Observation Report by Craig Rudick
Describe the academic setting that you observed. Include the
professional's role in this setting. What were the goals for this class or
laboratory? Were the goals accomplished?
I observed Professor X deliver a lecture to his introductory astronomy class
of approximately 40 students. These students are non-science majors who are
taking the course to fulfill a science requirement. The lecture was delivered as
a Power Point slide presentation to the class. In that particular lecture, we
were discussing the surface features and geology of Mars. We did so in little
detail, with no mathematics, adding quantitative descriptions mostly to compare
the structure of the planet to the structure of the planets studied previously.
The major goal of the course, and the lecture specifically, is to try to
increase the student's interest in science, but also to teach them the basic
methods through which science works. This is different from many other science
classes which seek to teach students to actually be scientists. A great emphasis
was put on explaining the various missions and types of studies that have been
undertaken to study this planet in a general sense, but did not deal with
instrumentation, measurement techniques, or other technical details.
Describe the instructional strategies that enhanced the class or
laboratory that you observed. Consider the degree of involvement and interaction
that the students had with each other and the professional.
During the main lecture, Professor X often employed the use of rhetorical
questions in order to stimulate the the thinking of the students. The Power
Point slide presentation contained many colorful and spectacular photographs
that were designed to grab the attention of the students, and hopefully to be a
picture the could be remembered more easily than simply text. Also, the lecture
contained several short movies about Mars, attempting to further peak interest
in the subject, as well as to allow a small break from the normal course of the
lecture. However, the students' role was almost entirely as passive listeners,
with almost no student-student interaction and only a few questions and comments
directed at Professor X about the lecture. At the end of the chapter on Mars,
Professor X actually worked through some problems on the overhead projector,
similar to the problems the students will have on their homework assignments.
During this exercise he seemed to put more emphasis not on solving the specific
problem, but on general problem solving techniques. These techniques included a
stress on using the correct, consistent units in a problem, and always trying to
check your answer against what you already know to make sure the answer is
plausible.
Discuss what you have learned from this observation that you would like
to include in your own repertoire of instructional strategies.
I think the most interesting thing that I learned from observing Professor X
teach was how he went about solving the problems. His emphasis on basic problems
solving skills, rather than specific problems, is certainly useful to teach to
introductory science students. For several of the problems he demonstrated a
complete, mathematically correct method for finding the answer, as well as a
more quick and dirty way. It is important for students to learn that there are
many ways to solve a problem and it is important for us as teachers to try to
teach this skill to our students. I also noticed how Professor X used his
rhetorical questions to try to keep the students involved in what was
essentially a monologue lecture. In a class of over 40 students, it is often
impossible to incorporate a great deal of student interaction into the
curriculum. Thus it is important for us to do what we can to keep the students
interested and motivated. Professor X did this not only with his rhetorical
questions, but with his many picture and movie supplements.