Session 6 DEMO

12 student responses

Learning & Understanding What do students find clear or confusing?

Do you generally agree or disagree with the following statement?

“I left today’s class knowing which parts I understood well and which parts remain unclear.”

Two students explained why the sleep-and-grades pattern leaves room for other explanations. One noted that the chart cannot establish causation; another suggested “Other things, like study time” could explain the pattern.
Two students remained unsure how to interpret the nap study’s results. One asked whether usual sleep habits could still affect results; another questioned the connection between word-list recall and course learning.
One student treated the nap result as having only one possible explanation. Describing what felt clearest, they concluded that “sleep must be the only reason for the difference.”

If people are randomly assigned to nap or rest, could their usual sleep habits still affect the result?
How remembering a word list tells us anything about remembering material for a course.

The quiet-rest group gives us something to compare the nap group with.
Why the sleep-and-grades chart by itself can't tell us that sleep caused better grades.
Other things, like study time, could explain the sleep and grades pattern.
The nap group remembered more words in our example, so sleep must be the only reason for the difference.
The difference between recording how much someone sleeps and assigning them to a nap group.

Applying research ideas to examples made class time worthwhile for several students. One realized they were “still calling any study with two groups an experiment”; another valued applying research terms despite still making a mistake.
Two students felt repeated discussion points reduced the value of class time. One wanted more time on the word-memory example; the other valued analyzing headlines before the discussion began repeating.

We spent a long time hearing similar answers to the headline question. I wanted more time on the word-memory example.

Working out what the comparison group was for.
Comparing the two study descriptions in our group.
Picking apart the headlines. The whole-class discussion started repeating the same points after that.
The small-group part, when we had to explain our choice to each other.

we had to say what the evidence actually supported instead of just choosing the headline that sounded right.
the example showed me I was still calling any study with two groups an experiment.
we came back to an example I remembered and I could see more problems with the claim this time.
I could use the research terms on an actual example, even though I still got part of it wrong.