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Course Design and Syllabus Construction

Course Design and Syllabus Construction. Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary Robyn Wright Dunbar, Stanford University Barbara Tewksbury, Hamilton College. Developing a Course: Different Strategies. Teacher-centered What will I cover? Learning-centered What will they learn?.

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Course Design and Syllabus Construction

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  1. Course Design and Syllabus Construction Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary Robyn Wright Dunbar, Stanford University Barbara Tewksbury, Hamilton College

  2. Developing a Course: Different Strategies • Teacher-centered • What will I cover? • Learning-centered • What will they learn?

  3. Course Design Process (one approach) • Consider your audience and context • Articulate your goals and objectives • Overarching goals • Ancillary skills goals • Select content to achieve goals • Develop a course plan, select teaching strategies, design assignments and assessments Course Design Tutorial serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html

  4. Consider Your Audience and Course Context • Required course? Elective course? • Attitudes and motivation of students? • Commuter or residential students? • Course size? • Associated lab? • Support (e.g., TAs, tech support) • Other …. These will influence the choices you make about the course

  5. Articulate Overarching Goals • What do you want students to be able to do by the end of the course? • What kinds of problems do you want them to be able to solve? • How might students apply what they have learned in the future? • How will students be changed as a result of taking the course?

  6. Some Examples of Goals I want students to be able to: • use characteristics of rocks and surficial features in an area to analyze the geologic history • predict the weather given appropriate meteorological data • analyze unfamiliar areas and assess geologic hazards (different than recalling those done in class) • interpret unfamiliar geologic maps and construct cross sections • formulate new research questions in ____

  7. Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge Focus on Higher-order Learning Skills Bloom’s Taxonomy Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) Evaluation

  8. Focus on Measurable Skills/Actions • What could students do to show that they have mastered the following goals? • Use characteristics of rocks and surficial features in an area to analyze the geologic history • Learn to appreciate their natural surroundings

  9. Evaluate Possible Goals for Entry-level Geologic Hazards Course • I want students to be able to: • analyze historical records in an area and predict the likelihood of future natural disasters. • understand the connection between plate tectonics and natural hazards • research and evaluate news reports of a natural disaster and communicate their analyses to someone else. • appreciate the awesome power of nature

  10. Select a Specific Course That You Anticipate Teaching • What are your overarching end-of-course overarching goals? • When students have completed my course, I want them to be able to:

  11. Ancillary Skills Goals • Writing and/or oral communication • Accessing and reading professional literature • Quantitative skills • Research skills • Teamwork skills • Other

  12. Choose Content Topics to Achieve Goals • Selecting topics • What are the essentials? • What meets student needs? • Linked to goals? • Compare to the wide range of content topics – is something missing that you value?

  13. Be able to research and evaluate news reports of a natural disaster and communicate analyses to someone else • Instructor #1 chose four specific disasters as content topics • 1973 Susquehanna flood • Landsliding in coastal California • Mt. St. Helens • Armenia earthquake • Instructor #2 chose four themes as content topics • Impact of hurricanes on building codes and insurance • Perception and reality of fire damage on the environment • Mitigating the effects of volcanic eruptions • Geologic and sociologic realities of earthquake prediction

  14. Course Plan • Build the course around assignments, units, or projects designed to achieve your goals (rather than around a list of content items and topics to which you want students to be exposed) • How will you give students frequent practice in doing x (with timely and constructive feedback)? How will you build independence over time?

  15. Select Teaching Strategies and Assessments • Learn about successful student-active teaching strategies • think-pair-share, jigsaw, discussion, simulations, role-playing, concept mapping, debates, labs, research experiences…. • assignments involving writing, posters, oral presentation, service learning…. • Make deliberate choices of the best strategy for the task (in your context).

  16. Teach the Earth - Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College (includes Starting Point & On the Cutting Edge)

  17. A Comment • What students receive grades on should be tasks that allow you to evaluate whether they have met the course goals Cutting Edge Course Design Tutorial http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html

  18. Syllabus Construction • Goals • Expectations • Tone

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