Astronomy 398T
Supervised Teaching in Astronomy

Spring 1997 -- MWF 2:00-3:00

PROFESSOR: John Lacy

OFFICES: RLM 16.332, 16.334

PHONE: 471-1469

E-MAIL: lacy@astro.as.utexas.edu

HOURS: anytime, but avoid MWF 11-1; M-F 3:00 in 15.216A

CONTENTS:
The purpose of this course is to help you learn how to teach. As much as possible this will be done by having you teach. The majority of the teaching you do will be in a section of AST 301 which meets MWF 1:00-2:00. Each 398T student will prepare one AST 301 lecture of 20-50 minutes, prepare a set of homework questions and review questions, teach a review session, prepare and give a quiz, and grade your homework and quiz. In addition the AST 398T class will meet to discuss what will be taught in 301, to watch and critique a practice 301 lecture, and to discuss various topics related to teaching. The discussion of teaching topics will be run mostly by the AST 398T students.

GRADES:
The course will be graded based on the following requirements:
B:
  • prepare a lecture of 20-50 minutes for 301;
  • give a practice lecture on Monday of your week to teach;
  • give the lecture to AST 301 on Wednesday;
  • prepare homework and review questions to be handed out on Friday;
  • teach a review session the following week;
  • prepare and give a quiz on Friday of that week;
  • grade your homework and quiz;
  • participate in AST 301 at least twice each week;
  • participate in AST 398T class, in particular:
    • give comments on other students' lectures
    • join in discussion in Wednesday 398T class
A: do a good job on the above, and lead one Wednesday 398T discussion on a topic in teaching
POSSIBLE 398T DISCUSSION TOPICS (MOSTLY TAKEN FROM CTE 398T HANDBOOK):
test construction
grading
media use including computers
collaborative or group learning
active learning, especially in lectures
maintaining control of a class
teaching laboratory (or observational) courses
leading discussions
Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives
course design; connection to objectives
overcoming math anxiety
learning theory topics
a comparison of different lecturers styles
Some of these could be split among several discussion periods, and suggestions for other topics are welcome.