Prof. Dr. Gorazd Planinšič (FMF): Student centered classroom: where to start?
In the last 20 years, the idea of student-centered learning/teaching became more and more frequent subject of talks and discussions not only among the pre-university educators but also among educators at the university level. While there is a huge body of evidence supporting the claim that our students learn more and better when they are actively engaged in the construction of their knowledge, student-centered learning is slow to be adopted in higher education. In my experience, it is easier to move your classes to student-centered environments by following small steps instead of making big changes. In my talk, I will present several ideas that might help both university physics teachers and teaching assistants move their classes to active learning and make them more student-centered. Specifically, I will share different ways of how we can convert traditional exercises and derivations into student-centered activities. These ideas are based on my observations of two colleagues teaching first year physics majors, who were also willing to modify their lessons based on my feedback and on my own experience with students at the master's degree physics education program at FMF UL.
