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T.F. Slater (University of Arizona), M. Bennett (Astronomical Society of the Pacific), W.M. Greene (NASA JPL Navigator EPO Program), S. Pompea (NOAO), E.E. Prather (University of Arizona)
As part of the education and public outreach efforts of the NASA JPL Navigator, SIRTF Mission and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, astronomy educators affiliated with the Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team at the University of Arizona are conducting a series of two- and three-day teaching excellence workshops for college faculty. These workshops are being held in conjunction with professional society meetings, such as the American Astronomical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, and through the infrastructure of the National Science Foundation's Summer Chautauqua Workshop program. This three-day, interactive teaching excellence workshop focuses on dilemmas astronomy teachers face and develop practical solutions for the troubling issues in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. After reviewing the latest research about how students learn, participants define and set measurable student learning goals and objectives for students in their astronomy courses and construct effective course syllabi reflecting the ASTRO 101 goals publicized by the AAS. To improve instruction, participants learn how to create productive learning environments by using interactive lectures, peer instruction, engaging demonstrations, collaborative groups, tutorials, computer-based laboratories, and observational projects. Participants also learn how to write more effective multiple-choice tests and implement authentic assessment strategies including portfolio assessment, performance tasks, and concept maps. Texts provided at the workshop are: (i) Learner-Centered Astronomy Teaching, Slater and Adams, Prentice Hall, 2002; (ii) Great Ideas for Teaching Astronomy, Pompea, Brooks Cole, 2000; and (iii) Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy, Adams, Prather, & Slater, Prentice Hall, 2002.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: caper@as.arizona.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.