WEBVTT 00:00:00.441 --> 00:00:07.603 Hi I'm dr Tae and this is a talk similar to the one I recently gave to my last group of students 00:00:07.603 --> 00:00:12.038 At northwestern university. On the last day of class. 00:00:12.038 --> 00:00:16.625 A lot of my students wanted me to post the video of the original lecture online. 00:00:16.625 --> 00:00:18.596 But instead of doing that I'm doing this, 00:00:18.596 --> 00:00:20.737 I'm re-reccording this presentation. 00:00:20.737 --> 00:00:21.587 Just for you! 00:00:21.637 --> 00:00:26.593 So here it is: Building a new culture of teaching and learning 00:00:26.593 --> 00:00:29.465 But why do we need to build something new? 00:00:29.465 --> 00:00:33.144 what's wrong with our current current culture of teaching and learning? 00:00:33.144 --> 00:00:36.333 I can summarize the problem in two words: 00:00:36.593 --> 00:00:39.536 School Sucks! 00:00:40.305 --> 00:00:44.400 kids say this all the time and nobody listen, but now I'm saying it. 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:48.550 And its an idea that we need to start taking very seriously. 00:00:48.550 --> 00:00:55.162 Because its true school does sucks, especially when it comes to math and science education, 00:00:55.162 --> 00:00:58.195 which is going to be the main focus of my talk. 00:00:58.195 --> 00:01:01.777 So before we get to the part about building a new culture of teaching and learning, 00:01:01.777 --> 00:01:05.590 we need to take a carefull look at what's wrong with our education now. 00:01:05.990 --> 00:01:09.148 Let's start at the top with universities: 00:01:09.148 --> 00:01:12.855 the environnement I've been in for the past sixteen years. 00:01:12.855 --> 00:01:16.145 Universities are ideal places to teach and learn, 00:01:16.145 --> 00:01:20.094 and we can certainly turn to them for educationnal leadership. 00:01:20.367 --> 00:01:22.501 Actually no! 00:01:22.586 --> 00:01:25.288 "Universities are not doing a good job." 00:01:25.995 --> 00:01:28.783 And I'm not the only one whose noticed. 00:01:28.783 --> 00:01:31.263 this quote is actually from Leon Lederman, 00:01:31.263 --> 00:01:35.159 and he thinks there is a problem we should at least here him out. 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:40.422 Dr. Lederman is a former director of Fermilab he won the nobel price in physics, 00:01:40.422 --> 00:01:42.541 and he also know something about education: 00:01:42.541 --> 00:01:47.213 he started his own school the "illinois mathematics and science academy". 00:01:47.213 --> 00:01:50.475 Here is Leon Lederman in an interview with the science network. 00:01:51.367 --> 00:01:55.681 Right now my biggest anger is with the universities, 00:01:55.681 --> 00:01:59.145 because universities are not doing a good job. 00:01:59.145 --> 00:02:04.941 They do not continue the insperation that kids getting out of high schools have about science. 00:02:04.941 --> 00:02:09.484 there's teachers, and their students that are getting out of high school who say: 00:02:09.484 --> 00:02:13.213 I'm a science major I love chemistry I love biologie, 00:02:13.213 --> 00:02:18.097 and then they go to college and 50% of those kids change feels into none science feels. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:18.097 --> 00:02:20.666 That's the statictical data. 00:02:20.666 --> 00:02:22.092 Why! 00:02:22.092 --> 00:02:27.931 Because they go onto a class of 200 kids they see a small professor somewhere down there. 00:02:27.931 --> 00:02:33.453 You know, or maybe a teaching assistant whose english is not so good. 00:02:35.022 --> 00:02:38.357 The blame is on the universities, depersonalized. 00:02:38.357 --> 00:02:43.753 You know, Kids in high school ok at least there is 20 or 40 kids in a class, 00:02:43.753 --> 00:02:48.090 and these lecture rooms for physics one or chemestry one they are hudge. 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:53.244 I think its UCLA, at least at one point had an auditorial with 400 kids. 00:02:53.244 --> 00:02:56.479 All just sitting there listening to this one professor. 00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:00.428 You could hardly, you know, see him, or with binoculars. 00:03:00.428 --> 00:03:02.486 Oh! there he is, he's down there... 00:03:02.486 --> 00:03:05.653 Doctor Lederman use the word depersonalized, 00:03:05.653 --> 00:03:09.030 and it captures a lot of what's wrong in our universities. 00:03:09.030 --> 00:03:12.374 Here is a picture I took of a lecture class at NorthWestern. 00:03:12.374 --> 00:03:16.898 It's just one of many examples of "depersonalizition 1 0 1". 00:03:16.898 --> 00:03:21.648 First this snapshoot illustrate a gigantic failure in leadership: 00:03:21.648 --> 00:03:27.128 people at universitie approve this ridiculous format has an ok way to teach. 00:03:27.128 --> 00:03:32.409 Second the professor at the podium made no attempt to engage the students 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:33.813 that were right in front of him. 00:03:33.813 --> 00:03:36.692 The final and most disturbing thing 00:03:36.692 --> 00:03:38.563 is what the students are doing: 00:03:38.563 --> 00:03:42.045 they're falling asleep, checking facebook or they're email, 00:03:42.045 --> 00:03:45.816 or paradoxically regestering for next term classes 00:03:45.816 --> 00:03:50.147 right in the midlle of class they're completely tuning out. 00:03:50.147 --> 00:03:54.061 Maybe they want to make sure they get a spot in "depersonalization 1 0 2". 00:03:54.061 --> 00:03:57.142 Just try and put yourself in this room. 00:03:57.142 --> 00:03:59.462 Would you pay tuitions to sit in this room? 00:03:59.462 --> 00:04:02.375 Does this environement suit how you learn? 00:04:02.375 --> 00:04:09.296 Universities are supposed to be places where students and faculty I've a lively exchange of ideas. 00:04:09.296 --> 00:04:14.125 And that isn't happening because the culture is become so depersonalized. 00:04:14.125 --> 00:04:20.756 And university leaders faculty and students collectivly let that happenned. 00:04:20.756 --> 00:04:26.409 We should think twice before we refered to a prestigious university has a good school. 00:04:26.409 --> 00:04:30.330 Sadly universities arn't exempt from school sucks. 00:04:30.330 --> 00:04:33.896 Now I need to explain why secondary school suck. 00:04:33.896 --> 00:04:38.274 and I'll start by citing american finest news source: the onion. 00:04:38.274 --> 00:04:44.265 "Increasing number of educators found to be suffering from teaching disabilities" 00:04:44.265 --> 00:04:46.750 Here is my favourite part of the article: 00:04:51.780 --> 00:04:54.082 It's funny cause its true! 00:04:54.082 --> 00:04:59.345 And here is some comments from Lawrence Krauss that might explain why its true. 00:04:59.345 --> 00:05:03.209 Dr Krauss is director of the Origins initiative at Arizona state, 00:05:03.209 --> 00:05:06.324 and he does a lot of work to promote good science education. 00:05:06.324 --> 00:05:09.006 Here is a scary statistic: 00:05:09.174 --> 00:05:16.477 So we compared american students to their counterparts in other 20, 25 other industrialization, 00:05:16.477 --> 00:05:20.278 and there were recent study that came out. 00:05:20.278 --> 00:05:23.548 So we look at kids in grad three and grade five 00:05:23.548 --> 00:05:25.259 and then fifteen year old. 00:05:25.259 --> 00:05:28.766 and what's amazing is grade three and grrade five american students 00:05:28.766 --> 00:05:31.929 on the whole do better in science and mathematics 00:05:31.929 --> 00:05:33.385 than their counterparts. 00:05:33.385 --> 00:05:35.755 but by the time they're fifteen they do subsentially worse 00:05:35.755 --> 00:05:41.048 So we've be doing something very effective to de-educate them or disinterest them in science 00:05:41.048 --> 00:05:45.995 and one of the reason is another equally scary fact which is that. 00:05:45.995 --> 00:05:50.639 over ninety percent of middle school science teachers in this country 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:53.007 have never taken a science course outside of highschool. 00:05:53.007 --> 00:05:54.395 and.. 00:05:54.395 --> 00:05:55.753 what..what percentage was that? 00:05:55.753 --> 00:05:57.001 over ninety percent. 00:05:57.001 --> 00:05:57.998 ninety! 00:05:57.998 --> 00:05:58.835 ninety, yea. 00:05:58.835 --> 00:05:59.348 not nine! 00:05:59.348 --> 00:06:00.747 no, ninety ... 00:06:00.747 --> 00:06:04.290 I had the same reaction than richards dawkings: 00:06:04.290 --> 00:06:09.738 what! How did this happened? How did we let so many unqualified teachers into our schools? 00:06:09.738 --> 00:06:12.815 I think one reason is hiring practices. 00:06:12.815 --> 00:06:18.363 School sucks because the people who run them don't hire great teachers. 00:06:18.363 --> 00:06:21.302 Once again lets start at the top: 00:06:21.302 --> 00:06:24.922 At universities professors aren't really hired to teach. 00:06:24.922 --> 00:06:28.545 they hired and promoted based on the research they do. 00:06:28.545 --> 00:06:33.582 As a result teaching its rarely a priority for professors and it shows. 00:06:33.582 --> 00:06:38.333 Last year I was on a faculty pannel for advising graduate students 00:06:38.333 --> 00:06:43.408 about getting academic jobs and, the other professors on the pannel admited 00:06:43.408 --> 00:06:47.655 that teaching wasn't that important in getting a faculty position 00:06:47.655 --> 00:06:51.127 One of the professor on the pannel was a department chair. 00:06:51.127 --> 00:06:54.470 And she actually reffered to her department school offerings 00:06:54.470 --> 00:06:56.852 as a teaching burden 00:06:56.852 --> 00:07:00.686 that the kind of leadership we have at our universities. 00:07:00.686 --> 00:07:04.073 At the secondary level the problem is hiring teachers 00:07:04.073 --> 00:07:06.651 who just don't know what they are talking about, 00:07:06.651 --> 00:07:07.799 especially in the sciences. 00:07:07.799 --> 00:07:13.534 Here I want to point out the difference between: certification and qualifications. 00:07:13.534 --> 00:07:18.748 For example: I have a Phd in physics, I've been teaching for fireteen years, 00:07:18.748 --> 00:07:24.135 but I'd probably have a hard time getting job teaching at a public school. 00:07:24.135 --> 00:07:28.980 why? Because I never wasted time in a programm to get certified 00:07:28.980 --> 00:07:30.516 to teach in a public school. 00:07:30.516 --> 00:07:32.931 That's backwards! 00:07:32.931 --> 00:07:38.039 If its true that our public schools are already full of certified teachers 00:07:38.039 --> 00:07:39.480 who don't know what they're doing 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:44.287 then that means the certification process we have right now doesn't work! 00:07:44.287 --> 00:07:48.011 if we want to start getting truly qualified teachers 00:07:48.011 --> 00:07:51.462 we need to get ride of this fraudulent certification system. 00:07:51.462 --> 00:07:55.362 And start hiring people based on real competency. 00:07:55.362 --> 00:08:02.383 The lesson here is that schools have hiring practices that are barriers to getting great teachers. 00:08:02.383 --> 00:08:06.322 And the immediate consequence is that schools at every level 00:08:06.322 --> 00:08:10.084 are full of teachers who can't teach or don't want to teach. 00:08:10.084 --> 00:08:12.391 Now if math and science education 00:08:12.407 --> 00:08:14.379 is really in shambles, 00:08:14.379 --> 00:08:17.315 how did someone like me get into science? 00:08:17.315 --> 00:08:23.960 Well its not because I was immerse in a nationnal culture dedicated to math and science education: 00:08:23.960 --> 00:08:26.089 I was just lucky! 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:30.490 This is Dean Goldgar the person who got me interested in calculus. 00:08:30.490 --> 00:08:35.437 His high shcool calculus class was better than all the math classes into college. 00:08:35.437 --> 00:08:38.367 Mister Goldar have even work with me outside of class 00:08:38.367 --> 00:08:40.513 so I can study more advanced topic in mathematics. 00:08:40.513 --> 00:08:42.520 He was a real mentor. 00:08:43.027 --> 00:08:44.929 This is Kurt Wiesenfeld. 00:08:44.929 --> 00:08:46.655 My undergraduate mentor. 00:08:46.655 --> 00:08:50.627 Dr wiesenfeld taught the very first college physic class I took, 00:08:50.627 --> 00:08:52.763 and he inspired me to major in physics. 00:08:52.763 --> 00:08:55.861 But that first class was special. 00:08:55.861 --> 00:09:00.668 It was an honor section that only eight students bother sign up for. 00:09:00.668 --> 00:09:02.479 How lucky was that! 00:09:02.479 --> 00:09:05.753 why hundreds of other kids were sitting in lecture halls. 00:09:05.753 --> 00:09:09.538 Eight of us hit the jackpot and had this professor all to ourselves, 00:09:09.538 --> 00:09:11.198 five days a week. 00:09:11.198 --> 00:09:15.775 It was personalized. And it had a huge impact on me. 00:09:15.775 --> 00:09:20.858 Noticed I'm not telling you stories about shiny new building or computer labs or 00:09:20.858 --> 00:09:24.235 interactive whiter boards that really had an influence on me. 00:09:24.235 --> 00:09:26.734 I'm talking about great teachers, 00:09:26.734 --> 00:09:30.789 and unfortunately great teachers are rare. 00:09:30.789 --> 00:09:33.732 David Griffiths understand this important point 00:09:33.732 --> 00:09:35.255 He said: 00:09:44.345 --> 00:09:45.561 That exactly right, 00:09:45.561 --> 00:09:47.771 but schools aren't doing enough of that. 00:09:47.771 --> 00:09:52.681 Now I want to shift years and talk more specifically about sciences classes. 00:09:52.681 --> 00:09:57.059 Dean Zollman had this great story about giving its eight year old daughter 00:09:57.059 --> 00:10:00.171 a tour of the physics building at his university. 00:10:00.171 --> 00:10:03.710 Enventually they came across a lecture hall full of students. 00:10:03.710 --> 00:10:04.881 His daughter asked: 00:10:04.881 --> 00:10:07.231 "What do all those people doing?" 00:10:07.231 --> 00:10:10.411 And Zollmen gave what seems like a reasonable answer: 00:10:10.411 --> 00:10:12.454 "They're learning physics." 00:10:12.454 --> 00:10:15.984 And its daughter responded with the exactly the right question: 00:10:15.984 --> 00:10:19.115 "DO they just sit there?" 00:10:19.115 --> 00:10:22.031 YEA, they do just sit there! 00:10:22.031 --> 00:10:24.840 And an eight year old can see right away 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:27.503 that there is something horribly wrong with that. 00:10:27.503 --> 00:10:32.957 A lot of science classes are set up to be completely unscientific. 00:10:32.957 --> 00:10:36.069 The first problem is that students just sit there. 00:10:36.069 --> 00:10:39.376 But if you're going to learn science you can just sit there! 00:10:39.376 --> 00:10:45.615 You have to think, and better yet, you have to do experiments: that's what labs are for. 00:10:45.615 --> 00:10:49.464 Unfortunately many labs exercices aren't any fun, 00:10:49.464 --> 00:10:53.922 and sometimes they don't even demonstrate phenomena in a convincing way. 00:10:53.922 --> 00:10:59.486 But teachers don't have to be convincing: because they have authority on their side. 00:10:59.486 --> 00:11:02.911 And they can use grades to enforce that authority. 00:11:02.911 --> 00:11:04.261 Who needs evidence! 00:11:04.261 --> 00:11:10.087 Science its true because the teacher said so and I have to know it for the test otherwise I'll get a bad grade! 00:11:10.097 --> 00:11:16.041 That's the message that comes across when science teachers doesn't really understand science. 00:11:16.041 --> 00:11:19.163 And its the exact opposite of what science is about. 00:11:19.163 --> 00:11:20.791 Here is an example. 00:11:20.791 --> 00:11:23.369 Lets assume you've never seen this thing before. 00:11:23.369 --> 00:11:25.840 Boy it sure does look like sciency! 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:29.824 I want you to memorize the content of this slide all of it: 00:11:29.824 --> 00:11:33.632 the names of the compounds, the sequence of the reactions were are the arrows 00:11:33.632 --> 00:11:37.112 you even have to learn how to prounonce "phosphorylation". 00:11:37.112 --> 00:11:41.987 You must reproduce this drawing from memory next week on a test. 00:11:41.987 --> 00:11:45.429 Lets say you manage to pull this off and get an hundred percent on the test. 00:11:45.429 --> 00:11:51.070 Congratulations! You haven't learn a damn thing about science. 00:11:51.070 --> 00:11:56.039 Whay I just describe was my experience in highschool biology. 00:11:56.039 --> 00:12:00.567 I had to memorize a lot of stuff that wasn't justified with any evidence. 00:12:00.567 --> 00:12:07.212 I didn't get to do a single expirement to convince myself that anything in that diagram is true. 00:12:07.212 --> 00:12:12.257 And if I didn't memorize all that stuff. I was gonna get a bad grade. 00:12:12.257 --> 00:12:14.569 Actually, it was worse than that: 00:12:14.569 --> 00:12:19.514 if I did a really good job at memorizing the material without thinking or understanding, 00:12:19.514 --> 00:12:21.707 I'd get a good grade! 00:12:21.707 --> 00:12:25.572 That is NOT the lesson we want to teach in our science classes. 00:12:25.572 --> 00:12:27.293 There has to be a better way. 00:12:27.293 --> 00:12:31.214 Where can we fing a good role model for science classes? 00:12:31.214 --> 00:12:33.400 How about these guys? 00:12:33.400 --> 00:12:37.440 "Myth Busters" is the most scientific show on television. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.136 Because as they say: 00:12:39.136 --> 00:12:42.711 "They don't just tell the myths they put them to the test!" 00:12:42.711 --> 00:12:48.098 The idea at the core of Myth Busters is the same as the core of science. 00:12:48.098 --> 00:12:53.137 If you want to figure out if something is true, you have to do the experiment. 00:12:53.137 --> 00:12:59.069 So in Myth Busters if the claims of a myth agree with experiments the myth is confirmed. 00:12:59.069 --> 00:13:03.736 If the claims of the myth disagree with the experiments its busted. 00:13:03.736 --> 00:13:05.909 That's just how science work. 00:13:05.909 --> 00:13:08.880 And that's the lessons that kids need to learn. 00:13:08.880 --> 00:13:13.038 Science classes should be Myth Busters projects that kids can do. 00:13:13.038 --> 00:13:14.845 But there is one itch. 00:13:14.845 --> 00:13:18.679 Addam and Jammy always give this warning at the beginning of every show: 00:13:19.263 --> 00:13:23.264 Please don't try anything that you are about to see us do at home. 00:13:23.264 --> 00:13:25.042 Ever! 00:13:25.042 --> 00:13:28.210 Maybe lawers are getting in the way of science education. 00:13:28.210 --> 00:13:33.395 Of course we don't want kids injuring themselves by filling their lunchboxes with thermite. 00:13:33.395 --> 00:13:37.394 But we do want kids to copy the spirit of Myth Busters. 00:13:37.394 --> 00:13:42.978 We should encourage kids to try experiments at home, and try to figure things out for themselves. 00:13:42.978 --> 00:13:49.396 That's way more scientific than just telling kids to memorize stuff in science books. 00:13:49.411 --> 00:13:53.414 Our last stop in school sucks, has to do with learning. 00:13:53.414 --> 00:13:57.285 If schools and school reforms are going to be effective. 00:13:57.285 --> 00:13:59.896 They have to be design to help people learn. 00:13:59.896 --> 00:14:02.812 Here's how school are typically structured: 00:14:02.812 --> 00:14:13.572 there's a school year divided into terms, and in each term there is specific courses avalaible and a fixed amount of time to learn the material in each course and the instructor evaluates the students somehow and gives our grades... 00:14:13.572 --> 00:14:18.143 NONE of these features are necessary for learning. 00:14:18.143 --> 00:14:21.361 And I think they actually interfere with the learning process. 00:14:21.361 --> 00:14:23.626 Why would I say that? 00:14:23.626 --> 00:14:27.235 Because I have a better model of learning. 00:14:28.327 --> 00:14:31.009 Skatboarding! 00:14:31.209 --> 00:14:34.159 So what can skatboarding tell us about the learning process? 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:35.969 Lets find out. 00:14:35.969 --> 00:14:40.786 This next section also happens to be the motivation from my physics of skateboarding project. 00:14:40.786 --> 00:14:43.713 Which you can check out at: physicsofskateboarding.com 00:14:43.713 --> 00:14:49.434 What I'm going to show you is a video of me trying to learn a new skateboarding trick. 00:14:49.434 --> 00:14:52.177 This is a trick I had never even tried before: 00:14:52.177 --> 00:14:54.522 a pop shove it nose manual shove it out. 00:14:54.522 --> 00:14:58.632 I want you to focus on this video, really watch it carefully. 00:14:58.632 --> 00:15:03.575 Because its a vivid example of what the learning process is really like. 00:15:03.575 --> 00:15:06.062 So here the ingredients of the trick. 00:15:06.062 --> 00:15:09.927 A pop shove it were I pop the board up and it turns an hundred and eighty degrees. 00:15:09.927 --> 00:15:13.028 A nose manual were I balance over the front wheels. 00:15:13.028 --> 00:15:16.684 And, a little shove it off the nose another hundred and eighty degrees. 00:15:16.684 --> 00:15:19.994 But now I have to learn how to put those tricks together into something new. 00:15:29.130 --> 00:15:30.145 Shiiit ! 00:15:30.145 --> 00:15:33.233 Woua. Why am I almost dying every time I try this?! 00:15:33.233 --> 00:15:35.658 Doing the trick is impossible! 00:16:14.155 --> 00:16:16.383 Holly shit! 00:16:16.907 --> 00:16:21.319 Noticed that I didn't get it first try or second try. 00:16:21.319 --> 00:16:26.969 I didn't show you all of the attemps, but I had to try this trick fifty eight times! 00:16:26.969 --> 00:16:29.842 That means in the process of learning this trick: 00:16:29.842 --> 00:16:32.963 I failed fifty seven times! 00:16:32.963 --> 00:16:35.158 Interesting... 00:16:35.158 --> 00:16:38.967 Skatboarding had helped us discover the secret to learning. 00:16:38.967 --> 00:16:40.207 Here it is: 00:16:40.207 --> 00:16:44.215 Work your ass off until you figure it out. 00:16:44.215 --> 00:16:50.669 If that seems overly simplistic to you, let me some more examples. 00:16:51.530 --> 00:16:53.483 Learning how to walk. 00:16:53.483 --> 00:16:55.779 That's a picture of me and my sister. 00:16:55.779 --> 00:16:59.096 We don't need to send toddlers to walking schools 00:16:59.096 --> 00:17:03.846 so that can get bad grades if they don't learn how to walk in exactly one semester. 00:17:03.846 --> 00:17:07.412 We just let toddlers keep trying to walk untill they do. 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:10.899 Learning an instrument. 00:17:10.899 --> 00:17:14.235 There was a time when I was actually pretty good at playing the guitarre 00:17:14.235 --> 00:17:16.710 But its not something I learned in school. 00:17:16.710 --> 00:17:20.164 I just practiced as much as I could because I wanted to play better. 00:17:20.164 --> 00:17:23.235 And I don't know of many people who take guitarre lessons 00:17:23.235 --> 00:17:25.811 that's involve hundreds of students in a lecture hall. 00:17:25.811 --> 00:17:29.587 Music instruction is almost always personalized. 00:17:30.448 --> 00:17:32.124 Learning Mathematics. 00:17:32.124 --> 00:17:36.321 Not that he needs one but I have to give Malcolm Gladwell applaud here. 00:17:36.321 --> 00:17:38.655 Because he has new book out called "Outliers". 00:17:38.655 --> 00:17:42.209 And there is a great story in there, from Allan Schoenfeld, 00:17:42.209 --> 00:17:45.368 a professor at Berkeley who studies how people learn mathematics. 00:17:45.368 --> 00:17:48.789 Shoenfeld tells us the story of a nurse named Renee, 00:17:48.789 --> 00:17:53.500 who is using computer program to understand the slope of a vertical line. 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:55.200 Here is the important passage: 00:17:55.200 --> 00:18:01.636 "Twenty-two minutes pass from the moment Renee begins playing with the computer program to the moment she says: 00:18:01.636 --> 00:18:07.255 'Ahhhh, that means something to me now.' That's a long time." 00:18:07.255 --> 00:18:12.567 Renee had to wrestle with a mathematical concept for a long time, 00:18:12.567 --> 00:18:15.967 before it started making any sense. 00:18:15.967 --> 00:18:19.311 That's what learning mathematics and science is really like! 00:18:19.311 --> 00:18:22.097 Our schools arn't set up to handle that. 00:18:22.850 --> 00:18:25.074 Scientific Research. 00:18:25.074 --> 00:18:27.931 This is an entry of one of my notbooks from grade school, 00:18:27.931 --> 00:18:32.025 when I finally figured out how to solve a problem I've been working on for months. 00:18:32.025 --> 00:18:37.832 But before that day I had already filled a bunch of other note books with tons with other ideas 00:18:37.832 --> 00:18:39.723 that didn't work at all. 00:18:39.723 --> 00:18:43.761 I had lots and lots of failures before I finally figured it out. 00:18:43.761 --> 00:18:45.467 Sound familiar? 00:18:46.220 --> 00:18:48.767 So here is the head to head comparison: 00:18:48.767 --> 00:18:51.345 Schools vs Skateboarding. 00:18:51.345 --> 00:18:56.324 and when I say skatboarding I really mean the process of learning anything properly. 00:18:56.324 --> 00:18:59.458 I can't go into details with all of these points, 00:18:59.458 --> 00:19:02.514 but just look how different these two cultures are. 00:19:02.514 --> 00:19:08.027 Schools have rigid time-tables, fixed amount of time for learning material. 00:19:08.027 --> 00:19:10.595 That's incredibly stupid! 00:19:10.595 --> 00:19:14.900 All that does is stop us from develloping the kind of persistents we need, 00:19:14.900 --> 00:19:17.909 for real learning and real understanding. 00:19:17.909 --> 00:19:23.469 If you're learning something new, it doesn't make the least bit of sense to decide ahead of time 00:19:23.469 --> 00:19:26.361 exactly how long its supposed to take you to learn it. 00:19:26.361 --> 00:19:31.015 That's like saying I'm gonna get an 'F' if I don't land my skateboarding trick in ten tries, 00:19:31.015 --> 00:19:36.528 or I'm never going to understand the fundamental theorem of calculus if I can't do it in a week. 00:19:36.528 --> 00:19:38.038 No. 00:19:38.038 --> 00:19:40.917 If there's something you really have to learn, 00:19:40.917 --> 00:19:43.484 you keep working your ass off untill you figured it out. 00:19:43.484 --> 00:19:46.805 And that crucial for math and science education. 00:19:46.805 --> 00:19:50.162 Just like skateboarders struggling with new tricks, 00:19:50.162 --> 00:19:54.986 students need to learn how to struggle with new ideas without getting cut off. 00:19:54.986 --> 00:20:03.165 Next its surprising how many schools plays authority and coercion at the fundation of the learning environment. 00:20:03.165 --> 00:20:09.026 Instead of giving good reasons for learning teachers give threats in the form of bad grades. 00:20:09.026 --> 00:20:11.909 That just pits teacher and students against each other, 00:20:11.909 --> 00:20:16.711 and most experienced teachers know that you can't really force someone to learn something, 00:20:16.711 --> 00:20:18.113 if they don't want to learn it. 00:20:18.113 --> 00:20:21.217 But that's exactly what our schools try to do. 00:20:21.217 --> 00:20:24.328 Real learning is largely self motivated. 00:20:24.328 --> 00:20:28.378 If students have good reasons to learn they'll want to learn, 00:20:28.378 --> 00:20:34.096 and a self-motivated student, paired with the right mentor can learn a lot. 00:20:34.096 --> 00:20:38.761 In schools grades gives also students a sense of false certification. 00:20:38.761 --> 00:20:42.616 It's disturbing how many students think they mastered something, 00:20:42.616 --> 00:20:45.886 just because a teacher gave them an A in a class. 00:20:45.886 --> 00:20:50.510 In real learning student have to be honest and evaluating themselves. 00:20:50.510 --> 00:20:53.386 They can't kid about themselves about they learned. 00:20:53.386 --> 00:20:56.315 For example the skateboarding trick I did in the video. 00:20:56.315 --> 00:21:02.618 Here is an honnest assesment: "I only landed that trick once, and I can pretend I mastered it". 00:21:02.618 --> 00:21:07.540 With skateboarding and calculus and physics, nobody ever gets it at first try, 00:21:07.540 --> 00:21:11.957 and we can let students think they mastered something just because they've seen it once. 00:21:11.957 --> 00:21:14.371 Mastery takes practice. 00:21:14.679 --> 00:21:20.860 Schools also have to worry about preventing cheating and other forms of academic dishonnesty. 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:26.569 It would be way easier to have a culture that just didn't give incentives to cheat: like grades! 00:21:26.569 --> 00:21:32.390 If you're goal is to learn something properly there isn't much point in faking it. 00:21:32.390 --> 00:21:36.138 And in skatboarding I'm not even sure what it means to cheat. 00:21:36.138 --> 00:21:41.806 I don't know how to cheat in skateboarding it doesn't really exists, it's not applicable. 00:21:42.130 --> 00:21:43.449 So there you have it: 00:21:43.449 --> 00:21:48.269 if we want to improve education especially math and science education. 00:21:48.269 --> 00:21:50.568 We should make it more like skateboarding. 00:21:50.568 --> 00:21:54.276 But if you ever want to ruin anything... 00:21:54.276 --> 00:21:56.639 Make it more like school! 00:21:56.639 --> 00:22:01.063 Now we can get back to the original optimistic purpose of this talk: 00:22:01.063 --> 00:22:03.909 Building a new culture of teaching and learning. 00:22:03.909 --> 00:22:05.354 Were do we start? 00:22:05.354 --> 00:22:08.064 Well we need to fix our schools, 00:22:08.064 --> 00:22:13.728 But when I say that, it means that we have to change the fundamental culture in schools, 00:22:13.728 --> 00:22:16.574 to support how people actually learn. 00:22:16.574 --> 00:22:21.302 On top of that, we need to get leaders, who hire great teachers. 00:22:21.302 --> 00:22:26.640 I want to emphasize that changing the cultures is the priority. 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:31.913 If get better teachers, they need to teach the right things, in the right environment. 00:22:31.913 --> 00:22:35.370 If all they do is re-enforce the existing culture, 00:22:35.370 --> 00:22:38.263 and just do better job of teaching to the test, 00:22:38.263 --> 00:22:40.969 well, I don't think that's progress. 00:22:40.969 --> 00:22:45.292 That's why I'm weary of teacher recruiment programs like "Teach For America". 00:22:45.292 --> 00:22:50.535 Because changing the structure of schools isn't an explicit goal in those kind of programs. 00:22:50.535 --> 00:22:56.118 Anyway, making all of these changes might seem like trying to polish a turd. 00:22:56.118 --> 00:23:01.599 But here is the case for optimism, and if you've seen that episode of Myth Busters, 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:03.084 you know what's coming up... 00:23:03.084 --> 00:23:06.924 as it turns out: you CAN polish a turd! 00:23:07.263 --> 00:23:13.394 Here is how I polished a turd called physics 330-2: advanced classical mechanics. 00:23:13.394 --> 00:23:17.341 The typical way to teach classes like this is to get a professor to lecture, 00:23:17.341 --> 00:23:21.256 and have the students sit there, screw that! I did something different. 00:23:21.256 --> 00:23:27.569 First of all I didn't give a single lecture. I didn't want my students just sitting there, 00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:29.672 I turn the classes into workshops. 00:23:29.672 --> 00:23:35.885 My students came to class, worked together and really wrestle with difficult physics problems. 00:23:35.885 --> 00:23:39.215 And of course they got a lot of stuff wrong. 00:23:39.215 --> 00:23:44.556 And I would help them through that. But in that process the big advantage from me, 00:23:44.556 --> 00:23:48.307 was that I could see how my students were thinking into real time, 00:23:48.307 --> 00:23:52.033 and I could give them meaningfull feedback on the spot. 00:23:52.033 --> 00:23:56.067 You know the students and the professor were actually having a: 00:23:56.067 --> 00:23:58.619 "Lively exchange of ideas". 00:23:58.619 --> 00:24:02.017 The whole point at being at the university! 00:24:02.017 --> 00:24:06.744 So it really is possible to change the culture in the classroom. 00:24:06.744 --> 00:24:11.018 We just need teachers who are willing to take a chance on making those changes. 00:24:11.018 --> 00:24:14.645 But we also need to work outside the world of our classroom. 00:24:14.645 --> 00:24:19.177 And this where I think the biggest changes in our culture of teaching and learning can happen. 00:24:19.177 --> 00:24:22.928 I thought I invented the term distributed teaching. 00:24:22.928 --> 00:24:25.818 There doesn't seems to be a Wikipedia page for it, 00:24:25.818 --> 00:24:29.161 but, google says that other peolpe have used the phrase. 00:24:29.161 --> 00:24:31.879 So I should probably explain my version. 00:24:31.879 --> 00:24:36.638 The name distributing teaching was inspired by distributing computing. 00:24:36.638 --> 00:24:39.439 If you're not familiar with distributed computing, 00:24:39.439 --> 00:24:42.944 you should look out the SETI@home project as an example. 00:24:42.944 --> 00:24:48.889 But the basic idea is that using a lot of relatively slow computers part time, 00:24:48.889 --> 00:24:53.673 might be just as usefull as a single super-computer running full throttle. 00:24:53.673 --> 00:24:56.319 So what I mean by distributing teaching, 00:24:56.319 --> 00:25:00.430 is that, if everybody did some kind of teaching in they spare time, 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:06.492 that might be just as effective as having a group of full time teachers. 00:25:06.492 --> 00:25:09.718 So how do we start doing distributing teaching? 00:25:09.718 --> 00:25:11.830 Well, we're already doing it. 00:25:11.830 --> 00:25:17.389 The main tool using for distrubuting computing, is also usefull for distributing teaching: 00:25:17.389 --> 00:25:19.052 The Internet. 00:25:19.052 --> 00:25:22.590 I'm putting this talk online, that's one form of distributed teaching. 00:25:22.590 --> 00:25:26.241 Wikipidea is another kind of distributed teaching. 00:25:26.241 --> 00:25:30.449 Lots of people can share what they know in varying amounts, 00:25:30.449 --> 00:25:32.390 and contribute when they can. 00:25:32.390 --> 00:25:35.989 And it works just as well as traditionnaly encyclopedia 00:25:35.989 --> 00:25:38.835 offer by a limited number of people. 00:25:38.835 --> 00:25:41.389 Of course the idea of distributed teaching 00:25:41.389 --> 00:25:44.618 isn't just for the Internet, you can also do it in person. 00:25:44.618 --> 00:25:49.930 This summer I'm going to film a documentary about a group of scientist and engineers, 00:25:49.930 --> 00:25:53.033 who are going to be teaching at a space camp in south Korea. 00:25:53.033 --> 00:25:56.075 None of these people are professional teachers. 00:25:56.075 --> 00:26:00.765 They're just spending a little of their time, to share what they know with some kids. 00:26:00.765 --> 00:26:05.980 If all of us started things like this it would start adding up pretty quickly. 00:26:05.980 --> 00:26:11.562 But distributed teaching is only going to work, if you start contributed. 00:26:11.562 --> 00:26:15.593 But, why should you bother spending time sharing what you know? 00:26:15.593 --> 00:26:20.074 Well because if you don't, you're being unreasonably selfish! 00:26:20.074 --> 00:26:24.068 "Knowledge isn't like a cheesburger." 00:26:24.068 --> 00:26:28.500 I wish I could remember where I got this, its great really simple point: 00:26:28.500 --> 00:26:32.321 if I have a cheesburger, and I want to share it with someone. 00:26:32.321 --> 00:26:35.270 That means I going to end up with less for myself. 00:26:35.270 --> 00:26:37.430 Knowledge doesn't work that way. 00:26:37.430 --> 00:26:41.725 You can share what you know as much as you want and you won't lose any of it. 00:26:41.725 --> 00:26:45.080 There is no reason to be selfish with knowledge. 00:26:45.080 --> 00:26:49.866 And that's exactly why everybody should be teaching in some capacity. 00:26:50.558 --> 00:26:54.172 Maybe the most usefull thing distributed teaching can do, 00:26:54.172 --> 00:27:00.270 is drag people away from this weird notion that teaching and learning only happens in schools. 00:27:00.270 --> 00:27:04.936 Building a new educationnal culture isn't just about fixing schools. 00:27:04.936 --> 00:27:09.019 It's really about making teaching and learning cultural habit. 00:27:09.019 --> 00:27:11.689 Things that all of us do all the time. 00:27:11.689 --> 00:27:15.000 And building that new culture isn't hard. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.889 We just have to follow just one simple rule: 00:27:17.889 --> 00:27:20.981 Share What You Know. 00:27:20.981 --> 00:27:22.988 Thank you very much for listening. 00:27:22.988 --> 00:27:24.766 If you want to keep track of my projects: 00:27:24.766 --> 00:27:31.241 please visit: drtae.org physicsofskateboarding.com and universitae.com 00:27:31.241 --> 00:27:33.554 Thanks again. 00:27:42.340 --> 00:27:45.406 Nobody is gonna watch this!