Matt Angiono Phys 4810 The Tutorial Supplement Method of Teaching Introductory Physics At the center of the discussion about physics education research there has always been 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 to lecture 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 unsuccessful on the large scale and studies have shown that the lecturing method is simply not an effective way for students to learn McDermott 1993 Since this realization the field of physics education research has grown immensely and many new methods for teaching physics have arisen One technique that has been somewhat more successful in recent years is the tutorial method McDermott 2002 This is where students are guided through an introductory course by tutorials which give students the tools and basic guidance necessary to figure out the physics for themselves Tutorials are books that present questions and suggest ideas that coincide with each topic and they force students to come up with their own solutions The role of the instructors in the tutorial atmosphere is not to lecture or teach at all but rather to ask constructive questions that will lead students in the right direction In this method a student 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 then proposes an even more basic question The difficulty with this method is that it is very time 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 much material as a strictly lecture based course which is possibly a large reason this method hasn t been as widely accepted We ve seen similar problems to this in trying to design full size laboratory classes Resources can be a huge limiting factor in large universities where introductory class sizes are often in the range of 400 or 500 students The solution to this problem has been to create a mix between the lecture and tutorial methods as has been done with laboratory classes for many years The regular three hours a week are taught as a lecture course but then an additional hour is set aside for students to meet in a tutorial section which supplements the material they learn in lecture and allows them some exposure to physical examples The tutorial supplement is the method we have applied here at CU Boulder and it seems to have been fairly successful Studies have been done at the University of Washington where the Tutorials were first developed to show that the tutorials are a much better substitute to the recitations where teaching assistants would just go over homework problems McDermott 2002 Throughout this past semester I have worked in tutorials as an LA learning assistant in which I am one of the guides that helps students through the tutorials The goal of the tutorial supplement method is the same as in workshop physics in that we are not to give students answers but rather to give them the direction they need to find the answers for themselves The purpose of my project is to explain and analyze my experience over the past semester and to show where I feel the most significant improvements need to be made I will explain in detail why these are important and how they will benefit the students and then provide an example tutorial that demonstrates the changes that I have made It will also include information that I would provide in an instructor s edition where the purpose of each problem is stated so that they know what to be expecting from students The first thing that I would like to discuss is the overall structure of the tutorial sessions themselves It is important to realize that the topics covered in the tutorials are usually covered earlier in the week in the lecture so this is not the students first exposure to the material at hand Still we take the most basic approach so that even if they had missed class they should be able to do well The basic fifty minute class goes as follows Students come and sit down in groups of 4 to 5 and one of the TA s teaching assistants gives a brief introduction on what to look for in the tutorial as well as any other general information this is determined in an instructor training session the previous week Students are then set free to work through the tutorial at their own pace The TA s and LA s that are present then walk around from group to group and provide help where needed When I am walking around I first try to listen to group discussion on whatever topic they are on to see if they need help with that specifically If so I interject with some helpful questions that force them to support their answers If not I look to previous answers on the tutorial questions and make sure these are all correct I tend to ask them questions about their answers no matter what so that they must justify what they put down If they were wrong my approach would be to ask questions that will make them realize where they made their error If they were right I would purposely question them in a way that they would be forced to defend their answer using what they learned Usually these types of discussions are very productive Instructors get a chance to see what and how students are thinking and in the future they can design an approach that will tend to each student s individual needs Students also benefit from being forced to explain the answers to us It is well known that one of the best ways to learn something is to attempt to teach it yourself This can also be used if there is a single person in disagreement with everyone else about a specific question If the individual is correct it provides the perfect situation for them to teach the rest of the group still with an instructor present to mediate They not only reinforce their understanding immensely but also many students learn better from their peers These discussions usually last five to ten minutes and then I move to a new group After a group is done with the entire tutorial they are kept until the end of the period so they may sit around discussing the tutorial further with themselves and the instructors The largest problem with the tutorial supplement structure seems to be lack of