Matt AngionoPhys 4810The Tutorial Supplement Method of Teaching Introductory PhysicsAt the center of the discussion about physics education research, there has alwaysbeen the most crucial and yet still disputed question of how to teach introductory physics.For the past few centuries, the common method of teaching has been for instructors tolecture to their students, and grades were mostly determined from scores on homework,exams or the combination of both. However, this method has proven to be unsuccessfulon the large scale, and studies have shown that the lecturing method is simply not aneffective way for students to learn (McDermott 1993). Since this realization, the field ofphysics education research has grown immensely, and many new methods for teachingphysics have arisen. One technique that has been somewhat more successful in recentyears is the tutorial method (McDermott 2002). This is where students are guidedthrough an introductory course by tutorials, which give students the tools and basicguidance necessary to figure out the physics for themselves.Tutorials are books that present questions and suggest ideas that coincide witheach topic, and they force students to come up with their own solutions. The role of theinstructors in the tutorial atmosphere is not to lecture or “teach” at all, but rather to askconstructive questions that will lead students in the right direction. In this method, astudent with a question is almost always confronted with a more basic question in return,one that will generally lead them to the answer. If this doesn’t work, the instructor thenproposes an even more basic question. The difficulty with this method is that it is verytime consuming, requiring multiple instructors for each section (even in smaller ones)and a lot of individual attention from them. This makes it difficult to cover as muchmaterial as a strictly lecture-based course, which is possibly a large reason this methodhasn’t been as widely accepted. We’ve seen similar problems to this in trying to designfull-size laboratory classes. Resources can be a huge limiting factor in large universitieswhere introductory class sizes are often in the range of 400 or 500 students. The solutionto this problem has been to create a mix between the lecture and tutorial methods, as hasbeen done with laboratory classes for many years. The regular three hours a week aretaught as a lecture course, but then an additional hour is set aside for students to meet in atutorial section, which supplements the material they learn in lecture and allows themsome exposure to physical examples.The tutorial supplement is the method we have applied here at CU Boulder, and itseems to have been fairly successful. Studies have been done at the University ofWashington where the Tutorials were first developed to show that the tutorials are amuch better substitute to the recitations where teaching assistants would just go overhomework problems (McDermott 2002). Throughout this past semester, I have workedin tutorials as an LA (learning assistant), in which I am one of the “guides” that helpsstudents through the tutorials. The goal of the tutorial supplement method is the same asin workshop physics, in that we are not to give students answers, but rather to give themthe direction they need to find the answers for themselves. The purpose of my project isto explain and analyze my experience over the past semester and to show where I feel themost significant improvements need to be made. I will explain in detail why these areimportant and how they will benefit the students, and then provide an example tutorialthat demonstrates the changes that I have made. It will also include information that Iwould provide in an instructor’s edition, where the purpose of each problem is stated sothat they know what to be expecting from students.The first thing that I would like to discuss is the overall structure of the tutorialsessions themselves. It is important to realize that the topics covered in the tutorials areusually covered earlier in the week in the lecture, so this is not the students’ firstexposure to the material at hand. Still, we take the most basic approach so that even ifthey had missed class they should be able to do well. The basic fifty minute class goes asfollows. Students come and sit down in groups of 4 to 5 and one of the TA’s (teachingassistants) gives a brief introduction on what to look for in the tutorial as well as anyother general information (this is determined in an instructor training session the previousweek). Students are then set free to work through the tutorial at their own pace. TheTA’s and LA’s that are present then walk around from group to group and provide helpwhere needed. When I am walking around I first try to listen to group discussion onwhatever topic they are on to see if they need help with that specifically. If so, I interjectwith some helpful questions that force them to support their answers. If not, I look toprevious answers on the tutorial questions and make sure these are all correct. I tend toask them questions about their answers no matter what, so that they must justify whatthey put down. If they were wrong my approach would be to ask questions that willmake them realize where they made their error. If they were right, I would purposelyquestion them in a way that they would be forced to defend their answer using what theylearned. Usually these types of discussions are very productive. Instructors get a chanceto see what and how students are thinking, and in the future they can design an approachthat will tend to each student’s individual needs. Students also benefit from being forcedto explain the answers to us. It is well known that one of the best ways to learnsomething is to attempt to teach it yourself. This can also be used if there is a singleperson in disagreement with everyone else about a specific question. If the individual iscorrect, it provides the perfect situation for them to “teach” the rest of the group (stillwith an instructor present to mediate). They not only reinforce their understandingimmensely, but also many students learn better from their peers. These discussionsusually last five to ten minutes and then I move to a new group. After a group is donewith the entire tutorial, they are kept until the end of the period, so they may sit arounddiscussing the tutorial further with themselves and the