5.95J/6.982J/7.59J/8.395J/18.094J (Spring 2009)
Teaching College-Level Science and Engineering

Designed for graduate students interested in an academic career, and anyone else interested in teaching. Readings and discussions include: teaching equations for understanding, designing exam and homework questions, incorporating histories of science, creating absorbing lectures, teaching for transfer, the evils of PowerPoint (but how to use slides well), and planning a course.

Newest items are in yellow.

Please fill out the online (HKN) course evaluation. Thank you!

Time/place Tuesdays 9-11, Room 32-141
Instructor Sanjoy Mahajan
Homework HW 1 |  HW 2 |  HW 3 |  HW 4 |  HW 5 |  HW 6 |  HW 7 |  HW 8
Readings For L02: Chunking |  Benezet experiment | 
For L03: Rote learning/misconceptions in mathematics |  Prob/statistics |  Physics | 
After L04: Mazur, "The problem with problems" | 
For L05: They're not dumb they're different |  Design-oriented analysis |  Backward design (Wiggins and McTighe (2005), Understanding by Design) | 
For L06: Benjamin Bloom, `The 2-sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring' |  Edwin Taylor on reading memos |  Morrison, `Lecture system in teaching science' | 
For L07: Walter Lewin's 8.01 lectures | 
For L08: Edward Tufte's analysis of PowerPoint-based communication |  Jean-Luc Doumont's paper on slides | 
For L09: Tactics for change |  selection from Education and the Rise of the Corporate State |  selection from Schooled to Order |  Only for my kid |  Case against competition
Handouts Blank feedback sheet |  Reading-memo assignment |  Lesson-planning sheet
Schedule
L01 Feb 03 General principles of teaching |  Your questions
L02 Feb 10 Teaching equations
-- Feb 17 No class: Monday schedule of classes
-- Feb 24 No class: I am a witness in an administrative-law trial
L03 Mar 03 Taking account of misconceptions; avoiding rote learning
L04 Mar 10 Designing homework and exam problems
L05 Mar 17 Course design
L06 Mar 31 Teaching interactively in large and small groups
-- Apr 07 No class: I am in Boulder giving seminars
L07 Apr 14 Lecture planning and performing
L08 Apr 28 Teaching with blackboards and slides: n factorial slides |  (source code)
L09 May 05 Political barriers to educational change
L10 May 12 Course Summary and your questions
Grading P/D/F. Grading philosophy
Resources Books: Voyages in Conceptual Chemistry |  Thinking Physics |  Teaching Introductory Physics |  Carol Dweck (2006), Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (New York: Random House)
Links: Middlebrook's notes on low-entropy expressions and more