Development of Cooperative-Learning Thematic Workshop Tutorials

Kate Wilson, The University of Sydney
Colleen Moroney, Australian Catholic University
Manjula Sharma, The University of Sydney
and
Rosemary Millar, The University of Sydney

Abstract

A joint project across the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney and the Australian Catholic University is being undertaken to develop a set of thematic workshop tutorials for first year physics students. This is a new style of tutorial in which the students work in small groups on a range of tasks. The tasks include discussion questions, hands-on demonstrations and more traditional calculation-style questions. The aim of the tutorials is to enhance student's learning of physics, in particular physics concepts, via cooperative learning in which they share and discuss ideas.

This style of tutorial was developed by Manjula Sharma and Rosemary Millar at the University of Sydney, and was found to be effective for a range of different courses. A CUTSD grant was obtained to further develop the tutorials and ultimately produce a set of thematic tutorials at a range of different levels, from beginner to advanced, with a range of "flavours" (engineering, biomedical, etc.).

The research presented here is currently being undertaken at the Australian Catholic University (MacKillop campus). Tutorials to suit first year environmental science students were written, each with a theme, for example "Electricity" and "Photons". The tutorials are currently being trialled with a class of 29 students. Pre-surveys of the student's views of science, and in particular physics, were administered. At the end of the tutorials a second questionnaire will be administered. The second questionnaire contains the questions from the first with an additional series of questions designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop tutorials.

Physics has an unfortunate reputation as being boring and difficult, and many students, particularly those enrolled in non-physics majors or service courses, do not see any relevance in studying physics. These students often perceive physics as divorced from real life and not useful to them. The tutorial questions are designed to be context rich and include scenarios and systems with which the students are familiar, for example poking a knife into a toaster. Brief historical and biographical sketches are also presented to help give the students a feel for how physics has developed and that it is a human endeavour.

Preliminary results from the University of Sydney show that these co-operative learning workshops improve student learning outcomes and that they are also enjoyable for the students themselves.

This style of tutorial is currently under development to suit students in courses as diverse as primary education, biomedical physics and technological physics. We believe that this type of tutorial does enhance student learning, and we are working to develop a set of thematic tutorials which could be used by any institution where first year physics is taught.

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