Instructional Pragmatism: Using a Variety of Evidence-based Approaches Flexibly to Improve Student Learning

Instructional pragmatism is essential for successfully adopting and adapting evidence-based active engagement (EBAE) approaches in that instructors should view improving teaching and learning as a process and not get disheartened if a particular EBAE approach does not produce the desired outcome. Instructional pragmatism entails keeping a variety of EBAE methods in one’s instructional toolbox and using them flexibly as needed to improve student learning and continuously refining and tweaking one’s implementation of the EBAE approaches to make them effective. Here we illustrate an example of instructional pragmatism in which a quantum mechanics instructor did not give up when an EBAE method involving implementation of a sequence of clicker questions on addition of angular momentum did not yield expected learning outcomes even though it was found effective earlier. Instead, the instructor remained optimistic, viewing improving teaching and learning as a process, and pulled out another EBAE method from his tool box that did not require him to spend more time on this topic in class. In particular, the instructor created an opportunity for students to productively struggle with the same problems they had not performed well on by incentivizing them to correct their mistakes out of class. Student performance on one of the addition of angular momentum problems posed on the final exam suggests that students who corrected their mistakes benefited from the task and learned about addition of angular momentum better than those who did not correct their mistakes. Encouraging and supporting physics instructors to embrace instructional pragmatism can go a long way in helping students learn physics because it is likely to increase their persistence in using various EBAE approaches flexibly as they refine and tweak their implementation for their students. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Instructional Pragmatism: Using a Variety of Evidence-Based Approaches Flexibly to Improve Student Learning

Development, Validation and In-Class Evaluation Of A Sequence Of Clicker Questions On Larmor Precession Of Spin In Quantum Mechanics

Development and Validation of a Sequence of Clicker Questions for Helping Students Learn Addition of Angular Momentum in Quantum Mechanics

Poster Session III

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Join us in exploring emergent themes in PER as a scholarly endeavor and as a research community!  Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?
Following the lead of AAPT for the summer meeting, PERC 20/20 was virtual. Enjoy browsing the content.

PERC SM 20

Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?

PAR-D.07  PER Student Content Understanding, Problem Solving & Reasoning II

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The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM 20

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. 

Paul Justice

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Instructional Pragmatism: Using a Variety of Evidence-based Approaches Flexibly to Improve Student Learning

Instructional Pragmatism: Using a Variety of Evidence-Based Approaches Flexibly to Improve Student Learning

Development, Validation and In-Class Evaluation Of A Sequence Of Clicker Questions On Larmor Precession Of Spin In Quantum Mechanics

Development and Validation of a Sequence of Clicker Questions for Helping Students Learn Addition of Angular Momentum in Quantum Mechanics

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