Lecture-Tutorials in Introductory Astronomy

The Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy have been designed to help introductory astronomy instructors actively engage their students in developing their conceptual understandings and reasoning abilities across a wide range of astrophysical topics. The development of the Lecture-Tutorials has been informed by nearly two-decades of research into common learning difficulties students experience when studying astronomy. The results from multiple studies provide evidence that Lecture-Tutorials can help students achieve learning gains well beyond what is typically achieved by lecture alone. Achieving such learning gains requires that an instructor understand how to effectively incorporate the Lecture-Tutorials into his or her course. This chapter provides details into the best practices for the effective integration and implementation of the Lecture-Tutorials - practices that we have developed through years of reflective practice from working with thousands of Astro 101 students and instructors. We also present a case study of how Lecture-Tutorials were used to promote the active engagement of learners in an Astro 101 mega-course enrolling over 700 students. This case study illustrates how the thoughtful implementation of Lecture-Tutorials can result in dramatic learning gains, even in the most daunting instructional environments.