The Science Literacy Teaching Journal Club continued in 2014-15 for its fifth year with two distinct offerings described below. Meetings featured lively, structured discussions across discipline and rank with occasional small-scale teaching experiments. Participants from all disciplines were invited to join the whole series or stop by for a specific conversation.
Thursday sessions focused on classroom level assessment techniques used to determine how well students are learning. We used a new book, Assessment in the College Science Classroom (Dirks, Wenderoth & Withers, 2014), part of the Scientific Teaching series, as a basis for our discussions. These sessions were designed for participants who have familiarity with active learning and want to explore assessment more deeply.
Friday sessions focused on practical teaching techniques that can be applied in the classroom. Discussions included pedagogical theory as we read and explore science education literature. These sessions were designed for new or returning participants who wanted to hone their teaching techniques.
Week 1 – October 2 and 3
For the first week of the term, we discussed two articles:
Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(23), 8410–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.1319030111
Wieman, C.E. (2014) Large-scale comparison of science teaching methods sends clear message. PNAS 111(23):8319-8320. dio:10.1073/pnas.140730411
Week 2 – October 9 and 10
For Thursday, we will read the Preface (pgs xi-xvi) and Chapter 1 Using Assessment for Effective Instructional Design (pgs 3-13). We asked participants to bring copies of the learning outcomes from any syllabus they had used or developed.
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company
For Friday we read the following journal article:
Rao, S. P., & DiCarlo, S. E. (2000). Peer instruction improves performance on quizzes. Adv Physiol Educ, 24(1), 51-5.
Available from: http://advan.physiology.org/content/ajpadvan/24/1/51
Week 3 – October 16 and 17
For Thursday, we asked participants to bring a copy of an exam which we used for an activity. We also read Chapter 2 Evaluating the Cognitive Levels of Instructional Materials Using an Educational Taxonomy from:
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
For Friday we read the following journal article:
Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2002). Approaches to cell biology teaching: questions about questions. Cell Biology Education, 1(3), 63-67. Available from: http://www.lifescied.org/content/1/3/63.short
Week 4 – October 23 and 24
For Thursday, we read:
Chapter 3 Summative Assessment – Assessment of Learning from:
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom.New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
For Friday we read and discussed the journal article below. After completing the reading and before Journal Club, we asked participants to complete this two question survey.
Heiner, C. E., Banet, A. I., & Wieman, C. (2014). Preparing students for class: How to get 80% of students reading the textbook before class. American Journal of Physics, 82(10), 989-996. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4895008
Week 5 – October 30 and 31
For Thursday we continued our discussion of Chapter 3 Summative Assessment – Assessment of Learning from:
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom.New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
And supplemented it with an article focusing on rubrics:
Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2006). Rubrics: tools for making learning goals and evaluation criteria explicit for both teachers and learners. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 5(3), 197-203.http://www.lifescied.org/content/5/3/197.short
For Friday we read and discussed the following journal article about teacher communication roles:
Warfa, A. R. M., Roehrig, G. H., Schneider, J. L., & Nyachwaya, J. (2014). Role of Teacher-Initiated Discourses in Students’ Development of Representational Fluency in Chemistry: A Case Study. Journal of Chemical Education 91(6), 784−792
Available from:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/ed4005547
Week 6 – November 6 and 7
For Thursday we read Chapter 4 – Formative Assessment – Assessment for Learning from:
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom.New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
For Friday we read and discussed the following journal article about using technology in the classroom:
Schuenemann, K. & Wagner, R. (2014). Using Student-Generated Blogs to Create a Global Perspective on Climate Change. Journal of Geoscience Education. 62, 364-373.
Available from:
http://nagt-jge.org/doi/pdf/10.5408/13-065.1
Week 7 – November 13 and 14
For Thursday we read Chapter 5 – Assessing Higher-Order Cognitive Skills with Multiple-Choice Questions from: Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Friday at noon we met at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. During our visit we experienced ways to incorporate educational resources of our fantastic art museum into science courses with Jody Seasonwein as our host and guide. To prepare for our visit, we read the following two articles:
Uffelman, E. S. (2007). Teaching Science in Art. Journal of Chemical Education, 84(10), 1617-1624. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed084p1617
Dale, D. a., & Bailey, B. L. (2003). Physics in the Art Museum. The Physics Teacher, 41(2), 82-83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1542042
Week 8 – November 20 and 21
For Thursday we read Chapter 6 – Preparing Students for Assessment from
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom.New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
For Friday we read the following journal article about diversity:
Haak, D. C., HilleRisLambers, J., Pitre, E., & Freeman, S. (2011). Increased structure and active learning reduce the achievement gap in introductory biology. Science, 332 (6034), 1213-6.http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1204820
Week 9 – November 27 and 28
There was no Journal Club meeting this week due to the holiday.
Week 10 – December 4 and 5
For Thursday we read Chapter 7 – Assessing the Effectiveness of Teaching Innovations from:
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom.New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.
For Friday we will read Chapter 6 – Preparing Students for Assessment from:
Dirks, C., Wenderoth, M.P., & Withers, M. (2014). Assessment in the college science classroom.New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.