Enhancing Instruction by Uncovering Instructor Blind Spots from Muddiest Point Reflections in Introductory Materials Classes

Stephen J. Krause; Sarah Hoyt

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Materials Division Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: Materials
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34570
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34570
Download Count: 398

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Paper Authors

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Stephen J. Krause Arizona State University

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Stephen Krause is professor in the Materials Science Program in the Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches in the areas of introductory materials engineering, polymers and composites, and capstone design. His research interests include evaluating conceptual knowledge, misconceptions and technologies to promote conceptual change. He has co-developed a Materials Concept Inventory and a Chemistry Concept Inventory for assessing conceptual knowledge and change for introductory materials science and chemistry classes. He is currently conducting research on NSF projects in two areas. One is studying how strategies of engagement and feedback with support from internet tools and resources affect conceptual change and associated impact on students' attitude, achievement, and persistence. The other is on the factors that promote persistence and success in retention of undergraduate students in engineering. He was a coauthor for best paper award in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2013.

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Sarah Hoyt Arizona State University

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Sarah Hoyt is currently the Education Project Manager for the NSF-funded JTFD Engineering faculty development program. Her educational background includes two Master's degrees from Grand Canyon University in Curriculum and Instruction and Education Administration. Her areas of interest are in student inclusion programs and creating faculty development that ultimately boost engagement and performance in students from lower SES backgrounds. Prior to her role as project manager, Sarah worked as the SEI Coordinator for a local high school and has also developed an inclusion program for Migrant and Immigrant students that utilized co-teaching and active learning as keystones of the program. She began her educational career as a high school teacher, teaching courses in English, math, and science.

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Abstract

This paper discusses how Instructor Blind Spots (IBS) from student muddiest point reflections can be used to enhance the effectiveness of content delivery and student achievement. Instructor Blind Spots (IBS) could be broadly defined as faulty assumptions made by a class instructor about students’ prior knowledge of their vocabulary, problem solving skills, conceptual knowledge, and other facets of conceptual knowledge. The IBS can be elicited by formative feedback from various sources, such as end-of-class muddiest points, classroom activities, and classroom discussions and questions. Such IBS may impede learning because students have difficulty with undefined or misdefined terms, lack of necessary skills, or misconceptions and other issues. After IBS are uncovered and diagnosed, they can inform the instructor of the aforementioned issues, then she or he can compensate and correct their IBS in a current class and, with that awareness, change content and delivery to avoid them in future classes. This can result in more positive class outcomes.

In introductory materials classes, formative feedback from students through muddiest points and other mechanisms can reveal students’ learning issues such as misdefined vocabulary, knowledge gaps, difficult concepts, and misconceptions. The source of such issues can arise from the students themselves, whereas an instructor herself or himself needs to reveal and identify IBS which can arise from themselves because their knowledge can overlook what they do not know about what students do not know. A few examples include the following. When materials instructors cover polymer structure, they discuss weak van der Waals bonding between long chain molecules, but students may only have heard in chemistry about the similar phenomenon of London dispersion forces between molecules, causing student confusion and concern until the issue is addressed. When initially discussing bonding, in particular metals, some students identify bonding in a metal as ionic because metallic may not have been discussed in chemistry, which can be easily addressed. In considering solutions, more than half of the students in the author’s classes believe that supersaturation of a liquid means that there is an excess amount of a second phase of solute that has come out of a saturated solvent, when in reality there is an excess of a solute in a solvent beyond equilibrium that gives a supersaturated solution. This misconception can make the teaching of precipitation hardening difficult until corrected. There are a number of other IBS that will be presented and discussed in the paper, as well as approaches to addressing these IBS, as well as the impact on student attitude and achievement. Such approaches can include content modification, instructor’s feedback on muddiest points, and class activities that address IBS. Uncovering and addressing such IBS makes teaching both more challenging and rewarding with the opportunity of improving the classroom experience for both students and instructors.

Citation
Format

Krause, S. J., & Hoyt, S. (2020, June), Enhancing Instruction by Uncovering Instructor Blind Spots from Muddiest Point Reflections in Introductory Materials Classes Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34570

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper discusses how Instructor Blind Spots (IBS) from student muddiest point reflections can be used to enhance the effectiveness of content delivery and student achievement. Instructor Blind Spots (IBS) could be broadly defined as faulty assumptions made by a class instructor about students’ prior knowledge of their vocabulary, problem solving skills, conceptual knowledge, and other facets of conceptual knowledge. The IBS can be elicited by formative feedback from various sources, such as end-of-class muddiest points, classroom activities, and classroom discussions and questions. Such IBS may impede learning because students have difficulty with undefined or misdefined terms, lack of necessary skills, or misconceptions and other issues. After IBS are uncovered and diagnosed, they can inform the instructor of the aforementioned issues, then she or he can compensate and correct their IBS in a current class and, with that awareness, change content and delivery to avoid them in future classes. This can result in more positive class outcomes.

In introductory materials classes, formative feedback from students through muddiest points and other mechanisms can reveal students’ learning issues such as misdefined vocabulary, knowledge gaps, difficult concepts, and misconceptions. The source of such issues can arise from the students themselves, whereas an instructor herself or himself needs to reveal and identify IBS which can arise from themselves because their knowledge can overlook what they do not know about what students do not know. A few examples include the following. When materials instructors cover polymer structure, they discuss weak van der Waals bonding between long chain molecules, but students may only have heard in chemistry about the similar phenomenon of London dispersion forces between molecules, causing student confusion and concern until the issue is addressed. When initially discussing bonding, in particular metals, some students identify bonding in a metal as ionic because metallic may not have been discussed in chemistry, which can be easily addressed. In considering solutions, more than half of the students in the author’s classes believe that supersaturation of a liquid means that there is an excess amount of a second phase of solute that has come out of a saturated solvent, when in reality there is an excess of a solute in a solvent beyond equilibrium that gives a supersaturated solution. This misconception can make the teaching of precipitation hardening difficult until corrected. There are a number of other IBS that will be presented and discussed in the paper, as well as approaches to addressing these IBS, as well as the impact on student attitude and achievement. Such approaches can include content modification, instructor’s feedback on muddiest points, and class activities that address IBS. Uncovering and addressing such IBS makes teaching both more challenging and rewarding with the opportunity of improving the classroom experience for both students and instructors.
AU  - Stephen J. Krause
AU  - Sarah Hoyt
CY  - Virtual On line 
DA  - 2020/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Enhancing Instruction by Uncovering Instructor Blind Spots from Muddiest Point Reflections in Introductory Materials Classes
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/34570
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--34570
ER  -