undergraduate Teaching Statistics course for prospective middle school and high school teachers of statistics 3

But what about ME? n Common Core State Standards are coming q CAOS Pretest Questions: Which of these classes has the least variation in scores? Correct responses: Fall 2008: 21. 7% Fall 2012: 40. 0% 4

Took the online challenge n University offered grants, assigned time, technical support for course development 5

Other positive changes? n With R. del. Mas and J. Garfield (1999) Research on student interaction with a software environment on sampling distributions 6

Theory of conceptual change (Posner et al, 1982) n With R. del. Mas and J. Garfield (1999) Research on student interaction with a software environment on sampling distributions “This model proposes that students who have misconceptions or misunderstandings need to experience an anomaly, or contradictory evidence, before they will change their current conceptions. ” = cognitive dissonance 7

So before I can change n n n Build on existing literature Need to find convincing evidence for change… Collect more data! Guess the variable? 8

What is the variable? 9

What is the variable? Moved to Cal Poly sabbatical (ISCAM) Hybrid ISI course 10

What is the variable? cont. Moved to Cal Poly sabbatical (ISCAM) Hybrid ISI course Students’ evaluation scores of my teaching “Stat 101” across quarters 11

Can we explain the pattern? n Old adage: The third time I teach the course is the best q q q I see the overall structure of the material I can anticipate common student misconceptions I have smoothed out the kinks 12

Can we explain the pattern? n But maybe it’s not surprising for things to go down from there? q q q But maybe then I begin to know the material too well? Maybe then I begin to think I’ve already answered that question? Maybe then I start to get complacent? 13

So maybe… I need change? n n To challenge myself, to keep me on my toes, to reenergize me to see what is going on in my classroom ISI curriculum q q Starting from scratch Forced me out of my comfort zone My engagement in course The big surprise: It’s been fun! 14

So I propose n n Listen to ourselves and our students Changes can be small 15

Changes can accumulate (1998) 16

Changes can accumulate 17

But to be effective n n n Changes should come from within you, your students Changes should benefit you, your students Changes should be driven by data q q q Is there an issue? What is the current state? How do things differ after the change? Be open to alternative explanations 18

So how do we make effective change? n n n Cognitive dissonance Help yourself Assessment New perspectives Group effort Existing educational literature 19

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