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The QuIRK Experience with Curriculum Reform

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The QuIRK Experience with Curriculum Reform

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  1. “In the space of 176 years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself 242 miles. This is an average of a trifle over 1 mile and 1/3 per year. Therefore any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic can see that in the … Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. … There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.” Mark Twain, 1874, Life on the Mississippi

  2. The QuIRK Experience with Curriculum Reform Nathan D. Grawe Director of the Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge (QuIRK) Initiative Carleton College Serc.carleton.edu/quirk With support from the US Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, the National Science Foundation, and the WM Keck Foundation.

  3. Agenda • How does QuIRK understand quantitative reasoning (QR)? (20 minutes) • QuIRK’s model of collaboration with the College’s writing program (10 minutes) • Key Elements of the QuIRK professional development program (10 minutes) • Discussion: Where are there complementarities between QR and other Quinnipiac initiatives? (10 minutes) • Models of QR Curricula (10 minutes) • How do we know if curricular reforms are working? (45 minutes) • Open Q&A/Discussion (15 minutes)

  4. What is QR?

  5. What is QR? The habit of mind to consider the power and limitations of quantitative evidence in the evaluation, construction, and communication of arguments in public, professional, and personal life.

  6. What is QR? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set • Arithmetic, including percentages, graphs • Estimation • Elementary probability and statistics • Basic geometry of measurement (volume, area, perimeter) • Elementary growth patterns: linear (constant quantity per unit time) and exponential (constant percentage change per unit time).

  7. What is QR? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context "The test of numeracy, as of any literacy, is whether a person naturally uses appropriate skills in many different contexts" -Lynn Steen (2001)

  8. What is QR? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context 3) QR involves argument

  9. What is QR? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context 3) QR involves argument “Deploying numbers skillfully is as important to communication as deploying verbs.” -Max Frankel, The New York Times Magazine

  10. What is QR? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context 3) QR involves argument 4) QR is a habit of mind “[QR] is not a discipline but a way of thinking….” -Lynn Steen Achieving Quantitative Literacy

  11. What do the numbers show?

  12. What do the numbers show?

  13. Compared to what?

  14. How was the variable operationalized?

  15. Controlling for what?

  16. Controlling for what? • About 50% of the differential has to do with different career choices…. • 25% percent involves greater time women spend on care-taking…. • The other 25 percent is due to bias and prejudice….”

  17. What is QR? “…sophisticated reasoning with elementary mathematics more than elementary reasoning with sophisticated mathematics.” -Lynn Steen Achieving Quantitative Literacy

  18. QuIRK’s Collaboration with the Writing Program • Shared workshops • Coordinated professional development support (summer grants) • Inter-related leadership structures • Co-authored work

  19. QuIRK’s Collaboration with the Writing Program • Addresses key aspects of QR (rhetorical issues including the social construction of numbers) • Defuses “redmedial math” misunderstanding • Surmounts institutional culture

  20. QuIRK’s Collaboration with the Writing Program • Writing Program • EthIC • ACE • Visuality

  21. Key Elements of QuIRK Program Assessment Professional Development New Courses/ Assignments Summer Curricular Revision

  22. Discussion 1. What programs have been most effective at engaging faculty at Quinnipiac? 2. What programs seem to have a potential overlap with QR? 3. Who are possible leaders outside math?

  23. Models of QR Curricula • Single Skills Course Requirement

  24. Models of QR Curricula • Skills Qualification + Application Course

  25. Models of QR Curricula • Skills-Based (multi-?) Course

  26. Models of QR Curricula • Multi-Experience Application in Context

  27. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? “If you would understand something, try to measure it.” -Lloyd Bond

  28. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context 3) QR involves communication 4) QR is a habit of mind

  29. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? “[QR] is largely absent from our current systems of assessment and accountability.” -Lynn Steen (2001)

  30. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context 3) QR involves communication 4) QR is a habit of mind

  31. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Four facets of QR: 1) QR requires a basic skill set 2) QR demands application in context 3) QR involves communication 4) QR is a habit of mind

  32. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Application in context: “Standardized conditions are decontextualized by design" -Grant Wiggins “'Get Real!': Assessing for Quantitative Literacy ”

  33. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Communication: While traditional assessment tools effectively measure comprehension, the ability to read others’ QR exposition does not guarantee the ability to engage in the creation of QR arguments.

  34. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Habit of mind: “As in book literacy, evidence of students’ ability to play the messy game of the [QR] discipline depends on seeing whether they can handle tasks without specific cues, prompts, or simplifying scaffolds from the teacher-coach or test designer.” -Grant Wiggins “'Get Real!': Assessing for Quantitative Literacy”

  35. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? "[QR] requires creativity in assessment, since neither course grades nor test scores provide a reliable surrogate." -Lynn Steen Achieving Quantitative Literacy

  36. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Student Attitude Surveys & Self-Reports

  37. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? JMU’s QR Test • Web-based • Multiple-choice items • 24 operational items • Scores correlate positively with grades in and exposure to relevant courses • Contact: Donna Sundre

  38. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? “Life is not like a multiple choice test.” Example Performance Task: Analyze various possible causes of several recent airplane accidents so that your employer can evaluate recent decision to buy a plane for sales staff.

  39. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Available information: • 1: Newspaper articles about the accident • 2: Federal Accident Report on in-flight breakups in single engine planes • 3: Your company’s internal email • 4: Charts on SwiftAir's performance characteristics • 5: Amateur Pilot article comparing SwiftAir 235 to similar planes • 6: Pictures and description of SwiftAir Models 180 and 235

  40. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? 357 institutions in 46 states have tested more than 70,000 students with the CLA Contact: cla@cae.org

  41. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? "The interdisciplinary and contextual nature of [QR] cries out for a cross cutting approach." -Lynn Steen Achieving Quantitative Literacy “We want to regularly assess student work with numbers and numerical ideas in the field….” -Grant Wiggins “'Get Real!': Assessing for Quantitative Literacy”

  42. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? QuIRK’s idea: Measure QR in the natural context of papers written in courses across the curriculum—papers written for “authentic” purposes.

  43. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Sophomore Writing Portfolio 3-5 papers plus reflective essay written in 2 of the 4 college divisions -observation -analysis -interpretation -documented sources -thesis-driven argument

  44. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Writing requirement assessment: 30 faculty members, 3 days, 450 portfolios QR assessment: 6-8 faculty members, 3 days, random sample of portfolios, 1 paper each drawn from analysis, interpretation, or observation categories

  45. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? "The interdisciplinary and contextual nature of [QR] cries out for a cross cutting approach." -Lynn Steen Achieving Quantitative Literacy “We want to regularly assess student work with numbers and numerical ideas in the field….” -Grant Wiggins “'Get Real!': Assessing for Quantitative Literacy”

  46. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? QuIRK’sidea: Measure QR in the “natural” context of papers written in courses across the curriculum—papers written for “authentic” purposes.

  47. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? The Carleton Sample: Sophomore Writing Portfolio 3-5 papers plus reflective essay written in 2 of the 4 college divisions -observation -analysis -interpretation -documented sources -thesis-driven argument

  48. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? Writing requirement assessment: 30 faculty members, 3 days, 450 portfolios QR assessment: 6-8 faculty members, 3 days, random sample of portfolios, 1 paper drawn from each

  49. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? 1. A little book-keeping

  50. How Would We Know if Reform is Working? 2. Did the student take the paper in a QR-relevant direction?

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