Just In Time Teaching
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Just-in-time teaching (often abbreviated as JiTT) is a pedagogical strategy that uses
feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...
between classroom activities and work that students do at home, in preparation for the classroom meeting. The goals are to increase
learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...
during classroom time, to enhance student
motivation Motivation is an mental state, internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particul ...
, to encourage students to prepare for class, and to allow the instructor to fine-tune the classroom activities to best meet students' needs. This should not be confused with just-in-time learning, which itself focuses on immediate connections between learners and the content that is needed at that moment.


History

Just-in-time teaching was developed for university level
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
instructors in the late 1990s, but its use has since spread to many other academic disciplines. Early work was done in the physics department at
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana ( ) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the south and southeast, and the Wabash Riv ...
(IUPUI) in collaboration with physics instructors at
Davidson College Davidson College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina, United States. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after American Revolutiona ...
and the
United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...
(USAFA). Subsequently, JiTT was disseminated through a combination of publications, presentations, and workshops. Faculty members teaching in disciplines including
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
,
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
,
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
,
geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
,
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
,
mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...
,
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
,
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
, English, French,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
,
nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
,
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
,
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
,
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
, and
writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...
have adopted just-in-time teaching. JiTT is used primarily at the college level, although some faculty members have used it at the high school level, and in graduate and professional programs.


Methodology

JiTT may be described as a method by which some or all of the time students spend in preparation for class is used to leverage the quality of the time spent in class. To accomplish this, JiTT relies on pre-class assignments completed by students 1–24 hours before class meetings. These assignments are known variously as "Warmup exercises", "Preflight checks", "Checkpoints", and other names, depending on institutional settings. These assignments are usually completed online, either through a course
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, or through a learning management system. The pre-class assignments cover the material that will be introduced in the subsequent class, and should be answered based on students' reading or other preparation. As a result, these assignments provide a strong incentive for students to complete the assigned reading or other preparatory work before class. For this reason, JiTT has been compared to the use of "reading quizzes". However, there are important differences. Reading quizzes are generally given during class time. Since the pre-class JiTT assignment is completed online, no class time is used. Also, because students have more time to answer the pre-class questions than they do a typical reading quiz, the questions may be more open-ended and thought-provoking. This leads to another significant difference. Most faculty members make the pre-class assignment due at least 1 hour before class. This allows the faculty member to review the students' answers before class. In most cases, faculty members use this review to make adjustments to the planned classroom activities. If the faculty member feels that the students have mastered a topic, she may reduce or eliminate discussion of that topic during class. Similarly, if the pre-class assignment shows that students have particular difficulties, those difficulties may be addressed more thoroughly in class. These "just-in-time" adjustments lend their name to the technique, just as Just-in-Time business strategies rely on continuous adjustments to parts supplies and product
inventory Inventory (British English) or stock (American English) is a quantity of the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying ...
. Faculty using just-in-time teaching often use quotes from students' responses to the pre-class assignments as "talking points" during the class period. This emphasis on student work as the starting point or as a touchstone during class helps to make the class more
student-centered Student-centered learning, also known as learner-centered education, broadly encompasses methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student. In original usage, student-centered learning aims to develop learner ...
, and promotes interactive learning. To maximize the potential for this use, the questions posed in pre-class assignments should be open-ended and may be somewhat ambiguous. Taking the full set of methods described above into account, the cycle for a single classroom meeting is as follows. # Students complete reading or other preparatory work # Students complete pre-class assignment # Faculty member reviews pre-class assignments, and considers changes to classroom emphasis. # Faculty member selects quotes from pre-class assignments to refer to during class. # During class, faculty member uses quotes from student work to lead discussion of the material. # During class, students engage in discussion of the material with the faculty member and with one another. # Faculty member creates or adjusts next pre-class assignment to best meet students' needs in light of progress made during class.


Theoretical basis

Just-in-time teaching had its origins in the classrooms where faculty were looking for more effective ways to engage a particular audience –
non-traditional student Nontraditional student is a term that refers to a category of students at Higher education, colleges and universities. The term originated in North America and usually involves age and social characteristics. Nontraditional students are contrasted ...
s. Eventually it found its way into virtually all
higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
environments. Initially the
pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...
evolved mostly by trial and error, although, from the start, many JiTT practitioners were paying attention to the
education research Educational research refers to the systematic collection and analysis of evidence and data related to the field of education. Research may involve a variety of methods and various aspects of education including student learning, interaction, tea ...
literature. Over the years JiTT attention shifted to the broader questions of which aspects of the technique worked well, which not so well, and why. In order to answer those questions it is necessary to examine the knowledge about teaching and learning that has accumulated over the past half century. JiTT assignments and classroom activities are designed to motivate the students to examine their present knowledge and get ready to modify such knowledge, add to it and then apply the newly constructed knowledge. These tasks are accomplished as students and instructors work as a team in a debate-like environment. In this way JiTT is supportive of the three main factors identified by
Alexander Astin Alexander W. Astin (May 30, 1932 – May 18, 2022) was the Allan M. Cartter Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change, at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was founding director of the Higher Education Re ...
as contributing to success in college: student-student interaction, student-faculty interaction and time on task. JiTT learning units start with an examination, by the student, of his/her current knowledge status regarding the topic to be studied, and with an examination of motivational beliefs that determine the student's approach to the topic. This approach is currently favored in any setting, but it is particularly appropriate when the audience is
non-traditional student Nontraditional student is a term that refers to a category of students at Higher education, colleges and universities. The term originated in North America and usually involves age and social characteristics. Nontraditional students are contrasted ...
s who need to be given some control over what they do to avoid slipping into surface learning which creates a
dichotomy A dichotomy () is a partition of a set, partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothi ...
between their other (to them meaningful) activities and going to school (not to learn but to get certified for something.) JiTT activities are designed to foster conceptual change, described in research literature as modification of existing knowledge. In the sciences in particular, learning is seen both as accretion of new knowledge and change of existing knowledge. Preflights have been linked to assessment and feedback, threshold concepts and criterion referencing. JiTT activities also take into account motivational factors governing student behavior. Motivational belief theorists take the constructivist position that "the process of conceptual change is influenced by personal, motivational, social, and historical processes, thereby advocating a hot model of individual conceptual change". Research has shown that college students who report that their course material is more interesting, important, and useful to them are more likely to use deeper processing strategies like elaboration and metacognitive control strategies. "At the classroom and task level, there are a number of features that could increase students' situational interest – such as challenge, choice, novelty, fantasy, and surprise."


Outcomes

Assessment Assessment may refer to: Healthcare * Health assessment, identifies needs of the patient and how those needs will be addressed *Nursing assessment, gathering information about a patient's physiological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual ...
in just-in-time teaching connotes many ideas. JiTT assignments are themselves a type of
formative assessment Formative assessment, formative evaluation, formative feedback, or assessment for learning, including ''diagnostic testing'', is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process in order to mo ...
. They provide students frequent opportunities to consider their understanding of the material, and they provide faculty a regular sightline into their students' progress towards deeper learning. Successful implementation of JiTT leads to cognitive gains, ranging from moderate to quite significant. Success depends critically on the teacher and students' total buy-in. If students see the on-line assignments merely as an add-on to the course, to be completed perfunctorily in the shortest time possible and then discussed briefly at the beginning of class, before the "real" lecture, they will resent the extra work and will not get any additional benefit from JiTT. Teachers using JiTT report a spectrum of results, ranging from significant affective and cognitive gains to very negative student reactions, disillusionment, and sometimes a regression in learning gains. An example of successful JiTT comes from a five-semester study at
North Georgia College & State University North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
. This study analyzed responses from four
force concept inventory The Force Concept Inventory is a test measuring mastery of concepts commonly taught in a first semester of physics developed by Hestenes, Halloun, Wells, and Swackhamer (1985). It was the first such "concept inventory" and several others have been ...
(FCI) questions (the distractors as well as the correct answers) for evidence of students reaching the transition threshold from "common sense thinking to Newtonian thinking", a well-defined notion in
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
education. Sixty-one percent of the students in the JiTT class reached the threshold, compared to only seven percent in the traditionally taught class. Marrs reported similar gains on pre-post assessment in biology, using the Hake metric, defined as (posttest% – pretest%)/(100% – pretest%). With traditional lecture-based pedagogy the gain was 16.7%; the gain jumped to 52.3% with JiTT and to 63.6% with collaborative learning. Since the introduction of JiTT at the
US Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Un ...
, the final exam questions in the introductory
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
sequence have shifted significantly towards conceptual probing for deeper understanding. Analyzing carefully kept records from the pre-JiTT early 1990s until the present, one finds that despite the increasingly more challenging questions, the scores have held steady and even improved in some semesters. When JiTT was introduced in introductory
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
at IUPUI in 1996 course attendance increased from under 50% to over 80%. Instructors in other disciplines have reported similar results. Better attendance inevitably leads to fewer students dropping the class and an overall rise in grades. In JiTT
Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and in
Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
courses at IUPUI the D/F/W numbers decreased from 40% to under 25%. JiTT can make a difference in student study skills. Students in Marrs'
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
class credit JiTT to a significant decrease in cramming for tests. She asked her students "Did you put off studying for Biotech 540 and as a result 'cram' for Biotech 540 tests?" to her graduate students, and 34% answered yes. However, 62% of the class answered in affirmative to the question "Do you 'cram' for other courses that you have this semester?" Gavrin reported that 80% of the students in his JiTT class responded "yes" to "Do the JiTT exercises help you to be well prepared for lecture?" versus 21% affirmative to the same question in "other classes". He found a 58% vs. 18% split on "staying focused", a 59% vs. 18% split on "feeling like an active participant", and a 71% vs. 21% split on "finding classroom time useful". When trying to assess the efficacy of any pedagogical strategy, it is important to appreciate that the choice and implementation of a particular teaching method will affect student and faculty attitudes and motivation as well as learning outcomes. In her use of JiTT at
Penn State Brandywine Penn State Brandywine is a commonwealth campus of the Pennsylvania State University located in Middletown Township, Pennsylvania, United States. The campus was formerly known as Penn State Delaware County. The campus has baccalaureate and as ...
, Laura Guertin has noticed strongly positive reactions from her students:
I see my students working weekly through open-ended questions that require higher-order cognitive skills. I saw students working together in class, gaining additional practice with quantitative, communication, and management skills. I see my students using the vocabulary of the discipline as they work through JiTT exercises and discuss JiTT responses in class. I see students connecting ideas across the course and across their lives (Guertin, 2010).Guertin, LA (2010), "Using Just-in-Time Teaching in the Geosciences" in ''Just-in-Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines'', Across the Academy, Simkins S, and Maier M (Eds.), Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. .


See also

* Just-in-time learning *
Peer instruction Peer instruction is a teaching method popularized by Harvard Professor Eric Mazur in the early 1990s. Originally used in introductory undergraduate physics classes at Harvard University, peer instruction is used in various disciplines and instituti ...
*
Peer-led team learning Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is a model of teaching undergraduate science, math, and engineering courses that introduces peer-led workshops as an integral part of a course.Gosser,D.K., Cracolice,M., Kampmeier, J.A., Roth,V., Strozak, V.S., Varma-Ne ...
(PLTL) *
SCALE-UP SCALE-UP, Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-Down Pedagogies, is a classroom specifically created to facilitate active, collaborative learning in a classroom. The spaces are carefully designed to facilitate interactions betwe ...


References


External links


The JiTT Page

JiTT in Geosciences

JiTT in Economics

The JiTT Digital Library Project
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006190049/http://jittdl.physics.iupui.edu/sign_on/ , date=2016-10-06

Educational practices Philosophy of education