SciFER PROGRAM FOR 2006

All seminars are held in the Science Meeting Room, Carslaw 535, from 1-2 pm unless otherwise stated.

Date

SEMINARS, 2006

Speaker/s Title

September 12 Meloni Muir, Physiology Building on Encouraging reflective learning: Determining the effect on student performance and learning of integrating a draft-writing and feedback cycle into the report-writing task in second-year physiology.

Don't forget your SciFER gramt application!! Submissions close 22 September, 2006

July 11

Discusion of SciFER grant guidelines and future directions of SciFER

June 13 David Easdown, School of Mathematics and Statistics Using a starring system to create two courses out of one.

It is common in maths texts for an exercise to be starred if it is difficult. To my knowledge, no one has used this simple device in a systemic way to create two courses out of one in pure mathematics.

I will discuss a starring system which leads to the introduction (for the first time at Sydney in Pure Mathematics) of a course taught to both advanced and normal students simultaneously.

This touches on deeper questions in education of presenting information which can be usefully accessed by both novices and experts at the same time. This happens (rarely) for example at a research seminar where everyone comes away feeling that they have learnt something. In my experience, when it does happen, it is because the speaker has carefully chosen examples which are simple, accessible and have deep or subtle connections with the topic.

May 9 Derek Muller Short presentation and discuss a draft paper for journal submission

Abstract: Misconception effect in multimedia interventions.
Misconceptions have been a major focus of science educators over the past 30 years. New teaching practices have evolved out of conceptual change research; for example in physics, tutorials, interactive engagement lectures, and studio courses have all been implemented, achieving modest success. The aim of these approaches has been to engage students in student-centered interactive learning environments with plenty of experiential learning so that they think about and are open to changing their prior conceptions. Despite the successful classroom strategies, little research has been carried out to see how conceptual change can be achieved with educational resources like textbooks and multimedia. In this talk, we report on a study of all first year physics students' interaction with a short online multimedia segment. Results show that students who received treatments that addressed misconceptions performed 0.8 standard deviations better than those who received expository summaries (similar to lecture presentations). We will discuss implications of this research for multimedia design and classroom teaching, and how students with varied backgrounds in physics performed with different treatments.
The following abstract provides more detail ...
In this study, 394 first year physics students received multimedia instruction on Newton's First and Second Laws of Motion. Students accessed a website as homework and were randomly assigned to one of four multimedia treatments: 1) the "Exposition," a concise lecture-style presentation, 2) the "Extended exposition," the Exposition with additional interesting but irrelevant information, 3) the "Refutation," the Exposition with common misconceptions explicitly stated and refuted, and 4) the "Dialogue," a student-tutor discussion of the same material as in the Refutation. Students were tested using multiple choice questions from two standard mechanics conceptual inventories before and after watching the prescribed multimedia treatment. Results show the treatments that addressed misconceptions (the Refutation and Dialogue) were superior to the treatments without misconceptions, with effect sizes of 0.64 and 0.78 respectively, compared to the Exposition. This suggests that the benefits for learning of addressing prominent misconceptions outweigh the detriments of the increased cognitive load required.

April 11 Dr Richard Walker Learning Theories in Education (Tentative title)

Richard will provide an overview of learning theories from transmission (clean slate) to the various constructive and developmental psychology (Piaget) theories. An overview of how the learning theories relate to one another.

30 minute talk commencing 1:10 pm with 10 minutes for Q&A.

March 14 Convenors SciFER::Science Faculty Education Research group

The Science Faculty Education Research group (SciFER) was established in 1999 as a formal association of staff from different disciplines in the Faculty of Science with the objective of carrying out cross discipline education research at the tertiary level.

The main activities have been a monthly seminar series and competitive funding for discipline based educational research projects.
In this seminar we focus on: What do we want out of SciFER?
Issues to be considered will include the following.
When should SciFER grant applications be called for?
Should SciFER grants fund applications for writing papers?
How can SciFER provide support for writing papers and grant applications?
What should SciFER activities/talks for 2006 include?
What is SNUSE and should SciFER aim for a session at the ISSOTL conference at UNSW in 2007?
SNUSE is Sydney Network of University Science Educators.

ISSOTL is the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Report from Meeting

Current direction: SciFER holds monthly talks and manages competitive grants.

Monthly talks: The monthly talks can be in the form of planning meetings, journal clubs, talks, discussion of draft papers, progress reports on funded projects, research methodology talks. A key aspect can be the discussion of grant proposals to encourage interdisciplinary nature of research proposals. Historicaly, SciFER has had strong links with ITL, and we should be proactive in maintaining this link. ITL will have a new director we can invite for a talk/discussion. We note that personnel from Carrick Institute can be invited to give talks. Justin Read has written a comprehensive paper on misconceptions. Should we identify such strengths and utilise them in the form of talks.

Competitive grants: The Dean has agreed to keep SciFER funding to the $15,000 per annum as currently available, however it is important that interest is maintained and applications are received to ensure this level of funding. Funding is for teaching research, while the research need not be interdisciplinary, those that are interdisciplinary will be treated as a priority. Suggestion from floor: that the interdisciplinary nature of proposal be encouraged (IS)

The grants are seeding funding for research, they can be used to fund teaching relief, data entry but no conferences or travel. The question of whether the guidelines should be reviewed e.g. provide scope for student submissions
Date for submission: before AVCC week in September. An email should be forwarded to Heads of departments AS WELL AS to all in the Faculty a month before the deadline.

Website:
SciFER grant reports should be placed on web site.
List of papers that people have found useful to be placed on web site

Miscellaneous: SciFER members can consider other sources of funding by investigating strategic use of Teaching Development grants, Teaching Improvement Funding and Scholarship Index monies

Other roles that SciFER can undertake are
Supervisors and co-supervisors of education research students
Encouraging more students to undertake an education based research post-graduate degree

Other opportunities for presentations:
UniServe Science Symposium, 28 September 2006
ISSOTL, 2 - 5 July 2007, UNSW
Best Practice Forum in July 2006
HERDSA, 10 - 13 July 2006, The University of Western Australia
HERDSA, 8 - 11 July 2007, Adelaide

Return to SciFER front page

SEMINARS, 2006
Speaker/s	Title
September 12	Meloni Muir, Physiology	Building on Encouraging reflective learning: Determining the effect on student performance and learning of integrating a draft-writing and feedback cycle into the report-writing task in second-year physiology.
Don't forget your SciFER gramt application!! Submissions close 22 September, 2006
July 11
Discusion of SciFER grant guidelines and future directions of SciFER
June 13	David Easdown, School of Mathematics and Statistics	*Using a starring system to create two courses out of one.*
It is common in maths texts for an exercise to be starred if it is difficult. To my knowledge, no one has used this simple device in a systemic way to create two courses out of one in pure mathematics. I will discuss a starring system which leads to the introduction (for the first time at Sydney in Pure Mathematics) of a course taught to both advanced and normal students simultaneously. This touches on deeper questions in education of presenting information which can be usefully accessed by both novices and experts at the same time. This happens (rarely) for example at a research seminar where everyone comes away feeling that they have learnt something. In my experience, when it does happen, it is because the speaker has carefully chosen examples which are simple, accessible and have deep or subtle connections with the topic.
May 9	Derek Muller	*Short presentation and discuss a draft paper for journal submission*
Abstract: Misconception effect in multimedia interventions. Misconceptions have been a major focus of science educators over the past 30 years. New teaching practices have evolved out of conceptual change research; for example in physics, tutorials, interactive engagement lectures, and studio courses have all been implemented, achieving modest success. The aim of these approaches has been to engage students in student-centered interactive learning environments with plenty of experiential learning so that they think about and are open to changing their prior conceptions. Despite the successful classroom strategies, little research has been carried out to see how conceptual change can be achieved with educational resources like textbooks and multimedia. In this talk, we report on a study of all first year physics students' interaction with a short online multimedia segment. Results show that students who received treatments that addressed misconceptions performed 0.8 standard deviations better than those who received expository summaries (similar to lecture presentations). We will discuss implications of this research for multimedia design and classroom teaching, and how students with varied backgrounds in physics performed with different treatments. The following abstract provides more detail ... In this study, 394 first year physics students received multimedia instruction on Newton's First and Second Laws of Motion. Students accessed a website as homework and were randomly assigned to one of four multimedia treatments: 1) the "Exposition," a concise lecture-style presentation, 2) the "Extended exposition," the Exposition with additional interesting but irrelevant information, 3) the "Refutation," the Exposition with common misconceptions explicitly stated and refuted, and 4) the "Dialogue," a student-tutor discussion of the same material as in the Refutation. Students were tested using multiple choice questions from two standard mechanics conceptual inventories before and after watching the prescribed multimedia treatment. Results show the treatments that addressed misconceptions (the Refutation and Dialogue) were superior to the treatments without misconceptions, with effect sizes of 0.64 and 0.78 respectively, compared to the Exposition. This suggests that the benefits for learning of addressing prominent misconceptions outweigh the detriments of the increased cognitive load required.
April 11	Dr Richard Walker	*Learning Theories in Education (Tentative title)*
Richard will provide an overview of learning theories from transmission (clean slate) to the various constructive and developmental psychology (Piaget) theories. An overview of how the learning theories relate to one another. 30 minute talk commencing 1:10 pm with 10 minutes for Q&A.
March 14	Convenors	*SciFER::Science Faculty Education Research group*
The Science Faculty Education Research group (SciFER) was established in 1999 as a formal association of staff from different disciplines in the Faculty of Science with the objective of carrying out cross discipline education research at the tertiary level. The main activities have been a monthly seminar series and competitive funding for discipline based educational research projects. In this seminar we focus on: What do we want out of SciFER? Issues to be considered will include the following. When should SciFER grant applications be called for? Should SciFER grants fund applications for writing papers? How can SciFER provide support for writing papers and grant applications? What should SciFER activities/talks for 2006 include? What is SNUSE and should SciFER aim for a session at the ISSOTL conference at UNSW in 2007? SNUSE is Sydney Network of University Science Educators. ISSOTL is the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Report from Meeting Current direction: SciFER holds monthly talks and manages competitive grants. Monthly talks: The monthly talks can be in the form of planning meetings, journal clubs, talks, discussion of draft papers, progress reports on funded projects, research methodology talks. A key aspect can be the discussion of grant proposals to encourage interdisciplinary nature of research proposals. Historicaly, SciFER has had strong links with ITL, and we should be proactive in maintaining this link. ITL will have a new director we can invite for a talk/discussion. We note that personnel from Carrick Institute can be invited to give talks. Justin Read has written a comprehensive paper on misconceptions. Should we identify such strengths and utilise them in the form of talks. Competitive grants: The Dean has agreed to keep SciFER funding to the $15,000 per annum as currently available, however it is important that interest is maintained and applications are received to ensure this level of funding. Funding is for teaching research, while the research need not be interdisciplinary, those that are interdisciplinary will be treated as a priority. Suggestion from floor: that the interdisciplinary nature of proposal be encouraged (IS) The grants are seeding funding for research, they can be used to fund teaching relief, data entry but no conferences or travel. The question of whether the guidelines should be reviewed e.g. provide scope for student submissions Date for submission: before AVCC week in September. An email should be forwarded to Heads of departments AS WELL AS to all in the Faculty a month before the deadline. Website: SciFER grant reports should be placed on web site. List of papers that people have found useful to be placed on web site Miscellaneous: SciFER members can consider other sources of funding by investigating strategic use of Teaching Development grants, Teaching Improvement Funding and Scholarship Index monies Other roles that SciFER can undertake are Supervisors and co-supervisors of education research students Encouraging more students to undertake an education based research post-graduate degree Other opportunities for presentations: UniServe Science Symposium, 28 September 2006 ISSOTL, 2 - 5 July 2007, UNSW Best Practice Forum in July 2006 HERDSA, 10 - 13 July 2006, The University of Western Australia HERDSA, 8 - 11 July 2007, Adelaide