Engaging Students: Techniques and Strategies to Enhance Student Learning

1. HHMI Engaging Students: Techniques and Strategies to Enhance Student Learning Diane Ebert-May Department of Plant Biology Michigan State University www.first2.org

2. Goals for Workshop As a result of your participation, you will... • Think about large courses as environments where you teach less and students learn more. • Experience a learning cycle model of instruction • Analyze strategies and instructional designs for learner-centered, large courses • Articulate significant learning goals for your course/curriculum • Determine the ‘why’ and practical use of multiple forms of assessment • Use assessment data to drive instructional decisions

3. Learning Cycle: Models for Instruction • Karplus et al: BSCS • Exploration Engage • Concept Introduction Explore • Concept Application Explain • Elaborate

5. Engage • Questions are designed to: • Find out more about students’ thinking • Level the playing field (everyone involved) • Remind students they HAVE a role in this course • Unveil alternative/misconceptions

6. “Consensogram” Directions 1. Take one color-coded post-it for each question, write the question # in the corner. 2. Write a number between 0-100 on each post-it in increments of 10. 3. Please do not share responses.

7. “Consensogram” Questions Please respond on a scale of 0 -100 in increments of 10: 1. Teaching is a human endeavor that does not and cannot improve over time. (100 agree - 0 disagree) 2. Human beings are fantastic learners. (100 agree - 0 disagree) 3. Humans don’t learn well in a teaching-centered classroom. (100 agree - 0 disagree) 4. What percent of your students appear to understand concepts in your course “very well” during class time, but perform disappointingly “less well” on the exams?

8. Consesogram Qs (2) 5. To what degree do the assessments you use in your courses provide convincing data about student learning? 6. How important is it to use multiple kinds of data to assess your students? 7. How often do you use data to make instructional decisions? • In my department, teaching is as important as research and is rewarded accordingly (100 agree - 0 disagree)

9. Cooperative Groups A type of formal structure for in class activities. • 4 students per group • Person A, B, C, D in each group (assign/select) • First - read problem/think about task individually • Discuss: A with B • C with D • Form group consensus

10. Explore • Introduce concepts, ideas • Ask more questions • Find out more about what students know, misunderstand

11. Assessment in TeachingParallels Assessment in Research • We ask questions and develop hypotheses and to solve problems and make predictions about student 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 arguments 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 or decisions about a course. • Our ideas are peer reviewed - informally or formally

12. What is assessment? Data collection with the purpose of answering questions about… • student understanding • students’ attitudes • students’ skills • instructional design and implementation

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

14. 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.

15. Solution: IRD model • Intergenerational research 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.

16. Collaborators • Janet Batzli - Plant Biology (University of Wisconsin) • Doug Luckie - Physiology • Scott Harrison - Microbiology (graduate student) • Tammy Long - Plant Biology • Jim Smith - Zoology • Deb Linton - Plant Biology (postdoc) • Heejun Lim - Chemistry Education (postdoc) • Duncan Sibley - Geology

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

18. 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?

23. Cognitive Theory • “Learners are not simply passive recipients of information; they actively construct their own understanding.” • Svinicki 1991

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

25. 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

26. What is assessment? • Data collection with a purpose • gather data about students’ learning. • use tools like Bloom’s taxonomy to ‘calibrate’ data

27. 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

29. Assessment -> Inseparable from Instruction • What kind of data do you want from the assessment? (non-trivial?) • How is data collection embedded in context of learning over time? • Is assessment of student learning direct, rather than indirect? • How will the data influence your instructional design?

30. False Hopes of Grading (Evaluation) • Total objectivity • Total agreement • Hope for one-dimensional student motivation for learning. • From Walvoord and Anderson (1998)

31. Managing Grading • Use to enhance learning (socially constructed/context dependent process). • Substitute judgment for objectivity. • Distribute time effectively. • Be open to change - grades/grading systems. • From Walvoord and Anderson (1998)

32. Managing Grades (2) 5. Listen and observe student. 6. Communicate and collaborate with students. 7. Integrate grading with other key processes - planning, teaching, interacting. 8. Seize teachable moment - emotional process. 9. Make student learning primary goal - involve them with high expectations, assessment, feedback.

33. Managing Grades (3) 10. Be a teacher first, gatekeeper last. 11. Encourage learning-centered motivation. 12. Emphasize student involvement.

34. Explain Now: • Let us work through a detailed example of assessment of student understanding…

35. Learning Goal • Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. • Tools: multiple forms of assessment • Feedback loop to instructional design

36. 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.

37. Instructional Design • Two class meetings on carbon cycle (160 minutes) • Active, inquiry-based learning • Cooperative groups • Questions, group processing, large lecture sections, small discussion sections, multi-week laboratory investigation • Homework problems including web-based modules • Different faculty for each course • One graduate/8-10 undergraduate TAs per course

38. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

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

45. Assessment - depends on purpose • Reports from groups, formative • Peer evaluation • Individual evaluation by instructor • Score - 5 points

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. Jaguar 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.

49. 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)

50. 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