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Enhancing Student Engagement and Understanding via Inquiry-Based Learning

Dana Ernst
February 26, 2019

Enhancing Student Engagement and Understanding via Inquiry-Based Learning

This talk was given on February 26, 2019, as part of the "Good Teaching Round Table" in the Mathematics Department at Boise State University.

Dana Ernst

February 26, 2019
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  1. Enhancing Student Engagement and
    Understanding via Inquiry-Based Learning
    Boise State University
    The Good Teaching Round Table
    Dana C. Ernst
    Northern Arizona University
    February 26, 2019

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  2. Setting the Stage
    What are the goals of a university education?
    What are the goals of a university education?
    What are the goals of a university education?
    1

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  3. Setting the Stage
    How does a person learn something new?
    How does a person learn something new?
    How does a person learn something new?
    2

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  4. Setting the Stage
    What do you reasonably expect to your students
    to remember from your courses in 20 years?
    What do you reasonably expect to your students
    to remember from your courses in 20 years?
    What do you reasonably expect to your students
    to remember from your courses in 20 years?
    3

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  5. Who are we?
    Some Data
    • 4 million high school freshmen in US.
    • 1.8 million bachelors degrees annually.
    • Less than 1% of BA/BS are in math.
    • Roughly 900 US citizens earn a PhD in
    math each year.
    Conclusion?
    We are peculiar!
    We are peculiar!
    We are peculiar!
    4

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  6. What about our students?
    What Students Often Believe
    • It only takes a few minutes to do all math problems
    • Only geniuses can understand math
    • Math is about memorization
    • If I go slow, then I’m dumb
    • If I get stuck, then I’m dumb
    • Faster is smarter
    • The teacher is the authority
    • Math is not a creative subject
    • It’s about answer getting
    5

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  7. Deep Practice
    Take 45 seconds to look over the following list of pairs of words, but
    do not write anything down.
    bread/b tter ocean/breeze
    leaf/tree music/l rics
    sweet/sour sh e/sock
    phone/bo k movie/actress
    chi s/salsa gasoline/engine
    high school/college pen il/paper
    river/b at turkey/stuffing
    fruit/vegetable be r/wine
    computer/chip television/rad o
    l nch/dinner chair/couch
    6

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  8. Deep Practice
    Directions
    • Without looking at the list of pairs of words, write down as many
    pairs as you can. You do not need to remember where any
    missing letters were nor which column/what order a pair was in.
    • Looking at the table on the next slide count how many pairs are
    in column A versus column B.
    7

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  9. Deep Practice
    A B
    ocean/breeze bread/b tter
    leaf/tree music/l rics
    sweet/sour sh e/sock
    movie/actress phone/bo k
    gasoline/engine chi s/salsa
    high school/college pen il/paper
    turkey/stuffing river/b at
    fruit/vegetable be r/wine
    computer/chip television/rad o
    chair/couch l nch/dinner
    Table 1: Word list from The Talent Code.
    8

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  10. Deep Practice
    According to The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, studies show that on
    average people remember 3 times as many pairs in column B, the
    one with missing letters. Maybe a room full of mathematicians will
    have wildly different results, but …
    You are peculiar!
    You are peculiar!
    The claim is that a microsecond of struggle (cognitive demand)
    makes all the difference.
    What does this have to do with teaching?
    You are peculiar!
    9

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  11. The Goldilocks Zone
    Where is struggle the most productive for your students?
    10

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  12. The Big Picture
    Claims
    1. An education must prepare a student to ask and explore
    questions in contexts that do not yet exist. That is, we need
    individuals capable of tackling problems they have never
    encountered and to ask questions no one has yet thought of.
    2. If we really want students to be independent, inquisitive, &
    persistent, then we need to provide them with the means to
    acquire & practice these skills.
    Lofty Goals
    1. Transition students from consumers to producers!
    2. Provide opportunity for a transformative experience.
    11

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  13. What is IBL?
    The Four Pillars (Laursen & Rasmussen)
    1. Student engagement in meaningful mathematics,
    2. Student collaboration for sense-making,
    3. Instructor inquiry into student thinking,
    4. Equitable instructional practice to include all in rigorous
    mathematical learning and mathematical identity-building.
    12

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  14. What is IBL?
    Guiding Principles
    Students should as much as possible be responsible for:
    1. Guiding the acquisition of knowledge,
    2. Validating the ideas presented (instructor not sole authority).
    Common Vehicles to IBL
    1. Student presentations.
    2. Small group work.
    This is not an “either-or” choice. Most IBL instructors implement
    some combination.
    13

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  15. Teaching is a System
    14

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  16. Teaching is a System
    15

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  17. Teaching is a System
    16

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  18. Teaching is a System
    17

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  19. What does your system look like?
    • You need to make design decisions about:
    1. The tasks students will engage in.
    2. How students will engage with those tasks, with each other,
    and with you.
    • Your decisions will be influenced by many obstacles &
    opportunities:
    • Class size?
    • Significant content pressure?
    • Configuration of room?
    • Who are your students?
    • Your implementation may vary from course to course.
    18

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  20. Why IBL?
    The Colorado Study by Sandra Laursen et al.
    300 hours of classroom observation, 1100 surveys, 110 interviews, 220
    tests, & 3200 academic transcripts, gathered from > 100 course
    sections at 4 campuses over 2 years.
    IBL
    Interviews SALG
    Pre/Post
    Tests
    Transcripts Gender Observations
    Non-IBL
    19

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  21. Why IBL?
    Laursen et al. 2014
    “Despite variation in how IBL was implemented, student out-
    comes are improved in IBL courses relative to traditionally
    taught courses, as assessed by general measures that apply
    across course types. Particularly striking, the use of IBL elim-
    inates a sizable gender gap that disfavors women students in
    lecture-based courses.”
    “Despite variation in how IBL was implemented, student out-
    comes are improved in IBL courses relative to traditionally
    taught courses, as assessed by general measures that apply
    across course types. Particularly striking, the use of IBL elim-
    inates a sizable gender gap that disfavors women students in
    lecture-based courses.”
    “Despite variation in how IBL was implemented, student out-
    comes are improved in IBL courses relative to traditionally
    taught courses, as assessed by general measures that apply
    across course types. Particularly striking, the use of IBL elim-
    inates a sizable gender gap that disfavors women students in
    lecture-based courses.”
    20

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  22. Why IBL?
    Freeman et al. 2014
    “The results raise questions about the continued use of tradi-
    tional lecturing as a control in research studies, and support
    active learning as the preferred, empirically validated teach-
    ing practice in regular classrooms.”
    “The results raise questions about the continued use of tradi-
    tional lecturing as a control in research studies, and support
    active learning as the preferred, empirically validated teach-
    ing practice in regular classrooms.”
    “The results raise questions about the continued use of tradi-
    tional lecturing as a control in research studies, and support
    active learning as the preferred, empirically validated teach-
    ing practice in regular classrooms.”
    21

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  23. Why IBL?
    CBMS Statement on Active Learning 2016
    “…we call on institutions of higher education, mathemat-
    ics departments and the mathematics faculty, public policy-
    makers, and funding agencies to invest time and resources
    to ensure that effective active learning is incorporated into
    post-secondary mathematics classrooms.”
    “…we call on institutions of higher education, mathemat-
    ics departments and the mathematics faculty, public policy-
    makers, and funding agencies to invest time and resources
    to ensure that effective active learning is incorporated into
    post-secondary mathematics classrooms.”
    “…we call on institutions of higher education, mathemat-
    ics departments and the mathematics faculty, public policy-
    makers, and funding agencies to invest time and resources
    to ensure that effective active learning is incorporated into
    post-secondary mathematics classrooms.”
    22

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  24. Why IBL?
    Manifesto of the MAA Instructional Practices Guide
    “We must gather the courage to advocate beyond our own
    classroom for student-centered instructional strategies that
    promote equitable access to mathematics for all students. We
    stand at a crossroads, and we must choose the path of trans-
    formation in order to fulfill our professional responsibility to
    our students.”
    “We must gather the courage to advocate beyond our own
    classroom for student-centered instructional strategies that
    promote equitable access to mathematics for all students. We
    stand at a crossroads, and we must choose the path of trans-
    formation in order to fulfill our professional responsibility to
    our students.”
    “We must gather the courage to advocate beyond our own
    classroom for student-centered instructional strategies that
    promote equitable access to mathematics for all students. We
    stand at a crossroads, and we must choose the path of trans-
    formation in order to fulfill our professional responsibility to
    our students.”
    23

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  25. Why IBL?
    Comment on student evaluations
    “Try. Fail. Understand. Win.”
    “Try. Fail. Understand. Win.”
    “Try. Fail. Understand. Win.”
    24

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  26. One of many possible versions of IBL
    • Students responsible for digesting most new material out of
    class by working on a sequence of problems.
    • Each batch of problems are meant to do some subset of the
    following:
    • Introduce a new topic
    • Develop intuition about a concept
    • Synthesize ideas from a few concepts
    • Prove a theorem
    • Get practice doing routine or non-routine problems
    • Nearly all class time devoted to students presenting proposed
    solutions/proofs.
    25

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  27. One of many possible versions of IBL
    • Presentations typically take one of 3 forms.
    1. An individual presenting their proposed solution to whole
    class.
    2. An individual presenting their proposed solution to a small
    group.
    3. An individual acts as a spokesperson for his/her small
    group & presents the group’s proposed solution to whole
    class.
    • Instructor’s role: guide discussion & nudge students to ask the
    right questions.
    26

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  28. One of many possible versions of IBL
    27

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  29. One of many possible versions of IBL
    28

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  30. One of many possible versions of IBL
    29

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  31. One of many possible versions of IBL
    30

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  32. One of many possible versions of IBL
    31

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  33. One of many possible versions of IBL
    32

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  34. One of many possible versions of IBL
    33

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  35. Personal Reflections
    • In an IBL class there are lots of issues that bubble to the surface
    that we blissfully ignore when lecturing. Feature not a bug!
    • When we have access to student thinking we can build on and
    extend their understanding.
    • Student presentations are meant to drive classroom discussion,
    not to prove to you that Sally knows how to do Exercise 15.
    • The perfect presentation is one that is interestingly wrong.
    “You will become clever through your mistakes.” — German proverb
    “You will become clever through your mistakes.” — German proverb
    • One reason IBL works: Mode of engagement is different when
    listening to expert vs novice. “Student as skeptic.”
    “You will become clever through your mistakes.” — German proverb
    34

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  36. Personal Reflections
    • Clearly communicating your expectations, as well as what the
    students can expect from you, is vital.
    • Having a Student Buy-In Plan is key.
    • With the right set of materials, content coverage is not really an
    issue. Pace accelerates.
    • Keeping my mouth shut…and assessing
    • If I spend 50 minutes talking, it’s unlikely I’ve done any
    assessment.
    • In an IBL course, nearly whole class session is spent on
    assessment.
    • Students presenting, discussing, & collaborating provides
    everyone with immediate feedback about how things are
    going.
    35

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  37. Questions to Ponder
    • How do you create a safe environment where risk taking is
    encouraged and productive failure is valued?
    • What constraints do you have on physical space?
    • How much scaffolding will you provide on problems?
    • Will you utilize group work? How will you choose groups? How
    large will the groups be?
    • Will you utilize student presentations? How will you choose
    presenters? How will you assess presenters?
    • Are students expected to generate proofs of theorems? Will
    proofs be assessed on exams?
    • What’s your plan for obtaining student buy-in?
    36

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  38. Closing Remarks
    Important!
    • IBL is a big tent.
    • IBL is doable.
    • IBL is fun.
    • IBL isn’t all or nothing. You can make incremental changes.
    • IBL assumes a growth mindset.
    • IBL fosters a growth mindset.
    • IBL can be transformative.
    “We’re in the business of changing lives.” — Michael Starbird
    “We’re in the business of changing lives.” — Michael Starbird
    “We’re in the business of changing lives.” — Michael Starbird
    37

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  39. The Goldilocks Zone
    Where is struggle the most productive for your students?
    38

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  40. Teaching is a System
    39

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  41. IBL Resources
    • The Academy of Inquiry-Based Learning (AIBL)
    • Summer IBL Workshops Registration is now open!
    Registration is now open!
    • June 18–21, 2019: University of St. Thomas, St. Paul,
    Minnesota, cohosted with MAA NCS
    • June 25–28, 2019: Portland Paramount, Portland, Oregon
    • July 9–12, 2019: Staybridge Suites, Los Angeles, California
    • Mentoring via AIBL
    • Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics (JIBLM)
    • IBL SIGMAA
    • Mathematics Learning by Inquiry
    • MAA Instructional Practices Guide
    Registration is now open!
    40

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