Rationale

To improve knowledge and understanding. The idea was to try to reinforce a student’s understanding of the material without the student just blindly learning how to apply the physics of the problem.

Successes

In both classes there was an improved pass rate at the 1^st attempt examination. An interesting side effect of the approach used for PH 352 was the fact that the quantum physics marks improved which was attributed to the fact that the students felt more comfortable with the electromagnetism material so that they could concentrate on the quantum physics element at exam time. (More data is available on request) We also saw a difference in group performance for PH 352 approach, depending in how active the tutors were. (Again, more data is available).

Lessons Learnt

There is a need to ensure that tutors are willing to drive the tutorial in a way that encourages students, and as such the Department needs to better train the tutors at the start of the class.

Challenges

Getting student buy-in was a challenge, as the approach was slightly different from their previous experience. For PH 358 the approach used caused an almost 50/50 split in the class over whether the students agreed with the approach or not. The lecturer had to deal with a significant amount of “noise” too.

Scalability

This was offered to classes of about 100 students. The only scalability issue relates to the number of students and the student / tutor ratio.

Suggestions for Transferability

This could be applied to any problem solving initiative be it mathematics type problems through to design problems.

Attachments