In Spring 2017 our theme was evidence-based teaching in practice. We divided the term into two-week segments; in the first week of each segment we read about and discussed a topic or technique, and in the second we either tried it out ourselves or talked with a guest who used the technique in their own teaching.
Week 1
Equal access to college does not necessarily translate to equal probability of success. What can we do to help level the playing field? In the term’s first two-week segment, we learned about transparent teaching methods, which can help all students succeed by explicitly stating goals and criteria that often remain implicit.
Reading:
Winkelmes, M. A., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., Weavil, K. H. (2016). A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success. Peer Review, 18(1/2), 31. https://www.aacu.org/
Berrett, D. (Sept. 21, 2015). The Unwritten Rules of College. Chronicle of Higher Education http://www.chronicle.com/
Week 2
This week we continued our segment on Transparent Teaching. We asked participants to bring paper copies of two assignments that they had given students or been assigned in a class.
Reading:
Transparent Assignment Template
Checklist for Designing a Transparent Assignment
Week 3
This week we focused on using storytelling to teach the nature of science, science content, and to build student interest in science courses.
Thursday reading:
Clough, M. P. (Sept. 29, 2010). The Story Behind the Science: Bringing Science and Scientists to Life in Post-Secondary Science Education. Science and Education http://www.bu.edu/hps-scied/files/2012/11/Clough-HPS-Story-Behind-the-Science-Bringing-Science-and-Scientists-to-Life-in-Post-Secondary-Science-Ed.pdf
To get a sense of the approach that the authors take and what they include, please also look over one of the stories at Story Behind the Science: https://www.storybehindthescience.org/index.html
The Friday session attended the workshop “Scientific Storytelling: Humanities Meets Science” led by Jennifer Yates from Ohio Wesleyan University.
Week 4
In a “flipped” class, students’ initial encounter with material occurs before class, leaving the class session available for active learning that allows closer, guided engagement with the material. Many faculty create “screencast” videos for students to watch as part of that initial dip into the material. In this two-week segment, we investigated what makes a good screencast and got some practice making them.
Reading:
Yeung, K. (2014). Making ‘the flip’ work: barriers to and implementation strategies for introducing flipped teaching methods into traditional higher education courses. New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, (10), 59-63. https://www108.lamp.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/new-directions/article/view/518
We also asked participants to watch and think about the positive and negative aspects of these screencasts:
Week 5
In this meeting, we asked participants to make a plan for generating a short screencast. The participants chose a topic, decided how to generate your visuals and make them, if appropriate, and made a storyboard (deciding how narration would fit in with visuals). We had some computers with screencast recording software available, but also shared software that could be downloaded on their own computer. A list of software packages was available on Wikipedia’s Comparison of Screencasting Software page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software.
For some good screencasting tips, see: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/10-tips-creating-effective-instructional-videos/
We had four computers with the programs Camtasia, Quicktime, Screencast-O-Matic, and Active Presenter, to be used for recording audio and videos from powerpoint, document camera, Wacom tablet with stylus, and/or self-recording through a laptop camera.
Week 6
This week we welcomed two special guests, science education researchers visiting our campus.
On Thursday we were joined by Prof. David Hestenes of the Department of Physics at Arizona State University. Prof. Hestenes was one of the main developers of the widely-used Force Concept Inventory, which is used to measure students’ conceptual understanding of physical forces. Prof. Hestenes has developed a method for teaching physics based on using conceptual models. In his time with us, we discussed the cognitive foundations behind this pedagogy.
Reading:
Series, Archives–SemiotiX New. “Conceptual Modeling in physics, mathematics and cognitive science.” http://semioticon.com/semiotix/2015/11/conceptual-modeling-in-physics-mathematics-and-cognitive-science/
On Friday our guest was Prof. Matthew Hora, a member of the Department of Liberal Arts & Applied Studies and a Research Scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof. Hora’s visit centered on his research into how students study and how we can change our instructional design to encourage more efficient studying.
Reading:
Hora, M.T. & Oleson, A.K. (2017). Examining study habits in undergraduate STEM courses from a situative perspective. International Journal of STEM Education, 4 (1), 1-19. https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-017-0055-6
Week 7
In this two-week segment we heard from faculty using evidence-based techniques in their classes. In week 8, Raghu Parthasarathy (Thursday) and Kelly Sutherland (Friday) shared the approaches they take to teaching their classes and highlight activities they developed for their students. This week, we built a foundation for some of the central ideas our guests discussed.
Thursday reading:
Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/323/5910/122.full
“Clickers in the Classroom: The Research. Do clickers help students learn?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKHXyVtVIA
Friday reading:
Greenwald, A. G., & Krieger, L. H. (2006). Implicit bias: Scientific foundations. California Law Review, 94(4), 945-967.http://www.jstor.org/stable/20439056?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Bartlett, T. (2017). Can we really measure implicit bias? Maybe not. The Chronicle of Higher Education. : http://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-We-Really-Measure-Implicit/238807?cid=trend_right_a
Week 8
Our plan for this week changed somewhat. On Thursday, we had a teaching showcase in which Prof. Raghu Parthasarathy of the Department of Physics gave us a window into the non-majors courses he teaches and the methods he uses.
Reading:
Parthasarathy, R. (2012). Cars and Kinetic Energy—Some Simple Physics with Real-World Relevance. The Physics Teacher, 50(7), 395-397. http://aapt.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1119/1.4752039
On Friday, we initially planned to have Prof. Kelly Sutherland talk about her courses, with an emphasis on implicit bias and the implicit association assignment she gave her students. However, this same day the Division of Equity and Inclusion hosted Benjamin Reese, the vice president and chief diversity officer for the Office for Institutional Equity at Duke University, who led a forum and two workshops about implicit bias. Following Kelly’s gracious suggestion, we postponed her teaching showcase and instead encourage people to attend one of Prof. Reese’s events.
Week 9
Think about a recent class session you ran or attended. How was the session organized? The order of the elements of a class period can influence student learning. In this final two-week segment of the term we considered the 5E Model for organizing class sessions. We read a feature article describing the 5E Model, preparing for next week’s special guest visit from Dr. Bryan Rebar of STEMCORE. Dr. Rebar discussed how he uses the model to design STEMCORE outreach experiences.
Reading:
Tanner, K. D. (2010). Order matters: using the 5E model to align teaching with how people learn. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 9(3), 159-164. http://www.lifescied.org/content/9/3/159.short
Week 10
In our last meetings of the year, Dr. Bryan Rebar, Associate Director of UO’s STEM CORE, joined us to continue our discussion of the 5E Model. Bryan and the students he works with use the 5E’s when they design activities for their outreach work.