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  • 1.  IMPACT Discussion - Changes

    Posted 01-01-2023 20:19:00
    In Chapter 7 of IMPACT it states "Change, especially educational change, often requires periods of disruption, discomfort, and inconvenience on the part of faculty, administrators, and students. It is important, though, that such temporary issues not stand in the way of actions that will help students succeed and better meet their academic goals." Consider reading Chapter 7 of IMPACT and answer the following:

    What changes are you planning on doing in 2023?

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    Evan Evans
    Professor of Mathematics
    Frederick CC
    Frederick MD
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  • 2.  RE: IMPACT Discussion - Changes

    Posted 01-02-2023 07:44:00
    Hi Evan and all the AMATYC members,

    Happy New Year! I wish you All the best throughout 2023 and a great start of it.

    Thank you for the question: What changes are you planning on doing in 2023? Here is my answer.

    I am in the process of designing a teaching and learning environment for Calculus 1 where Learners and Instructor\s collaborate in the creation of an environment that supports active learning, embodies open spaces for reflection and engagement of the students in problem-solving, discussions and debate about course materials. My Spring semester starts in March, so right now I am preparing its implementation as a case study well-grounded in the literature.


    This classroom environment design will be based on Flipped Learning, embody the Building A Thinking Classroom groundwork integrated with Just-in-time teaching (JiTT) and Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL).

    In the flipped learning model (Talbert, 2017) students' first contact with new material in the course and their first steps at basic cognition using that material would take place outside of – and before – the class meetings and the higher-level work on this new material – work that focuses on applications, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity takes place during the class meetings.
    In Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics Liljedahl (2020) disaggregates teaching into fourteen discrete factors, each of which acts as a variable in the pursuit to increase students' thinking in the classroom.
    JiTT is a pedagogical approach that relies on formative assessment, a feedback loop between web-based learning materials and the classroom. (Developed by Gregor Novak and colleagues, (Novak et al., 1999))
    PLTL introduces peer-led teamwork as part of the lesson, engaging students in problem-solving, discussions and debate about course materials. PLTL has been proven successful in various STEM courses (Capone, 2022)
    Students who have done well in the course will be recruited as research assistants (PLTL) which I will call them Teaching and Learning Influencers - TLIs.

    The lesson delivery will start with the creation of random teams (possibly of three) working on a thinking task – a warm-up question which confers discussions about the video/reading assignments. Then the teams go on working on more challenging questions recognizing at every step of the solution the mathematical knowledge that supports it, reviewing and/or learning it just in time. The instructor and the TLIs walk around the classroom assisting the teams learning process providing hints and extensions not directly answering their questions. These hints and extensions should increase the team's ability and not necessary reduce the question's challenge, catalyzing a learning environment balanced between the ability of the group and the challenge of the question. The lesson continuous with the instructor leading a detailed discussion of the questions and solutions using the students' work, consolidating ideas around the topic, and recording them on the board. A time for meaningful note taking is provided at the end of the lesson, during which the students write notes to "their future forgetful selves" on a graphic organizer that has some sort of cell structure where students can organize different aspects of their notes.

    This is a work in progress (just starting :)) and I greatly appreciate your input.
    I invite you on joining me in this case study, experimenting with it, analyzing its effectiveness, reflecting on its implications on student learning and  the possibility of generalization to other classroom settings or student populations.

    Thank you, Bukurie



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    Bukurie Gjoci
    Assistant Professor
    CUNY - LaGuardia CC
    Long Islant City NY
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  • 3.  RE: IMPACT Discussion - Changes

    Posted 01-06-2023 08:32:00
    Bukurie, this sounds great. I will contact you about the study

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    Evan Evans
    Professor of Mathematics
    Frederick CC
    Frederick MD
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