It is important to recognize that the two 21/2 hour DL meetings each week are not conventional laboratory nor conventional discussion sections. They are discussion/laboratories. That is, what goes on in the DLs is not what goes on in a conventional introductory physics lab nor what goes on in a discussion section. Although there is no set prescription, there is a definite pattern that occurs in many DLs. This pattern might be thought of as an activity sequence. The sequence has four distinct, recognizable parts.
A) Students in small groups (SG) (four of five students in a group) carry out an activity.
B) Students in SG work together and come up with explanations, answers, models. etc.
C) SGs present explanations, answers, models, etc to the whole class (WC). (Usually each SG puts their work on the blackboard)
D) Instructor conducts a WC dialog based on the SGs presentations.
This activity sequence might be repeated two or three times during each 2.5 hour DL.
There are many variations within each of the primary parts. Sometimes students are asked to think about a question or prompt and write down their own ideas before discussion within the SG. Sometimes there is a WC dialog preceding (A). Sometimes students in SGs or individually are asked to revisit what they wrote and modify it at the end of the sequence. Sometimes the "output" of (B) is a SG response to be handed in; other times individual work must be handed in.
What is the goal of an A-B-C-D activity sequence? Usually, the primary goal of an activity sequence is to help students construct understanding of one or a few "conceptual building block(s)". That is, some students will deepen, reinforce, extend, their understanding; other students will modify existing understandings; and some will create new understandings (almost from scratch). The activity sequence causes students to reflect on what they understand, to confront how their understandings match with new sensory input and others' ideas, and to create new or modified understandings that they realize are more useful than their prior understandings. Often, the purpose of an activity sequence is to cause students to deepen their understanding and/or to further connect it to other prior experience, i.e., to generalize it.
To make this concrete, we summarize in a table the activity sequences used in weeks 5, 6, 7, and the first half of week 8 in Physics 7A Fall 95. In the seven DL meetings summarized, there were a total of 19 activity sequences. (Note on numbering: The first DL of the week is referred to as the "A" DL and the second as the "B" DL.) The table lists the activity sequence number, a short description of the activity, the targeted conceptual building blocks, and the kinds of things students are doing. Students are usually given a "Handout/Worksheet" for each DL. For each of the activities, the TA leads the class through the entire A-B-C-D sequence. Typically, only parts (A) and (B) are shown explicitly on the Handout/Worksheets that the students receive.
Specific conceptual building blocks are chosen to be treated in the DL activity sequences because experience has shown them to be difficult for students to master. Activities will be modified each time the course is taught to reflect new insights into how to most efficiently enable students to develop a robust understanding of the more crucial concepts.
The sequence of activities carried out by students in DLs 5A through 8A and summarized in the table offer a good example of how the class moves back and forth among the four "fundamental approaches."
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page created: 14-Aug-96