Are You Really Teaching if No One is Learning?

This professional development seminar provides results from research into how the successful implementation of active engagement instructional strategies can improve students’ understanding beyond what is achieved by traditional instructional methods, even when used in the lecture portion of the science classroom.

From questioning in the classroom to small group collaborative activities, many forms of interactive teaching are modeled and discussed. Members of the Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) at the University of Arizona have been developing and conducting research on the effectiveness of learner-centered instructional strategies and materials that put students in an active role in the traditional lecture classroom. The results of this work have been incorporated into a series of “Teaching Excellence Workshops” that members of CAE have been conducting around the nation as part of the NASA Spitzer Education and Public Outreach Program, JPL Navigator/Exoplanet-Exploration Public Engagement Program and the NSF CCLI Phase III Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) Program. The goal of these workshops is to improve participant’s implementation and pedagogical content knowledge of research-validated interactive learning strategies.