"Making just one Change"
In Fall 2019 a group of NE-IBLM faculty decided to read the book “Making just one Change” by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana (https://rightquestion.org/resources/make-just-one-change/). We met monthly on zoom to discuss two chapters and compare how we each tried to implement the new ideas. The book discusses the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) which helps students to ask and analyze their own questions.
Craig Tennenhouse (University of New England) reflects…
Being part of a small group book discussion was a great opportunity to delve deeper into the topic of QFT than I was able to on my own. It's easy to read and think about my own experiences in the classroom, but everyone else's stories and perspectives were helpful in addressing my own preconceptions and biases. The book itself lent itself well to self-reflection. As an instructor it was easy to put examples in the context of my own courses.
We all agreed that the book itself was too long. The major topics that encouraged our discussion could have been presented much more succinctly while still getting the points across. What were really beneficial were the discussions with the others. One thing that Chrissi did as facilitator that worked really well was to encourage all of us to try implementing methods from each month's reading into our classes. We talked about how we would implement them, share ideas, and then share our experiences at the next meeting. It was easier to implement than I expected, knowing that I was accountable at the next meeting to share something.
In my own classes (Calculus 1 and Discrete Mathematics) I saw mixed outcomes from the implementations. In Calculus I prompted with a simple figure of a curve with a tangent line and had them formulate questions. This was a new experience for them, and few of the questions encouraged discussion, nor were the questions themselves very thought-provoking. Once we got further into the book and I learned more about QFT I was able to develop better prompts and activities surrounding them. Towards the end of Calculus I prompted with a sketch of a pair of curves representing population growth rates. From the questions the groups came up with I made worksheets, which I then distributed to different groups and had them attempt to answer. They then, confidently, shared their answers with the class. In Discrete I prompted with the phrase "Mathematical truth", as suggested by another participant in the book club. It spawned a wonderful discussion in the small class.
We all agreed that the book itself was too long. The major topics that encouraged our discussion could have been presented much more succinctly while still getting the points across. What were really beneficial were the discussions with the others. One thing that Chrissi did as facilitator that worked really well was to encourage all of us to try implementing methods from each month's reading into our classes. We talked about how we would implement them, share ideas, and then share our experiences at the next meeting. It was easier to implement than I expected, knowing that I was accountable at the next meeting to share something.
In my own classes (Calculus 1 and Discrete Mathematics) I saw mixed outcomes from the implementations. In Calculus I prompted with a simple figure of a curve with a tangent line and had them formulate questions. This was a new experience for them, and few of the questions encouraged discussion, nor were the questions themselves very thought-provoking. Once we got further into the book and I learned more about QFT I was able to develop better prompts and activities surrounding them. Towards the end of Calculus I prompted with a sketch of a pair of curves representing population growth rates. From the questions the groups came up with I made worksheets, which I then distributed to different groups and had them attempt to answer. They then, confidently, shared their answers with the class. In Discrete I prompted with the phrase "Mathematical truth", as suggested by another participant in the book club. It spawned a wonderful discussion in the small class.
Victor Grigoryan (Simmons College) reflects… He also attended a QFT workshop in addition to our reading group
It was only me from the department who participated in the QFT workshop, and the larger conversations about the STEM curriculum are still ongoing (we are at the end of a transition after a major institutional redesign and in the middle of an accreditation process, so everyone is rather fatigued and things take a long time to come to fruition). I don't think the workshop contained any more information than the book, but it was useful in the practical aspects - most of the activities were hands-on, so people thought about how things would work in their classrooms and brought it back to the discussions, then implemented and shared back. So it may be worth to someone who is just beginning with QFT and is looking for that intensive workshop experience. But in our book club we discussed and shared our practical experiences too. So I guess the difference is mostly down to the intensiveness of the 2-weeks-long workshop.
I'm trying to implement a careful study of the effects of QFT in my calculus courses (especially on students' autonomy and self-efficacy) this semester, and hopefully this will add to the evidence of QFT's impact in our context and speed up the STEM curriculum conversations.
Christine von Renesse (Westfield State University) reflects…
I had never facilitated an online faculty reading group before (or any faculty reading group for that matter). I learned that it was helpful to have goals for the meeting and that I needed to have prompts ready to start the conversation. But I also needed to be able to let go of any agenda if the discussion flowed in a different way. Some aspects of the facilitation were harder for me to accomplish online than in a meeting in person. For example, it was difficult to make sure that everyone gets time to speak and share out, because some of my usual “tools” didn’t work. In a physical room I can influence a lot by where I am standing, what/if I am writing on the board, when I am doing a think - pair – share, etc. On zoom I had to be more direct with asking people to either share or stop sharing which felt uncomfortable at first.
It is difficult to talk about our own teaching - in particular about aspects that don’t work yet. So I decided to model by starting conversations with something I had tried that didn’t work yet and asking for advice. Over time, other participants shared what they were working on as well. I noticed that when we had 10 people on the call, it felt too much for participants to be vulnerable but 5-6 participants was just right to generate rich and open conversations.
Overall, I really enjoyed being a facilitator of the reading group and already have ideas which books I want to read next “in community.”
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| An example prompt from Pre-Calculus |
