In our project we develop a didactical tool-box of materials and activities for teaching assistants supervising exercise sessions on Physics I for Medical Students. Materials for 14 classes will be available in the form of an interactive PolyBook web-platform and promoted at a hands-on training course specifically designed for physics teaching assistants.
How can I improve the learning success in my physics exercise class? Which strategies can help me to step out of the standard exercise-solving automatism? How can I “hook and hold” my students? In our project we try to answer these questions by developing a didactical tool-box of activities for physics teaching assistants (TA).
The idea for this project arose from our observation that in practice many TAs struggle to implement techniques which they have learnt in general basic-teaching courses. Furthermore, the time it takes to prepare an engaging, innovative lesson usually exceeds the preparation time which TAs can invest in addition to further duties like correcting homework and managing their class.
Developed materials
- Theory concept maps and summarizing organizers
- Tips and tricks for typical exercises
- Case-based concept questions for clicker sessions
- Collaborative «Hit» of the lesson («hands-on» real-life problem)
- Proposal for possible designs and timing of the learning activities
The materials developed in this project will include examples of implementations of teaching techniques for the specific case of 14 exercise sessions on Physics I for Medical Students. This will clarify and reinforce the link between didactical methods and their realization in practice. Our toolbox consists of concept questions, summarizing organizers and case-based calculation examples – all of them combined with ideas on how to implement it in class. Additionally, ideas for the “hit” of each lesson are provided, which can be real-life applications and phenomena or engaging games, that involve the students emotionally and foster their active thinking in order to help them to develop higher-level competences.
Outcomes and future perspectives
Aims
- Encourage TAs to implement techniques from basic teaching courses
- Develop materials & activities designed for interactive engaging physics classes
Final products
- Complete PolyBook edition with all the didactical materials
- Hands-on training course specifically designed for physics TAs
Future perspectives
- Expand to other physics courses for non-physics students (especially in life sciences)
- Generalization of the approach to other disciplines
With our didactical toolbox full of materials and ideas we would like to support TAs in preparing high-quality exercise sessions for their class which go beyond frontal exercise solving and which both students and the teacher can enjoy together. All materials will be available in the form of an interactive PolyBook platform. Additionally, we will conduct a hands-on training course specifically designed for physics TAs in which we will promote our toolbox and discuss possible ways of using it. Like this we hope to spark a creative curiosity between the TAs helping them to try out new techniques and activities in their lessons.
EXAMPLES OF DEVELOPED MATERIALS
