How to teach the perfect undergraduate science course (and why that won’t happen)

1. How to teach the perfect undergraduate science course (and why that won’t happen) Gordon E. Uno Department of Botany and Microbiology University of Oklahoma guno@ou.edu

2. TOP FIVE PROBLEMS of TEACHING and LEARNING SCIENCE (other than $$, colleagues, administrators, and inertia)

3. MAJOR PROBLEMS • 1.A focus on scientific terms and not science as a process • The absence of critical thinking and inquiry in lectures and labs • 3. Focusing on teaching instead of learning, understanding, and explaining • 4. Monotonous lectures and confirmatory labs • 5. Not knowing what your students know and can do (do they really get it?)

4. Problem 1: Focusing on scientific terms and not science as a process • Students do not understand how science works • Science taught as historical record and not as a creative, dynamic, investigative activity • Teach/learn details without an overview • Content alone guides course development; objective questions used with one answer • Reward student’s memory but not thinking (students as dump trucks) • Assume students understand a subject when they answer questions requiring lots of detail • P.S. (Content is fine, but seek deep understanding)

5. STUDENTS: The Thylakoid Complex (Students love to memorize) FACULTY: The Game Show Mentality (Asking “are you smarter than a 5th-grader” type questions) “What is the capital of France?”

6. Problem 2: Absence of Critical Thinking and Inquiry in Lectures and Labs • Students see but do not make careful observations • Lost art of asking good questions (faculty & students) • Courses lack inquiry and problem-solving activities • Students work toward “correct” answers in lab • Data collection is planned and “experiments” are outlined for students.

7. Problem 3: Focusing on teaching instead of student learning, understanding, and explaining • Planning “what am I going to teach” instead of “how am I going to get students to learn?” • Students and faculty don’t know/think about how students learn (e.g., metacognition) • Faculty ignore student misconceptions and assume background knowledge • Students don’t synthesize or link information • Students regurgitate information; don’t explain in their own words • Students filter information before learning; bias.

8. Problem 4: Monotonous Lectures and Confirmatory Labs • Talking at students vs. discussing with them (using Powerpoint slides is still lecturing) • Need to “cover” all the material • Movement away from laboratories • Lack of lab and process skills practice • No student ownership of investigations • Few “need to know” situations • No/few opportunities for independent (authentic) research.

9. Problem 5: Not knowing what your students know and can do • Exams without questions requiring use of thinking or process skills • Few opportunities for discussion • Teaching students who learn differently than • you and who use technology differently • Lower expectations for higher evaluations • No formative assessments; only multiple-choice tests given • No reflection of your own teaching methods • (how do you know what you do is helping students learn?)

10. Many Barriers to Overcome • Short attention spans of students • Disinterest and negative attitude of students toward science • Irrelevance of subjects to students • Students’ social interactions are superficial • Decline of student self-discipline, self- motivation, and course rigor (search for the path of least resistance) • Poor attendance and study skills • Intellectual conflicts based on religion, limited experience, and misconceptions • Difficulty of science, math, and engineering

11. INDIANAPOLIS—The National Science Foundation's annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard. "For centuries, we have embraced the pursuit of scientific knowledge as one of the noblest and worthiest of human endeavors, one leading to the enrichment of mankind both today and for future generations," said keynote speaker and NSF chairman Louis Farian. "However, a breakthrough discovery is challenging our long-held perceptions

12. Convergence of National Science Education “Reform” Projects • College Board’s Revision of All Advanced Placement (AP) Science Courses (Bio, Chem, Phys, Env Sci) • Revised Science Education Standards from the NRC • HHMI List of Competencies for Incoming and Graduating Medical Students • “Seven Principles of Learning” From: Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate (STEM) Teaching, NRC, 2003 • Introductory Biology Project (IBP): ibp.ou.edu • Evolution Across the Curriculum (NESCent, NRC, UCMP, BSCS, AIBS)

13. Teaching the Perfect Science Course • What To Do: • By the end of your course, what do you want your students to know, understand, value, and be able to do? • What will you do to help your students “learn and do” whatever? • How will you know that your students possess this knowledge and these skills? (e.g., if you value data manipulation, then you have to let students work with data and then evaluate their ability to do so)

14. Problem 1: Focusing on scientific terms and not science as a process

15. What To Do--- • Use organizing themes throughout course to help students retain “facts” • e.g,,“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” Dobzhansky, 1973 • Find patterns and examples of generalizations in nature (e.g., form and function) • Give students the opportunity to practice inquiry skills in discussion, labs, and “lecture”

16. NRC Learning Principle 1 Learning with understanding is facilitated when new and existing knowledge is structured around major concepts and principles of the discipline. Knowing many disconnected facts is not sufficient for developing expertise or understanding. Breadth of coverage and recall of facts may hinder students’ abilities to organize knowledge effectively. “Use Big Ideas or Themes in Your Discipline”

17. Goals of the AP Science Revision Produce a more inclusive and more engaging program of study for each AP science discipline by identifying: • concepts to be studied in depth and measured on the exams • the need for reduction in breadth of content and an increase in depth of understanding • essential reasoning and inquiry skills • emerging areas of research that capture essential concepts within the discipline

18. Structure of the AP Biology Curriculum Framework 4 Big Ideas Enduring Understandings Science Practices:Science Inquiry & Reasoning Essential Knowledge Learning Objectives

19. Curriculum Framework: Big Ideas The unifying concepts or Big Ideas increase coherence both within and across disciplines. A total of Four Big Ideas: 1 The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life. B I G I D E A 2 Biological systems utilize energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain homeostasis. B I G I D E A 3 Living systems retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes. B I G I D E A 4 Biological systems interact, and these interactions possess complex properties. B I G I D E A

20. Building Enduring Understandings For each Big Idea, there are enduring understandings which incorporate core concepts that students should retain. Total of 17 enduring understandings across the four Big Ideas. 1 The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life. B I G I D E A Enduring Understanding 1.A: Change in the genetic makeup of a population over time is evolution Enduring Understanding 1.B: Organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry Enduring Understanding 1.C: Life continues to evolve within a changing environment Enduring Understanding 1.D: The origin of living systems is explained by natural processes

21. Problem 2: The Absence of Critical Thinking and Inquiry in Lectures and Labs

22. CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS • Observe and Ask Good Questions • Hypothesize and Predict • Design an Appropriate Investigation • Collect, Process, and Interpret Data • Draw Conclusions • Infer and Generalize • Communicate Effectively • Relate Cause and Effect • Recognize Assumptions and Evaluate • Apply Knowledge to New Situations

23. INQUIRY ACTIVITIES • Emphasize Critical Thinking • Learner-Centered • Focus on Science as a Process • Content is Learned in Context • Hands-on and Minds-on • Questioning and Discussing Are Essential

24. Problem 3: Focusing on teaching instead of student learning, understanding, and explaining

25. WE LEARN: 10% of What We Read 20% of What We Hear 30% of What We See 50% of What We See and Hear 60% of What We Write 70% of What We Discuss 80% of What We Experience 95% of What We Teach

26. AP Emphasis on Science Practices The science practices enable students to establish lines of evidence and use them to develop and refine testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena 1.0The student can use representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems 2.0 The student can use mathematics appropriately 3.0 The student can engage in scientific questioning to extend thinking or to guide investigations 4.0 Student can plan and implement data collection strategies in relation to a particular scientific question 5.0 The student can perform data analysis and evaluation of evidence 6.0 The student can work with scientific explanations and theories 7.0 The student can connect and relate knowledge across various scales, concepts, representations, and domains SCIENCE PRACTICES

27. NRC Learning Principle 3 Learning is facilitated through the use of metacognitive strategies that identify, monitor, and regulate thinking processes. Students monitor their current level of understanding and decide when it is not adequate. How do students know what they know? (What do I need to know to solve a problem? I don’t get it?) “Provide opportunities for students to observe experts as they solve problems.” “Helping students understand how they learn.” “What learning strategies do you show students?”

28. Example of a LEARNING STRATEGY Experts typically organize factual and procedural knowledge into schemas that support recognition of patterns and the rapid retrieval and application of knowledge. Students often assume equal importance of all terms and ideas.

29. Africa Asia Brazil Canada Europe Germany Japan Kenya Montreal Munich Nairobi North America Rio de Janeiro South America Tokyo

30. Africa Asia Europe North America South America Brazil Canada Germany Japan Kenya Montreal Munich Nairobi Rio de Janeiro Tokyo Africa Kenya Nairobi Asia Japan Tokyo Europe Germany Munich North America Canada Montreal South America Brazil Rio de Janeiro

31. Parenchyma Chloroplast Xylem Chlorophyll Phloem Petiole Blade Epidermis Stipules Calvin cycle

32. Problem 4: Monotonous Lectures and Confirmatory Labs

33. The New AP Biology Course Emphasizes Inquiry-Based and Student-Directed Labs

34. NRC Learning Principle 6: The practices and activities in which people engage while learning shape what is learned. When students learn content in a limited context, they miss the applicability of information to solve novel problems. Engaging students in “authentic research” increases interest and useful content knowledge. “Use Problem-based and Case-based learning fostering problem-solving skills and strategies.” “Allow students to conduct investigations to answer their own questions.”

38. Problem 5: Not knowing what your students really know and can do

39. AP Integrating the Content and Science Practice Essential Knowledge 1.B.2 Phylogenetic trees and cladograms are graphical representations (models) of evolutionary history that can be tested Content Science Practice Learning Objective Science Practice 5.3 The student connect phenomena and models across spatial and temporal scales + Learning Objective (1.B.2 & 5.3) The student is able to evaluate evidence provided by a data set in conjunction with a phylogenetic tree or a simple cladogram to determine evolutionary history and speciation

40. NRC Learning Principle 2 Learners use what they already know to construct new understandings. Students learn a new idea or process by relating it to ideas or processes they already possess. (Learners construct interpretations of newly encountered problems and phenomena to agree with their own prior knowledge—even when these interpretations are wrong.) “Constructivism”

41. Basic Knowledge Concept 1

42. Basic Knowledge Concept 1

43. New Idea Concept 1 Concept 2

44. Misconceptions, Filtered Information, or Naïve Explanations Concept 1

45. BIOLOGICAL LITERACY

46. SELECTED MISCONCEPTIONS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ON THE FIRST DAY OF AN INTRODUCTORY BOTANY CLASS

47. HOW DO WE KNOW STUDENTS KNOW? GOOD ASSESSMENTS SHOULD: • Be Varied---poster sessions, paper tests, oral presentations, papers, reports • Encompass complex aspects of student achievement • Make students’ thinking visible (don’t reward memorization of discrete bits of knowledge) • Identify strategies used by students to solve problems • Provide timely and informative feedback (formative and summative) collect cards each day

48. Jared, the Subway man, lost a lot of weight eating a low calorie diet. Where did all the fat / mass go? A) The mass was released as CO2 and H2O. B) The mass was converted to energy and used up. C) The mass was made into ATP molecules. D) The mass was broken down to amino acids and eliminatedfrom the body. Note: The correct answer is A. Distracters for the “Jared question” show that students confuse matter and energy, thinking about them interchangeably. Teachers who are aware that students may use this thinking when they study cells, organisms, and ecosystems can explicitly address this in their course design (Wilson et al. 2006). Thus faculty can use these related sets of questions (clusters) to recognize and follow students’ faulty reasoning spanning content across a course.

49. COMPONENTS OF AN EXEMPLARY SCIENCE PROGRAM • Promotes Interest, Excitement, and Acceptance of Science as a Process • Teaches Relevance To Real World • Makes Process And Selective Content Equal • Uses Investigative Experiences and Themes • Fosters Critical Thinking And Problem- Solving • Uses Appropriate Assessments • Focuses on the Student Learner • Encourages Inquiry and Research

50. Checklist for Science Activities, Classes, and “Lectures” Each activity should address at least 3-4 of the following items.