| Abstract | The physics education literature has repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of active leaning techniques over traditional lecture-based teaching. One active learning strategy currently gaining popularity at the University of Wisconsin is the use of cooperative group work in discussion sections. To encourage adoption and increase effectiveness, however, teaching assistants must have some training to understand the benefits of group work and to develop a sense of how best to design activities to capitalize on the social aspects of group work. In response to this need, we have developed a workshop for TAs on cooperative groups. In the workshop, we establish the benefits of active learning techniques through a review of literature and introductory exercises that expose the participants' own abilities to learn without understanding. We then address several practical and social obstacles to leading a successful group work session through a video presentation and role-playing activity where participants must resolve simulated problems in the group-based classroom. Throughout, we rely on small group discussions among the participants to model the approach we are presenting and to capitalize on the diversity of experience that the participants bring to the workshop. For this poster, we present results from two implementations of the workshop, one with a group of first-time TAs in physics (fall 2007) and another with a group from a variety of STEM disciplines (spring 2008). Pre-workshop and postworkshop surveys allow us both to gain ongoing feedback for future presentations of the workshop and to assess the effectiveness of our approach in changing TAs' attitudes toward cooperative group work. |
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