Pathways to Scientific Teaching

1. Pathways to Scientific Teaching • Diane Ebert-May • Department of Plant Biology • Michigan State University • ebertmay@msu.edu • http://first2.org

3. Engage

4. Question 1 Where on the continuum is the ideal classroom ?

5. Question 2 Where on the continuum is your classroom ?

6. Teacher to Learner Centered Continuum:What does it look like?Where are you?

7. How People Learn Bransford et al 1999, 2004

8. Explore: Out of Thin Air

9. Teaching without Learning! Brainstorm: Diagnose situation - the learning challenge Where is the missing link?..misconception? What is going on?

10. How and when do you identify student learning difficulties? • Don’t have to grade • Pre-test (e.g., diagnostic questions - identify misconceptions) • Engagement activity - brain teaser, discussion starter, ‘need to know’ questions • Surveys or polls (clickers?) • Others • May use pretest or diagnostic (clicker) question

11. Example Problem Experimental setup: Weighed out 3 batches of radish seeds each weighing 1.5 g. Experimental treatments: 1. Seeds placed on DRY paper towels in LIGHT 2. Seeds placed on WET paper towels in LIGHT 3. Seeds placed on WET paper towels in DARK

12. Problem (cont) After 1 week, all plant material was dried in an oven overnight (no water left) and plant biomass was measured in grams. Predict the biomass of the plant material in the various treatments. No Water, light Water, light Water dark No idea

13. Results Mass of Radish Seeds/Seedlings 1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g Write an explanation about the results. Explain the results. Write individually on carbonless paper.

14. Misconceptions about Photosynthesis, Respiration, and the Carbon Cycle • Photosynthesis as Energy • Biomass from Soil • Energy as Biomass • All Green • Plant Altruism • Thin Air • Respiration as ‘breathing’ • One Earth - All together now

15. What is assessment? • Data collection with the purpose of answering questions about… • students’ understanding • students’ attitudes • students’ skills • instructional design and implementation • curricular reform (at multiple grain sizes) • Informing BOTH instructors and students about learning.

16. Jigsaw • New groups: 5 groups of 4 • Count off -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 • All 1s work on same paper ....2s, 3s, 4s, 5s • Return to ‘home’ groups and share what you found in each of the papers. • Report out

17. Paper Assignments • Group 1: Climate change.... • Group 2: Novel assessments... • Group 3: Practicing scientific inquiry... • Group 4: Unleashing problem solvers... • Group 5: Active homework...

18. In your groups: Read the paper, discuss, record... 1. What are the student learning goals? 2. What is the Bloom-level of each goal? 3. Describe the type of assessment used in the unit. Do the assessments align with the goals? 4. What are the active learning strategies?

19. Return to “home” groups: Select two types of assessments that you learned about in the papers. Compare two types of assessments. Brainstorm other types of assessments.

20. Explain

21. Assessment and Feedback Approaches • Subsample= You don’t need to grade everything!! • Classroom Assessment Techniques (Angelo & Cross 1993); Muddiest Point, Minute papers etc.. • Pyramid Exams- Individual 75% + Group 25% • Diagnostic Questions & Clickers • Rubrics

22. Assessment Gradient High Ease of Assessment Low Low Potential for Assessment of Learning High Multiple Choice, T/F Diagrams, Concept maps, Quantitative response Short answer Essay, Research papers/ reports Oral Interview Theoretical Framework • Ausubel 1968; meaningful learning • Novak 1998; visual representations • King and Kitchner 1994; reflective judgment • National Research Council 1999; theoretical frameworks for assessment

23. Instructional Design How do you go about developing a unit on the Carbon Cycle? How would you start? What would you do?

24. Backward Design Like This? Learning Objective Identify desired results Learning Outcome Determine acceptable evidence Assessments Data collected & Feedback given Instructional Design & Activities Planned learning experiences and instruction Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe 1998, 2005

25. Backward Design

26. Instructional Design Worksheet How do you go about developing a unit on the Carbon Cycle? Activity: • Misconception- List a common misconception for carbon cycle. • Learning objective- Write the correct version of the concept. • Learning outcome- Describe the specific performance or behavior that will demonstrate student understanding. (Use Bloom’s Taxonomy of another resource to help articulate the outcomes.) • Activity- Describe the activity that will engage students and help them achieve the learning objective • Assessment- Describe the evidence you will collect and the type of feedback you will give students to define their progress towards understanding.

27. How am I going to grade all this stuff??

28. Case: Workshop Woes? “I attended a workshop about assessment, and the main thing I learned is that I am suppposed to assess students before class so I can target what the students need to know. So, I created a series of pre-class quizzes for the students, but most students don’t do them because they are not graded. However, I don’t have time to grade 320 of these each week--- much less the 16 other assessments that the workshop suggested. I’ll just go back to trusting my gut to know how well the students are doing.”

29. Case: Workshop Woes? • What issues might be contributing to this situation? • What is the professor’s definition of assessment? • Other than grades, what strategies could motivate the students to participate in assessments? • What suggestions do you have for the professor? • Have you faced similar challenges?

30. What do the instructors need to know? What are students learning well? What are students learning poorly? How to promote learning by improving instruction, learning activities, assignments, classroom climate

31. What do the students need to know? What are they learning well? What are they learning poorly? Information on how to improve-- not just grades, but feedback.

32. How do we develop rubrics? • Describe the goal/objective for the activity, problem, task... • Select the assessment tasks aligned with goals • Develop performance standards • Differentiate levels of responses based on clearly described criteria • Rate (assign value) the categories

33. Results Mass of Radish Seeds/Seedlings 1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g Explain why the LIGHT, WATER gained mass, while the other treatments lost mass.. Write individually on carbonless paper. Practice with sample responses How would you go about grading these responses? What criteria would you use? Write an explanation about the results.

34. Scoring Rubric for Quizzes and Homework Ebert-May http://www.flaguide.org/cat/rubrics/rubrics1.php

35. Advantages of Scoring Rubrics • Improve the reliability of scoring written assignments and oral presentations • Convey goals and performance expectations of students in an unambiguous way • Convey “grading standards” or “point values” and relate them to performance goals • Engage students in critical evaluation of their own performance • Save time but spend it well

36. Write a scenario that explains the phenotypic changes in the trees and animals. Use your understanding of evolution by natural selection.

37. Coding Student Responses

38. FIRST III Database Upload Student ID EdML Student Data Spreadsheet Spreadsheet Link Qs and student answers De-identified student data Questions Spreadsheet Download Search Results Search eg. Excel, SAS, SPSS Database Server Assessment Database Faculty Computer

39. “Educational Metadata Standard”EdMD • Based on Ecological Metadata Standards (Michener 1997) • Describe what collected, who collected, where collected, when collected, how collected, why collected

40. What is in the Educational Metadata Standard? Where Institution, class size How Experimental and sampling design Administration of assessments Instructional design Who Project personnel What Assessment instruments Rubrics and assessment concepts Why Classroom study

41. How do I use the database? • Finding assessment instruments • Administer the instrument, teach, and prepare student data • Prepare metadata and upload student assessment data • Analysis and download • Results of analyses

42. Do students learn better?

43. Team at MSU • Rett Weber - Plant Biology (postdoctoral researcher) • Deb Linton - Plant Biology (postdoctoral researcher) • Duncan Sibley - Geology • Doug Luckie - Physiology • Scott Harrison - Microbiology (graduate student) • Tammy Long - Plant Biology • Heejun Lim - Chemistry Education • Rob Pennock - Philosophy • Charles Ofria - Engineering • Rich Lenski - Microbiolgy • Janet Batzli - Plant Biology [U of Wisconsin]

44. “...we note that successful people are the ones who take advantage of those around them to ultimately benefit students.” Ebert-May D, Weber R, Hodder J, Batzli J (2006) Finally...