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Chancellor's
Distinguished Teaching Award
Chandralekha
Singh’s students apply physics to “everyday experience”
Chandralekha
Singh, Physics and Astronomy, is intensely interested in her teaching
– so much so that she does research in physics education, continually
developing new activities. Driven by a passion for her field and a concern
for students, her teaching goal is “to enable students to use basic
scientific principles flexibly to predict and explain diverse physical
phenomena in everyday experience.” In this way she hopes they can become
good problem solvers and independent learners.
In introductory
courses, Singh points out a challenge she and many other undergraduate
instructors face: “A diverse spectrum of students (she has up to 200
per class) with differing abilities, learning styles, and backgrounds
requires me to devise strategies that help them all.” One method she
has found effective is peer instruction. She interrupts her lecture
and asks questions with multiple-choice answers: “Students first arrive
at the answers themselves, and then discuss them with peers sitting
nearby. They can change their minds if their peers convince them that
their reasoning was faulty. I then poll the class to see how many have
answered correctly. This not only gives me feedback on the effectiveness
of my teaching, it also gives the students feedback on their progress
in meeting course learning goals. My main goal is that they are able
to apply concepts; just memorizing definitions is not enough. An added
benefit is that students are able to monitor their own learning. Both
high- and low-achieving students benefit because they must mentally
organize information in order to articulate it to others, and this process
helps them to better understand this material.”
Another strategy
Singh uses is group problem solving or, as she identifies it, GPS: “I
have found that students can learn so much from one another. They understand
one another’s language and identify one another’s difficulties more
easily than an instructor can. In fact, they are often struggling with
similar concepts or even the same concept. In GPS, I have several students
work together on problems that are more challenging and stimulating
than those found in the text. In conjunction with GPS, under a grant
from the Provost’s Avisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE),
Singh is creating videos for teaching students effective problem-solving
strategies.
Singh gets
many of her ideas while doing research in physics education. Often discovering
new techniques in other disciplines, she modifies these to fit her own
courses. She enthusiastically shares her strategies with colleagues:
“In my department, faculty are always looking for ways to improve their
teaching. Many are really receptive.”
She also works
to involve students in active learning processes outside of the classroom.
For example, she has designed a physics exploration center with the
help of the University and the National Science Foundation. This provides
students with an opportunity to do hands-on homework problems that are
brief, guided, and self-paced. This hands-on center in Thaw Hall allows
students to clarify abstract concepts learned in class by connecting
them with the physical phenomena that they see every day. Another way
she keeps students engaged outside of class is by assigning them a project
that involves measuring “something” in the “real world” using the physics
concepts learned. Students, often working in teams, have come up with
varied and innovative projects such as examining the physics of a favorite
sport, determining the height of the Cathedral of Learning just by dropping
a penny from the top, measuring the acceleration of water in a toilet
bowl, or using pets to measure friction on rough and polished floors.
| With her intense enthusiasm and passion
for teaching, she lit a fire in me to further explore many topics
of interest and to pursue the lifelong learning process.
--Paul Roche, student
She is not only an effective teacher herself, but also
has influenced many of us in the department in the approach we
take to teaching physics.
--Ralph Roskies, colleague |
Along with her drive to help students understand physics,
Singh is vitally interested in her students’ general academic success.
“I think the undergraduate years are critical for students, and a mentor
plays a very important role. ” Therefore, she actively seeks out students
who are struggling and tries to point out opportunities to students
who show promise. Furthermore, Singh makes a point of acting as a mentor
for minority and women students and gives special encouragement to students
who aspire to teach in the public schools.
Finally, Singh wants her students to recognize some of
the rather mundane yet practical aspects of learning. She wants them
to recognize the importance of managing time efficiently and getting
needed help early in the semester “because physics is very hierarchical
– once a student gets behind, it’s difficult to catch up.” Also, although
many students stay after class to continue discussion, she wishes that
more would take advantage of her open door office invitation.
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