Disciplinary Research Strategies for Assessment of Learning

1. Disciplinary Research Strategies for Assessment of Learning Diane Ebert-May Department of Plant Biology Michigan State University www.first2.org

2. Question 1 Please respond on a scale of 0 - 100 in increments of 10: How important is it to use multiple kinds of data to assess student learning?

3. How important is it to use multiple kinds of data to assess student learning?

4. Question 2 Please respond on a scale of 0 - 100 in increments of 10: How often do you use data to make instructional decisions?

5. How often do you use data to make instructional decisions?

6. True or False? Assessing student learning in science parallels what scientists do as researchers.

7. Assessment in TeachingParallels Assessment in Research • We ask questions and develop hypotheses to solve problems and make predictions about learning. • Our questions are based on current knowledge and theories, are creative, original and relevant to the investigator. • Research designs and methods we use to collect data are logical processes to answer questions. • Instruments/techniques we use are valid, repeatable measures of learning. • Assessment (results) help us understand student thinking. • Results drive our next questions and decisions about a course. • Our ideas are peer reviewed - informally or formally.

8. What is assessment? Data collection with the purpose of answering questions about… • student understanding • students’ attitudes • students’ skills • instructional design and implementation Use data to make predictions about student learning

9. Graduate Education • Often excellent at preparing individuals to design and carry out disciplinary research.

10. Graduate Education • Often inadequate and haphazard in preparing future faculty/professionals to take on the increasingly complex demands of the professoriate. • Teaching is not mentored, peer reviewed, or based on accumulated knowledge.

11. Solution: IRD model • Intergenerational research development teams (IRDs) in cooperative academic environments • Who: senior faculty, junior faculty, postdoctoral and graduate students. • What: scholarship of science teaching and learning is fully integrated into the professional culture along with discipline-based activities. • Assessment is critical to both practices.

12. Collaborators • Janet Batzli - Plant Biology (Director-Biocore, U of Wisconsin) • Doug Luckie - Physiology (Associate Professor) • Scott Harrison - Microbiology (Graduate student) • Tammy Long - Plant Biology (Assistant Professor) • Jim Smith - Zoology (Associate Professor) • Deb Linton - Plant Biology (Postdoctoral Fellow) • Heejun Lim - Chemistry Education (Postdoctoral Fellow) • Duncan Sibley - Geology (Professor) • National Science Foundation, Hewlett Foundation

13. Recognizing and Rewarding Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (2003) • National Research Council • www.nap.edu/catalog/10024.html

14. What are central questions about learning? 1. What do we want our students to know and be able to do? 2. What knowledge or misconceptions do our students bring to the course? 3. What evidence will we accept that students know and can do? 4. How does our instruction help learning?

19. What Type of Learning? Bloom (1956) • 6 major categories in the Cognitive Domain of Educational Objectives

20. Cognitive Levels • Knowledge - remember • Understanding and Application - grasp meaning, use, interpret • Critical Analysis - original thinking, open-ended answers, whole to parts, parts to whole, evaluation

21. What type of data do we gather? • Depends on the evidence we will accept that students have learned what we want them to learn. • Data must be aligned with the course goals. • Measures of knowledge, attitudes, and skills. • tests, extended responses, concept maps, • research papers, teamwork, communication • Use Bloom’s as a tool to categorize cognitive domains

23. Research Question How can diagnostic assessment questions help us understand students’ prior understanding and progressive thinking about the carbon cycle over time?

24. Prediction Diagnostic, robust questions about the carbon cycle integrated into the biology course instructional design will provide the same results about student learning regardless of the teacher.

25. Theoretical Background • Conceptual change theory • Force Concept Inventory (David Hestenes, Physics Dept., ASU)

26. Carbon Cycle = Rich Problem Why? • Integrates many biological concepts at multiple scales - ecosystems to molecules. • Instruction can return to elements intrinsic in the carbon cycle - bioenergetics, metabolism. • Several documented student misconceptions associated with the carbon cycle. • Real-world applied consequences if students continue to misunderstand.

27. Some Common Misconceptions about Photosynthesis & Respiration Concept 1: Matter disappears during decomposition of organisms in the soil. Concept 2: Photosynthesis as Energy: Photosynthesis provides energy for uptake of nutrients through roots which builds biomass. No biomass built through photosynthesis alone. Concept 3: Thin Air: CO2 and O2 are gases therefore, do not have mass and therefore, can not add or take away mass from an organism. Concept 4: Plant Altruism: CO2 is converted to O2 in plant leaves so that all organisms can ‘breathe’. Concept 5: All Green: Plants have chloroplasts instead of mitochondria so they can not respire.

28. Instructional Design • Active, inquiry-based learning • Cooperative groups • Questions, group processing, large lecture sections (2 class meetings @80 minutes), 2 discussion sections, multi-week laboratory investigation • Homework problems including web-based modules • Different faculty for two courses • One graduate/8-10 undergraduate TAs per course

29. Experimental Design Two introductory courses for majors: • Bio 1 - organismal/population biology (faculty A) • Bio 2 - cell and molecular biology (faculty B) Three cohorts: • Cohort 1 Bio 1 • Cohort 2 Bio1/Bio2 • Cohort 3 Other/Bio2

31. Assessment Design • Multiple iterations/versions of the carbon cycle problem • Pretest, midterm, final with additional formative assessments during class • Administered during instruction • Semester 1 - pretest, midterm, final exam • Semester 2 - final exam

32. Multiple choice question (pre-post) The majority of actual weight (dry biomass) gained by plants as they progress from seed to adult plant comes from which one of the following substances? a. Particle substances in soil that are take up by plant roots. (15%). b. Molecules in the air that enter through holes in the plant leaves (4%). c. Substances dissolved in water taken up directly by plant roots. (28%). d. Energy from the sun (29%). N=138

33. Radish Problem (formative) • Experimental Setup: • Weighed out 3 batches of radish seeds each weighing 1.5 g. • Experimental treatments: • 1. Seeds placed on moistened paper towels in LIGHT • 2. Seeds placed on moistened paper towels in DARK • 3. Seeds not moistened (left DRY) placed in light

34. Radish problem (2) • 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. • Water, light • Water, dark • No water, light

35. Results: Weight of Radish Plants 1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g Write an explanation about the results.

36. Whale Problem (midterm Bio 1) Two fundamental concepts in ecology are “energy flows” and “matter cycles”. In an Antarctic ecosystem with the food web given above, how could a carbon atom in the blubber of the Minke whale become part of a crabeater seal? Note: crabeater seals do not eat Minke whales. In your response include a drawing with arrows showing the movement of the C atom. In addition to your drawing, provide a written description of the steps the carbon atom must take through each component of the ecosystem Describe which biological processes are involved in the carbon cycle.

37. Grandma Johnson Problem (final, Bio 1) Hypothetical scenario: Grandma Johnson had very sentimental feelings toward Johnson Canyon, Utah, where she and her late husband had honeymooned long ago. Her feelings toward this spot were such that upon her death she requested to be buried under a creosote bush overlooking the canyon. Trace the path of a carbon atom from Grandma Johnson’s remains to where it could become part of a coyote. NOTE: the coyote will not dig up Grandma Johnson and consume any of her remains.

38. Spider Monkey Problem (final, Bio 2) Deep within a remote forest of Guatemala, the remains of a spider monkey have been buried under an enormous mahogany tree. Although rare, jaguars have been spotted in this forest by local farmers. Use coherently written sentences and clearly labeled drawings to explain how a carbon atom in glucose contained within muscle cells of the spider monkey might become part of a cell within the stomach lining of a jaguar. (Note:The jaguar does not dig up the monkey and eat the remains!) Include in your answer descriptions of the key features (not complete biochemical pathways!) of the organismal and cellular processes that explain how the carbon atom of the monkey’s corpse could become a part of the jaguar’s body.

39. Analysis of Responses Used same scoring rubric for all three problems - calibrated by adding additional criteria when necessary, rescoring: Examined two major concepts: Concept 1: Decomposers respire CO2 Concept 2: Plants uptake of CO2 Explanations categorized into two groups: Organisms (trophic levels) Processes (metabolic)

40. Trace Carbon from Whale to Seal (Bio1 students, n=141) 100 Organism Process 80 60 % 40 20 Glucose Respiration Through Air Release CO2 0 Through Root Photosynthesis Decomposers Primary produces Concept 1 Decomposers respire CO2 Concept 2 Plants uptake CO2

41. 100 80 60 % 40 20 0 Cellular Respiration by Decomposers(Bio1/Bio2 students, n=63) Q1 Whale Q2 Grandma J Q3 Spider Monkey Concept 1: Decomposers respire CO2 2(2) = 20.16, p < 0.01

42. Pathway of Carbon into Primary Producer(Bio1/Bio2 students, n=63) 100 Air Root 80 60 % 40 20 0 Q1 Whale Q2 Grandma J Q3 Spider Monkey Concept 2: Plants uptake CO2 2(2) = 4.778, p = .092

43. Trace Carbon from Spider Monkey to Jaguar 100 Respiration NA 80 60 % 40 20 0 0ther + Bio2 (n=40) Bio1/Bio2 (n=63) Concept 1: Decomposers respire CO2 2(1) = 14.59, p < .01

44. 100 Air Root 80 NA 60 % 40 20 0 Bio1/Bio2 (n=63) 0ther + Bio2 (n=40) Pathway of Carbon into Primary Producer Concept 2: Plants uptake CO2 2(1) = 8.89, p < 0.05

45. So What? Problem sets about major concepts: Diagnostic re: what students understand/misconceptions Methods: parallel to process in disciplinary research Learn what prior knowledge students bring to course, what students gained Make predictions re: student responses about difficult concepts Unveil new misconceptions Influenced our teaching for understanding

46. So What? (2) Curricular changes: Bacteria/Archaea metabolism - often omitted Primary production - models in lab Source/Sink and carbon flux ‘Spiral’ major concepts - over/over/over Use of technology: CTOOLS (concept mapping java applet ctools.msu.edu)

47. low Potential for Assessment of Learning high high Ease of Assessment low • Theoretical Framework • Ausubel 1968; meaningful learning • Novak 1998; visual representations • King and Kitchner 1994; reflective judgement • National Research Council 1999; theoretical frameworks for assessment Assessment Gradient Multiple Choice … … Concept Maps … … Essay … … Interview

49. The real world without C-TOOLs

50. The ideal world with C-TOOLS