Assessment - What Evidence do You Accept?

1. HHMI Assessment - What Evidence do You Accept? Diane Ebert-May Lyman Briggs School Department of Plant Biology Michigan State University

2. Our Team at MSU • Doug Luckie - Physiology • Janet Batzli - Plant Biology • Scott Harrison - Microbiology • Tammy Long - Ecology • Heejun Lim - Chemistry Education • Duncan Sibley - Geology • Joyce Parker - Biochemistry

3. “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. Do not share responses

4. “Consensogram” Questions Please respond on a scale of 0 -100 in increments of 10: • To what degree is your course based on active, inquiry-based learning? • To what degree are your course learning objectives, instructional design and assessment aligned? • How important is it to use multiple kinds of data to assess your students? • How often do I use data to make instructional decisions? • In my department, teaching is as important as research for graduate students (100 agree - 0 disagree). • In my department, effective teaching is rewarded. (100 agree - 0 disagree)

5. Goals for Today As a result of your participation in this workshop, you will... • Participate in analysis of learning: constructive, inquiry, discovery, active, problem-based, cooperative, outcomes based, project-based. • Examine course goals and predicted learning outcomes. • Use data to identify student understanding and misconceptions. • Use assessment techniques

6. True or False? • Faculty really are very interested in assessing their students’ learning better, but just don’t know how to?

7. True or False? • Lack of meaningful assessment in undergraduate education occurs because faculty are satisfied to be less accountable in their teaching than they are in their research.

8. True or False? • Assessing student learning in science is more closely related to what scientists actually do as research than they realize.

9. Assessment in ‘Teaching’Parallels Assessment in ‘Research’ • We collect data with a purpose. • Data we collect are aligned with a question about a problem • Questions we ask are meaningful, interesting, fundable. • Research methods and designs appropriate for question. • Instruments/techniques we use are calibrated. • We explain results in the context of our questions. • Results drive our next questions. • Our ideas are peer reviewed for publication/funding.

10. What are 3 central questions about learning? 1. What do we want our students to know and be able to do? 1.5. What evidence will we accept that students know and can do? 2. How will we help students get there?

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

14. Ultimate goal of teaching: 1. Improved student learning. 2. Improved student learning. 3. Improved student learning.

15. What Type of Learning? Bloom (1956) described major categories in Cognitive Domain of Educational Objectives

16. Convergent Thinking • Knowledge - remember material • Comprehension - grasp the meaning of material • Application - use learned material in new concrete situations • Adapted from Grolund (1970)

17. Divergent Thinking • Analysis - break down material to understand organizational structure • Synthesis - put parts together to form a new whole • Evaluation - judge value of material for a purpose • Adapted from Grolund (1970)

18. Classroom Environment • Teacher inspires students to struggle with the discipline - both within and outside the classroom. • Teacher needs evidence from students about their progress in learning

27. What is assessment? • Data collection with a purpose • Courses: gather data about our students’ learning.

28. 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. Basic Objectives Biology Department: Hope College …students to • Be active learners - that is to learn biology by doing biology. • Learn the basic set of principles and factual knowledge about each of the major areas of biology.

30. Write a Learning Goal • Individually, write a learning goal for one of your courses (in the context of the departmental objectives) • e.g., • students will demonstrate… • students will be able to …

31. Next • Share your goal with a partner in your group • Write both goals on large post-its • Beneath, write possible performance expectations

33. Functions of Assessment Data • Formative: diagnostic feedback to students/instructor • Summative: description of students’ level of attainment • Evaluative: curricular feedback to instructor • (e.g., effectiveness of field trip, lab investigation) • Educative: students engaged in interesting, challenging experiences to develop further insight and understanding (Hodson 1992)

34. In effect... • Assessment IS a form of learning.

35. Goal => Assessment • Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in a variety of problems. • Tools: multiple forms of assessment

36. Common Misconceptions: Photosynthesis & Respiration • Photosynthesis as Energy: Photosynthesis provides energy for uptake of nutrients through roots which builds biomass. No biomass built through photosynthesis alone. • Plant Altruism: CO2 is converted to O2 in plant leaves so that all organisms can ‘breathe’. • All Green: Plants have chloroplasts instead of mitochondria so they can not respire. • Thin Air: CO2 and O2 are gases therefore, do not have mass and therefore, can not add or take away mass from an organism.

37. Multiple choice question (pre-post) Plants gain a tremendous amount of weight (dry biomass) as they grow from seed to adult. Which of the following substances contributes most to that weight gain a. compounds dissolved in soil water that are take up by plant roots b. water c. molecules in the air that enter through holes in the plant leaves d. organic material in the soil taken up directly by plant roots e. solar radiation

38. Carbon Cycle Problem (post) • 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.

39. Antarctic Food Web

40. Radish Problem • Experimental Setup: • Weighed out 3 batches of radish seeds each weighing 1.5 g. • Experimental treatments: • 1. Seeds not moistened (dry) placed in LIGHT • 2. Seeds placed on moistened paper towels in LIGHT • 3. Seeds placed on moistened paper towels in DARK

41. Problem (cont) • 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 (use think-pair-share). • Light, No Water • Light, Water • Dark, Water

42. Results: Weight of Radish Plants 1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g Write an explanation about the results. (Remember all treatments started as 1.5g).

43. Misconceptions => Assessment => Instruction • What data do you want from the assessment? • What do you do when you identify student misconceptions? • How will the data influence your instructional design?

44. Gene-DNA-Chromosome • Students could explain transcription & translation but not the relation... “Gene-DNA-Chromosome.” • Concept mapping forces students to “Think different” and confront their (mis) understanding.

45. Concept Maps

46. Concept Maps are Visual Diagrams or Models

47. Concept Maps are Visual Diagrams or Models Used for Organization Assessment promotes Reflection & Learning

48. Concept Maps are display Visual Diagrams or Models Concepts connected with Used for Linking Words Organization Assessment promotes Reflection & Learning

49. Concept Maps are display represent Visual Diagrams or Models Concepts Knowledge or Understanding connected with has has Hierarchy Structure Used for Linking Words Organization Assessment promotes Reflection & Learning

50. Concept Maps are display represent Visual Diagrams or Models Concepts Knowledge or Understanding connected with has has Hierarchy Structure Used for is constructed with Linking Words Organization Assessment Context promotes Prior Knowledge New Information Reflection & Learning