For over 20 years, PER at Illinois has largely focused on leveraging technology and organizational structures to support research-based instruction in our large-enrollment introductory courses. In the past, we have referred to this process as 'parallel parking an aircraft carrier.' In response to the Covid-19 pandemic all components of the introductory courses were shifted to an online format. Many of our existing structures to teach physics at scale were transferable to an online setting. Yet, with the loss of physical proximity a new social dimension was added to the 'parallel parking' problem: How do we deliberately support engagement, collaboration, and community in our virtual classrooms? This talk describes our journey to incorporate this social dimension into our instruction in the Fall 2020 semester, highlighting the interplay between pedagogy and the affordances and constraints of online educational technologies, and sharing challenges and successes faced along the way.

Parallel parking an aircraft carrier in space

Improved critical thinking is a widespread objective of education, yet it is difficult to design specific learning objectives that target the process of thinking itself. We propose a model for developing critical thinking skills in the lab that prioritizes student agency and decision-making, developing skills and background knowledge as a foundation for expert-like thinking in the context of these decisions. Students are trusted to make meaningful progress based on their own perceptions, designing tasks where the process is more important than the result, and are graded using rubrics that allow students to take risks without fearing penalties. In this talk, we describe how our lab materials are designed to promote critical thinking, how skills are developed to support it, and our observations of the outcomes of this type of instruction.

Critical Thinking in Labs: Giving Students Room to Think

D1.1 Best Practices in Educational Technology Including PICUP and other cool Computational Stuff!

technical paper

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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. 

Katie Ansell

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Parallel parking an aircraft carrier in space

Critical Thinking in Labs: Giving Students Room to Think

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