Making Connections: Learning and Research

The UBC Okanagan Learning Conference May 2 - 4, 2007

Opening Plenary - Carl Wieman
Wednesday, May 2

Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the tools of science to teach science

Guided by experimental tests of theory and practice, science has advanced rapidly in the past 500 years. Guided primarily by tradition and dogma, science education meanwhile has remained largely medieval. Research on how people learn is now revealing how many teachers badly misinterpret what students are thinking and learning from traditional science classes and exams. However, research is also providing insights on how to do much better. The combination of this research with modern information technology is setting the stage for a new approach that can provide the relevant and effective science education for all students that is needed for the 21st century. I will discuss the failures of traditional educational practices, even as used by “very good” teachers, and the successes of some new practices and technology that characterize this more effective approach, and how these results are highly consistent with findings from cognitive science. I will also compare the fundamental learning experience of the classroom with that of the research lab.

Keynote - Roland Case
Thursday, May 3

Debunking and redressing myths about critical thinking and university teaching

Roland Case, Ph.D.
Professor (retired) Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University
Co-founder, The Critical Thinking Consortium

A myth is a fiction often passing as a fact. In this talk I suggest why the following statements about university teaching may be more mythical than we think and what we might do to correct the situation:

Myth #1: We encourage critical thinking in our assignments.
Myth #2: We teach students how to think critically in our discipline /field.
Myth #3: We model critical thinking in our teaching.

The session will model ways of engaging an audience in thinking critically about the content of a presentation.

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Last reviewed 5/16/2012 9:24:06 AM