Fostering a growth mindset with educational technology, classroom practices, and consistent messaging
Whitney Duim
Description
Learning involves facing challenges, struggling with difficult concepts, and making mistakes. In this presentation, I will discuss how I support the adoption of a growth mindset in my upper and lower division chemistry courses with educational technology, classroom practices, and frequent, consistent messaging. In particular, I will discuss my use of pre-lecture videos, iClicker questions (practice and review), multiple low-stakes assessments, Piazza, and Gradescope and Canvas rubrics. My goal is to normalize the challenge of learning difficult concepts, and motivate students to keep practicing and use mistakes as learning opportunities. I will also share the positive feedback I received from a preliminary survey about growth mindset in an upper division Physical Chemistry course, and from comments in the course evaluations of other courses.
Link to the video [video.ucdavis.edu]
Access the presentation slides (PDF)
♦ Dr. Duim will be participating in a live panel session on September 12th at 12:00 pm to briefly discuss her talk and answer questions from SITT attendees. To submit a question for Dr. Duim, use the SITT 2024 Panel Questions Google Form.
About the Presenter
Whitney Duim (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Teaching Chemistry at UC Davis who teaches general, physical, analytical, and medicinal chemistry. Her interests include building engagement with challenging chemistry concepts in the classroom through clear organization, empathy, growth mindset, and a focus on problem solving. Whitney also teaches a First-Year Seminar Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that she developed: “Nanoscale characterization of protein aggregates involved in human disease”. The CURE combines her research on protein aggregation and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy with her goals of providing research experiences for larger numbers of students, increasing the size of and retaining diverse student populations in STEM fields, and building student confidence, sense of belonging, and analytical skills.
