Renowned physics education pioneer Eric Mazur will be at Waterloo Dec 1 2010. Before there were clickers, before there was a “Force Concept Inventory,” Mazur was developing “interactive engagement” or peer instruction (see a two-minute video here).
The talk is co-sponsored by Physics and Astronomy and the Centre for Teaching Excellence. Here’s the ad:
Please join us for a special guest lecture!
Professor Eric Mazur
Dean of Applied Physics
Harvard University
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 Noon
Arts Lecture Hall (AL) Room 105
Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses — instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important — and most elusive — aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing information greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom.
ALL WELCOME
R.S.V.P. Appreciated: Bonnie Findlay, bfindlay@uwaterloo.ca, Ext. 36831
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