Nobel laureate Dr. Carl Wieman believes that science professors should apply the same scientific techniques from their labs in their classrooms as well. Speaking to UW-Madison students and local and non-local professors Wednesday evening, Wieman argued that science professors should experiment to find the most effective teaching methods and share them with colleagues.
Wieman told an audience of 370 people in the Union Theater that the goal of teachers should be to turn novices into experts.
\We want [students] to think about science like scientists,"" Wieman said.
That means instead of teaching them discrete facts and formulas, professors must challenge students to understand the coherence of different concepts and how they relate.
Wieman described the traditional method of teaching science as a college professor who stands on a stage, writing on a chalkboard with his back to his audience. ""Students don't learn that way,"" he said, because it encourages them to take notes, not to think.
Wieman described instead a technique from his own classes. Each student purchases a $29 ""clicker,"" a wireless remote control device. Each clicker is coded to an individual student, and lets the student transmit a multiple-choice answer. Wieman asks a question of the class, and each student clicks in their response. A computer then plots an anonymous histogram of all the answers so Dr. Wieman can see right away how well the whole class has understood the concept.
Wieman can also privately see each student's individual answers. This, he said, compels students to remain engaged throughout the entire lecture. He provided only anecdotal evidence to suggest that student retention is stronger using his methods.
The next scientific step, Wieman said, is to disseminate the results of his teaching 'experiment' so others can duplicate and build on his successes.
Wieman's message resonated with Marlann Patterson, a Ph.D. student of Plasma-Aided Manufacturing who was in attendance. Her undergraduate professors at the University of Florida were traditional lecturers who did not encourage discussion.
""I don't think I had a single good science teacher in my life,"" Patterson said, ""but not because they weren't smart. It was their methods that weren't good.""
Wieman won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics and has taught college physics for 24 years. His talk was sponsored by the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning.
