Demonstrations

Demonstrations can be very effective for illustrating concepts in class, but can
result in passive learning without careful attention to engaging students. They
can provoke students to think for themselves and are especially helpful if the
demonstration has a surprise, challenges an assumption, or illustrates an
otherwise abstract concept or mechanism. Demonstrations that use everyday
objects are especially effective and require little preparation on the part of faculty
(see sidebar). Students' interest is peaked if they are asked to make predictions
and vote on the most probable outcome. There are numerous resources
available to help faculty design and conduct demonstrations. Many science
education periodicals contain one or more demonstrations in each issue. The
''Tested Demonstrations" column in the Journal of Chemical Education and the
"Favorite Demonstration" column in the Journal of College Science Teaching are
but two of the many examples. The American Chemical Society and the
University of Wisconsin Press have published excellent books on chemical
demonstrations (Shakhashiri, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992; Summerlin and Ealy,
1985; Summerlin et al., 1987). Similar volumes of physics demonstrations have
been published by the American Association of Physics Teachers (Freier and
Anderson, 1981; Berry, 1987).

You should consider a number of issues when planning a demonstration

(O'Brien, 1990):

 What concepts do you want the demonstration to illustrate?

 Which of the many demonstrations on the selected topic will generate the
greatest enhancement in student learning?

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2: How Teachers Teach:
Specific Methods." National Research Council.
1997. Science Teaching Reconsidered: A Handbook.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi:
10.17226/5287.
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 Where in the class would it be most effective?
 What prior knowledge should be reviewed before the demonstration?
 What design would be most effective, given the materials at hand and the
target audience?
 Which steps in the demonstration procedure should be carried out ahead
of time?
 What questions will be appropriate to motivate and direct student
observation and thought processes before, during, and after the
demonstration?
 What follow-up questions can be used to test and stretch students'
understanding of the new concept?

If the classroom or lecture hall is large, consider whether students in the back will
be able to see your demonstration. Look into videotaping the demonstration and
projecting the image on a larger screen so that all of your students can see.

DISCUSSIONS

Small group discussion sections often are used in large-enrollment courses to

complement the lectures. In courses with small enrollments, they can substitute
for the lecture, or both lecture and discussion formats can be used in the same
class period. The main distinction between lecture and discussion is the level of
student participation that is expected, and a whole continuum exists. Discussions
can be instructor-centered (students answer the instructor's questions) or
student-centered (students address one another, and the instructor mainly
guides the discussion toward important points). In any case, discussion sessions
are more productive when students are expected to prepare in advance.

Why Discussion?
Focused discussion is an effective way for many students to develop their
conceptual frameworks and to learn problem solving skills as they try out their
own ideas on other students and the instructor. The give and take of technical
discussion also sharpens critical and quantitative thinking skills. Classes in which
students must participate in discussion force them to go beyond merely plugging
numbers into formulas or memorizing terms. They must learn to explain in their
own words what they are thinking and doing. Students are more motivated to
prepare for a class in which they are expected to participate actively.
However, student-centered discussions are less predictable than instructor-
centered presentations, they are more time consuming, and they can require
more skill from the teacher. To lead an effective discussion, the teacher must be
a good facilitator, by ensuring that key points are covered and monitoring the
group dynamics. Guidance is needed to keep the discussion from becoming
disorganized or irrelevant. Some students do not like or may not function
effectively in a class where much of the time is devoted to student discussion.
Some may take the point of view that they have paid to hear the expert (the
teacher). For them, and for all students, it is useful to review the benefits of
discussion-based formats in contrast with lectures whose purpose is to transmit
information.

Sensitivity to personality, cultural, linguistic, and gender differences

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2: How Teachers Teach:
Specific Methods." National Research Council.
1997. Science Teaching Reconsidered: A Handbook.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi:
10.17226/5287.
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that may affect students' participation in discussions is also important, especially
if participation is graded. When students do not spontaneously engage in a
discussion, they may be unprepared or they may be reluctant to speak or to be
assertive. Some may be more comfortable making comparisons than absolute
statements, and others may be more comfortable with narrative descriptions than
with quantitative analysis. You might try various strategies to engage your
students in meaningful discussion by posing questions that measure different
levels of understanding (knowledge, application, analysis, and comprehension;
see Chapter 6).
 Planning and Guiding Discussions
Probably the best overall advice is to be bold but flexible and willing to adjust
your strategies to fit the character of your class. If you want to experiment with
using discussions in your class, here are some things to consider:

 Decide on the goals of your class discussion. What is it that you want the
students to get from each class session? Concepts? Problem solving
skills? Decision-making skills? The ability to make connections to other
disciplines or to technology? Broader perspective? Keep in mind that the
goals may change as you progress through the material during the quarter
or semester.
 Explain to the students how discussions will be structured. Will the
discussion involve the whole class or will students work in smaller groups?
Make clear what you expect them to do before coming to each class
session: read the chapter, think about the questions at the end of the
chapter, seriously try to do the first five problems, etc. Let students see you
take attendance. Students who do not come to class may not be studying.
 If you want students to discuss questions and concepts in small groups,
explain to students how the groups will form.
 Do not allow a few students to dominate the discussion. Some students
will naturally respond more quickly, but they must be encouraged to let
others have a chance. Be sure that all students participate at an
acceptable level. In extreme cases you may have to speak outside of class
to an aggressive or an excessively reticent student.
 Look for opportunities for you or your students to bring to class mini-
demonstrations illustrating important points of the day's topic. This is a very
effective way to stimulate discussion.
 Be willing to adjust to the needs of your students and to take advantage of
your own strengths as a teacher. Watch for signs that the students need
more or less guidance. Are the main points coming out and getting
resolved? Do you need to do more summarizing or moderating?
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Collaborative learning "is an umbrella term for a variety of educational

approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and
teachers together" (Goodsell et al., 1992). Cooperative learning, a form of
collaborative learning, is an instructional technique in which students work in
groups to achieve a common goal, to which they each contribute in

individually accountable ways (Stover et al., 1993). The interaction itself can take
different forms:

 out-of-class study groups

 in-class discussion groups
 project groups (in and/or out of class)
 groups in which roles (leader, timekeeper, technician, spokesperson, and
so forth) are assigned and rotated

Although cooperative learning has been used effectively in elementary, middle,

and high schools for a number of years, as discussed by Johnson and Johnson
(1989) and Slavin (1989), few studies have been done to demonstrate its
effectiveness in the college classroom. Nevertheless, a growing number of
practitioners are assessing its effectiveness (Treisman and Fullilove, 1990;
Johnson et al., 1991; Smith et al., 1991; Caprio, 1993; Posner and Markstein,
1994; Cooper, 1995; Watson and Marshall, 1995). While many advocates of
collaborative learning are quick to point out its advantages, they are also
sensitive to its perceived problems. Cooper (1995), for example, points out that
coverage, lack of control during class, and students who do not carry their weight
in a group, need to be considered before embarking on collaborative learning. In
addition, the evaluation of group work requires careful consideration (see Chapter
6).

LABORATORIES

It is hard to imagine learning to do science, or learning about science, without

doing laboratory or field work. Experimentation underlies all scientific knowledge
and understanding. Laboratories are wonderful settings for teaching and learning
science. They provide students with opportunities to think about, discuss, and
solve real problems. Developing and teaching an effective laboratory requires as
much skill, creativity, and hard work as proposing and executing a first-rate
research project.

Despite the importance of experimentation in science, introductory labs fail to

convey the excitement of discovery to the majority of our students. They
generally give introductory science labs low marks, often describing them as
boring or a waste of time. What is wrong? It is clear that many introductory
laboratory programs are suffering from neglect. Typically, students work their
way through a list of step-by-step instructions, trying to reproduce expected
results and wondering how to get the right answer. While this approach has little
do with science, it is common practice because it is efficient. Laboratories are
costly and time consuming, and predictable, "cookbook" labs allow departments
to offer their lab courses to large numbers of students.

Developing Effective Laboratories

Improving undergraduate laboratory instruction has become a priority in many
institutions, driven, in part, by the exciting program being developed at a wide
range of institutions. Some labs encourage critical and quantitative thinking,
some emphasize demonstration of principles or development of lab techniques,
and some help students deepen their understanding of fundamental concepts
(Hake, 1992). Where possible, the lab should be coincident with the lecture or
discussion. Before you begin to develop a

laboratory program, it is important to think about its goals. Here are a number of
possibilities:

 Develop intuition and deepen understanding of concepts.

 Apply concepts learned in class to new situations.
 Experience basic phenomena.
 Develop critical, quantitative thinking.
 Develop experimental and data analysis skills.
 Learn to use scientific apparatus.
 Learn to estimate statistical errors and recognize systematic errors.
 Develop reporting skills (written and oral).
 Practice collaborative problem solving.
 Exercise curiosity and creativity by designing a procedure to test a
hypothesis.
 Better appreciate the role of experimentation in science.
 Test important laws and rules.

Developing an effective laboratory requires appropriate space and equipment

and extraordinary effort from the department's most creative teachers. Still, those
who have invested in innovative introductory laboratory programs report very
encouraging results: better understanding of the material, much more positive
student attitudes toward the lab, and more faculty participation in the lab (Wilson,
1994).
Many science departments have implemented innovative laboratory programs in
their introductory courses. We encourage you to consult the organizations and
publications listed in the Appendices. Education sessions at professional society
meetings are another opportunity to get good ideas for labs in your discipline.
Some faculty members have given up lecturing and large

Animal Behavior Laboratory at Princeton University

Professor: James L. Gould

Enrollment: approximately 50 students in 3 sections

A major goal of this course is to teach students how to do science: collect initial observations,
formulate testable hypotheses, perform tests, refine or overhaul the original hypothesis, devise a
new test, and so on. Each lab is two weeks long, with the equipment and animals available for
the entire time. All of the materials that students could plausibly need are stored on shelves for
easy and immediate access. In the first hour, we discuss the lab and possible hypotheses, and
look over the materials at hand. Each group then formulates an initial plan, obtains approval for
their plan, and conducts the experiment.

The most flexible labs utilize computer-controlled stimuli. In one lab, students are asked to
determine to what features of prey a toad responds. Although they begin with live crickets and
worms, they are encouraged to use a computer library of "virtual" crickets and toads. Students
are given instructions for making new prey models, or modifying existing ones, to test the toad's
response to different features. The library includes variations of shape, motion, color, three-
dimensionality, size, and so on, plus a variety of cricket chirps and other calls. In general,
students quickly discover that virtual crickets work almost as well as real ones-better in that they
provide more data since the toad never fills up! A simple statistical program on the computers
helps minimize the drudgery of data analysis, enabling the students to concentrate on
experimental design and results rather than tedious computations.

A number of other labs in the course make use of computer-generated and modified stimuli. Labs
using this strategy deal with mate recognition in crickets and fish, competitor recognition in fish,
predator recognition in chicks and fish, imprinting in ducklings, color change in lizards, and
hemispheric dominance in humans.
Cooperative Learning in the Laboratory

Students in two laboratory sections of a chemistry course for nonscience majors worked in
groups of three on two experiments about acids, bases, and buffers. The experiments were
devised using a modified "jigsaw" technique, in which each student in a group is assigned a
particular part of a lesson or unit and is responsible for helping the other members of the group
learn that material. The week prior to the laboratory, students were given lists of objectives and
preparatory work that were divided into three parts. Students decided how to divide the
responsibility for the preparatory and laboratory tasks, but were informed that the scores from
their post-laboratory exams would be averaged, and that all members of a group would receive
the same grade. Two control sections of the same laboratory were conducted in a traditional
manner, with students working independently.

All four groups of students were part of the same lecture class, and there were no significant
differences in age, gender balance, or previous number of chemistry classes. Although the
control sections had an overall GPA higher than the cooperative learning sections (2.77 versus
2.30), the students in the cooperative sections had higher overall scores on the post-lab tests. The
authors conclude that use of cooperative learning in the laboratory has a positive effect on
student achievement.

Smith et al., 1991.

class meetings in favor of supervised collaborative learning in laboratory settings.

Such workshop methods have been devised for teaching physics (Laws, 1991),
chemistry (Lisensky et al., 1994), and mathematics (Baxter-Hastings, 1995).
Although this is not feasible at many institutions, some of the ideas developed in
these courses translate reasonably well to courses in which a lab is associated
with a large-enrollment course (Thornton, in press).

Laboratories can be enriched by computers that make data acquisition and

analysis easier and much faster, thus allowing students to think about their
results and do an improved experiment. Computers can also be used as an
element of the experiment to simulate a response, or vary a stimulus. Computers
offer convenience, flexibility and safety in the laboratory, but they should not
completely replace the student's interaction with the natural world.

Laboratory teaching methods vary widely, but there is certainly no substitute for
an instructor circulating among the students, answering and asking questions,
pointing out subtle details or possible applications, and generally guiding
students' learning. Although students work informally in pairs or groups in many
labs, some faculty have formally introduced cooperative learning into their labs
(see sidebar). Some instructors rely on a lab handout, not to give cookbook
instructions, but to pose a carefully constructed sequence of questions to help
students design experiments which illustrate important concepts (Hake, 1992).
One advantage of the well-designed handout is that the designer more closely
controls what students do in the lab (Moog and Farrell, 1996). The challenge is to
design it so that students must think and be creative. In more unstructured labs
the challenge is to prevent students from getting stranded and discouraged. Easy
access to a faculty member or teaching assistant is essential in this type of lab.

Once you have decided on the goals for your laboratory, and are familiar with
some of the innovative ideas in your field, you are ready to ask yourself the
following questions:
  How have others operated their programs? Seek out colleagues in other
departments or institutions who may have implemented a laboratory
program similar to the one you are considering, and learn from their
experiences.

 How much time and energy are you willing to invest? Buying new
equipment and tinkering with the lab write-ups will probably improve the
labs, but much more is required to implement substantial change.
Changing the way that students learn involves rethinking the way the lab is
taught, writing new lab handouts, setting up a training program for teaching
assistants, and perhaps designing some new experiments.
 What support will you have? Solicit the interest and support of
departmental colleagues and teaching assistants.
 Are the departmental and institutional administrations supportive of your
project and willing to accept the risks? Determine how likely they are to
provide the needed resources.
 Are you prepared to go through all of this and still get mediocre student
evaluations?

Helping Teaching Assistants to Teach in the Laboratory

 All teaching assistants perform the laboratory exercises as if they were students to
determine operational and analytical difficulties and to test the instructional notes and
record-keeping procedures.
 Teachers discuss usual student questions and misconceptions and ideas for directing
student learning.
 Teachers review procedures for circulating among student groups to ensure that each
group gets attention. Groups are visited early to help them get started. Each group is
visited several other times, but at least midway through the lab to discuss preliminary
results and interpretations and toward the end of the lab to review outcomes and
interpretations.
 Teachers review the students' notebooks or reports and then meet to discuss difficulties
and misconceptions. Discussions of grading and comments that might be made are
important because these procedures can influence student performance and attitudes on
subsequent exercises.

Lab Reports
The various methods by which students report their lab work have different
pedagogical objectives. The formal written report teaches students how to
communicate their work in journal style, but students sometimes sacrifice content
for appearance. Keeping a lab notebook, which is graded, teaches the student to
keep a record while doing an experiment, but it may not develop good writing and
presentation skills. Oral reports motivate students to understand their work well
enough to explain it to others, but this takes time and does not give students
practice in writing. Oral reports can also motivate students to keep a good
notebook, especially if they can consult it during their presentation. In choosing
this important aspect of the students' lab experience, consider how your students
might report their work in the future.

Teaching Labs with Teaching Assistants

Many benefits of carefully planned laboratory exercises are realized only if the
instructional staff is well prepared to teach. Often the primary, or only, lab
instruction comes from graduate or undergraduate teaching assistants or from
faculty members who were not involved in designing the lab. Time must be
invested in training the teaching staff, focusing first on their mastery of the lab
experiments and then on the method of instruction. It is a fine art to guide
students without either simply giving the answer or seeming to be obstinately
obscure. Teaching assistants who were not taught in this way can have difficulty
adapting to innovative laboratory programs, and the suggestions below will you
help you guide their transition. A good part of the success of a course depends
on the group spirit of the whole team of instructor and teaching assistants. Many
such groups meet weekly, perhaps in an informal but structured way, so that the
teaching assistants can provide feedback to the instructor as well as learn about
the most effective way to teach the next laboratory experiment (see sidebar).

The responsibility for preparing teaching assistants is largely dependent on the

setting. While many faculty members at four-year institutions are responsible for
preparing their teaching assistants, this task is handled on a department-wide or
campus-wide basis in programs with large numbers of graduate students. Many
professional societies have publications on this topic (see Appendix A). The
American Association for Higher Education is another excellent source of
information. Their publication Preparing Graduate Students to Teach (Lambert
and Tice, 1993) provides numerous examples of teaching assistant training
programs in a wide array of disciplines.