Final Summary

UTEP-UMCE News – Dr. Bill Robertson, Fulbright Scholar, UTEP Assistant Professor

 

Final Summary

 

The following is my final summary of the activities that I have been engaged in during the months of July to December 2008 as they relate to the work I did at UMCE as part of my Fulbright Scholarship.

 

Transformative Educational Experience

 

This immersion experience in Chile set the tone for a real transformative educational experience for me personally.  With a time from July to December of 2008, I had the time to be engaged in a complete semester at UMCE as well as experience both the cultural and academic aspects of living in another country. I also was part of a Physics Department in the College of Science, a distinct change from my position in the Teacher Education Department in the College of Education at UTEP. 

 

I think it was also interesting that one revelation that came from living in a new city, Santiago, within a new population that consisted of university faculty, university students, high school educators and high school students, there was a real opportunity to see if my methods and ideas would translate as well.  This to me was a great discovery, that my ideas and materials in science and technology education did translate to these new audiences, and this bodes well for establishing future collaborations, but also for building bridges between UTEP and all points south in the areas of curriculum development, science education and technology integration.

 

Primarily, my life was completely in Spanish, both in a professional and personal sense. This allowed me the time to be engaged in ways that both deepened and challenged me personally and professionally.  I felt that I did improve throughout my time in my abilities to communicate both orally and written in Spanish, and also that I now have an extended series of experiences that will better help me understand the issues non-native speakers face at our university.  I believe this experience will make me a better educator, and also a better world citizen.

 

Impacts in Teaching

 

At UMCE, I was involved in a constructivist based physics project that included the areas of Mechanics, Mathematics of Physics, Experimental Physics, and the Development of Scientific Thinking.  I was also engaged in the ECBI project, various seminars in science education, educational conferences and workshops.  I collaborated and worked with professors in the areas of Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Technology.  I also had the good fortune to work with universities including UMCE, Universidad de Santiago, Universidad de Bio Bio, Universidad de Valdivia, and the Universidad de Concepcion.   I also worked at a number of high schools, including Liceo Juan Antonio Ríos, Liceo Capitán de Corbete Pedro Gonzáles, Colegio Saint Gabriel de Providencia, Liceo Guillermo Labarca.

 

I also had the opportunity to work throughout Chile and into Argentina.  This has given me a new sense of my teaching abilities, but also given me plenty to learn and integrate into my own teaching.

 

Impacts in Scholarship

 

While in Chile, I was able to participate in 10 different workshops with both UMCE and the Fulbright Chile Commission, as well as work with the US Embassy in Chile.  I delivered 8 different presentations at conferences throughout Chile and in Argentina, and also was able to deliver 3 articles and 3 proposals about my work in science education and the integration of technology.

 

For the research aspect of this project, I provided a detailed analysis of the use of online tools and assess their appropriate use in science education classes. The purpose was to measure learning achievements in Chilean students and to provide comparisons with science education students attending UTEP. The research results will be utilized in order to develop future plans for collaborative work between the two universities.

 

This research methodology for the study may be defined as the design, collection, and interpretation of data and information in order to understand the value of an instructional methodology. To measure the increases in student learning in science and technology, specific educational objectives will be tested and the results analyzed.  Students participating in the research study were enrolled at UMCE and participated in the new curriculum, which is purported to be theoretically more student-centered and technologically assisted. The main objective of the research project was to determine if the new curriculum increased student learning in objective areas. 

 

Impacts in Service

 

The big aspect that I came to understand greatly was my role as a cultural ambassador on behalf of the United States of America.  Most of the students I encountered at UMCE, in Santiago, in Chile and in Argentina, had never met a real person from the USA, and I had the unique opportunity to get to know people and to help them see beyond the stereotypes of the media as to what is a person from the USA.  In that way, I was a bridge between Chile and the USA, and this was a part of my experience that I did not understand completely until I was well immersed in my time in Chile.

 

I was able to demonstrate my abilities and thinking as a professor, and had many opportunities to show the attitudes and abilities of a north American to the students and faculty both at universities and in local high schools. There were also a number of opportunities to collaborate and work with universities in Chile and Argentina, the US Embassy in Chile and the Fulbright Commission in Chile as well.

 

Personally, I think it was this area that had some of the greatest impacts, as the myths of perceptions were dispelled by the realities of relationships and real interactions with real people. This worked both ways, as my understandings and perceptions did change and now I am a more profound person through this experience, one that has reshaped me as an educator, and ultimately as a person.

 

 

 

Week Twenty November 30 – December 6, 2008

UTEP-UMCE News – Dr. Bill Robertson, Fulbright Scholar, UTEP Assistant Professor

 

Week Twenty November 30 – December 6, 2008

 

The following is a summary of the activities that I have been engaged in during the week of November 30 – December 6 as they relate to the work I am doing here at UMCE as part of my Fulbright Scholarship.

 

Physics Project Update

 

On Wednesday, December 3, I attended what would be the last of the regular physics project meeting and this meeting focused on my work over the semester. I focused on three main areas, the teaching items I had done at UMCE and in the community, the research project I have been working on, and also on the role I had played as a “cultural ambassador”, in fact one of the only North Americans that most of the students at UMCE had ever met in person.

 

In the areas of teaching, I had worked at La UMCE in the areas of the Physics project, which included Mechanics, Mathematical Methods in Physics, Experimental Physics I and the Workshop on the Development of Scientific Thinking.  I had also been involved in the ECBI program, a large number of seminars, conferences and associated workshops all around the university.  I work directly with professors in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Information Technology.  I also worked at a number of local schools including Liceo Juan Antonio Ríos, Liceo Capitán de Corbete Pedro Gonzáles, Colegio Saint Gabriel de Providencia, Liceo Guillermo Labarca. All told, I did12 Demonstrations in Schools in Santiago, 10 Different workshops at UMCE and with Fulbright, 8 Different Presentations at Conferences, wrote 6 articles and Proposals about the work in science and technology education.

 

In the area of research I administered both pre-surveys and post-surveys at UMCE to over 50 students as well as over 80 students in the high schools.  My goal is to analyze the changes in attitudes along with content tests to see what kinds of impacts were made in these separate populations. My preliminary results indicate that there was a small change in attitudes, but I have yet to analyze it statistically to determine the effects over the groups and sub populations. This will be the focus of my work for the spring, and I hope that it will also result in other publications from this effort.

 

In the area of being a cultural ambassador, I feel that I have been a bridge between Chile and the United States, as well as achieved an understanding of what it is like to be a professor at the university and a teacher in local schools.  I have had a large number of opportunities to show the attitudes and abilities of a North American to the students, as well as a number of opportunities to collaborate and work with universities here, at UTEP, at the US Embassy and the Fulbright-Chile Commission.

 

After the meeting, I attended a student sponsored asado, where the students grilled out for the professors and we were able to interact in a much more casual way.  The students here are really great and I do hope that there will be a number of opportunities for inter-exchanges between UMCE and UTEP for both faculty and students in the future.

 

Final IT Video Project

 

On Thursday, December 4, I worked with the staff in IT to assemble a DVD from the Action Science Demonstrations that I had done at UMCE. We assembled 10 clips that can be used for introducing lessons in physics in Spanish, the main idea is to provide future teachers a resource that is in Spanish that they can use to engage their learners as well as a creative way to integrate physics content into the science classroom.  

Week Nineteen November 23 – November 29, 2008

UTEP-UMCE News – Dr. Bill Robertson, Fulbright Scholar, UTEP Assistant Professor

Week Nineteen November 23 – November 29, 2008

The following is a summary of the activities that I have been engaged in during the week of November 23 – November 29 as they relate to the work I am doing here at UMCE as part of my Fulbright Scholarship.

Physics Project Update

On Wednesday, November 26, I attended the regular physics project meeting and the main part for me was to begin the focus on the evaluation instruments I have used, as well as the results for the initial surveys for the students in the areas of attitudes towards science and the use of technology in the classroom.  I am also preparing a guide for the faculty to follow so that if they want to replicate my study, they can have the methods in Spanish to follow for future groups of students, or if they can do a longitudinal study that might follow the students over time.  This has potential, as a large number of the students (approximately 65%) are in their first year in the physics department.

We also brainstormed on a number of possible open ended questions to ask students concerning their experiences in the Physics project, and over the methods that were used including constructivism, project-based assignments, the use of rubrics and the integration of software programs for modeling.

Thanksgiving Luncheon at US Embassy

On Thursday, November 27, I attended a luncheon at the home of Carol Urban, who is the Deputy Ambassador for the US Embassy here in Santiago, Chile. She had invited a number of the current Fulbright Scholars from the US, future and current Fulbright Scholars from Chile as well as staff from both Fulbright-Chile and the US Embassy. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings. In fact, on this day of Thanksgiving, this luncheon provided a chance to honor this traditional holiday in a nontraditional environment and setting. 

Many of my Chilean friends have asked me about Thanksgiving; to them it is a foreign holiday, meaning it is something they do not completely understand in its reasons, manners or traditions. In some ways, Thanksgiving day in Chile is a lot like me, overlooked at times, seen as something in the distance, something foreign, not connected or integrated into the life at hand.  Yet, in other ways, Thanksgiving is alive and well around the world, even in Chile, where American colleagues living abroad take the time to gather and to celebrate this holiday together. 

I have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, and I am truly thankful for the experience that I have been afforded with the Fulbright US Scholars program, which has given me the gift of immersion into another culture and into another language.  I am thankful of the support I have had from others, both here and back home, as an experience like this over 5 months requires cooperation and coordination from a team, not merely from any one individual.  I am thankful that I have been humbled in my days in Chile, and that I have also been allowed to grow and to flourish in new directions.  I am also thankful that I will soon be returning home, to reconnect with my family and friends, to reintegrate into the US society, and to be able to apply what I have learned in ways to benefit my university, community, state and nation.