My two hour Excellence in Teaching seminar is freely available, along with all materials. Please let me know if you use it.
Clickers and Peer Instruction- The table of contents and foreword of my book Clickers in the Classroom was written by Prof. Eric Mazur of the Harvard Physics Department, and may be read here. Instead you might read the two page “Tips for Effective Clicker Use” which summarizes best and worst practices. It is immediately useful advice, and you may skip the book…which was the first in the country, in 2006, but we know more now. You may also read Chapter 1, and Chapter 2. The book is available from Addison Wesley. There is also a version “Clickers in the Astronomy Classroom,” that adds many examples specifically from astronomy. After reading the “Tips” watch the excellent videos sponsored by Nobel Prize Winner Carl Wieman. Most clicker users succeed. We find that those who fail have not read the tips or watched the videos. You’ve been warned!
Many people have requested information about the innovative way I have been teaching critical thinking, the nature of science, and pseudoscience. My curriculum is linked here. Some of the most frequently requested materials are here. They concern how to teach science, and how to not be fooled by pseudoscience.
- “What is science?”
- Characteristics of good science.
- How to Recognize Pseudoscience and avoid being fooled.
How to Study, and How not to (aka) “Beliefs that Make You Stupid” – excellent series of 5 short videos for college students.