Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF7-O022 Invited Talk
USING RESEARCH-BASED PEDAGOGY WITH ADVANCED
STUDENTS
Ramon Lopez 1
1 University of Texas at Arlington, Physics, United States.
Discipline-based education research in STEM has focused much more on lowerlevel,
introductory courses as compared to upper division and graduate physics
education. However, there are general principles and findings that extend
across all areas of learning. One clear example of this is the strong research
evidence in favor of active learning environments. But taking the theoretical
basis and pedagogical strategies generated by research at one level of education
and applying it to create a learning environment appropriate to upper division
and graduate science and engineering courses requires careful consideration of
the issues facing students, and the instructor, in such courses. For example, the
motivations of students in an introductory course are very different the
motivations of students in a graduate course. The number of students in a
classroom is often quite different. The size of the research base in student
difficulties and the amount of research-based instructional resources available
to an instructor will be different. All of these factors affect the specific
implementation of active learning strategies in the kind of upper division and
graduate courses that materials science students would take. In this
presentation I will present several examples of how to apply research-based
techniques to classroom instruction in upper division and graduate courses that
would be approriate in materials science education as well as some data on how
upper division undergraduate and graduate students respond to these
instructional strategies.
Keywords: Research-based Pedagogy, Advanced Students, Student Response
Presenting authors email: relopez@uta.edu