Introducing Students to Cases and Information Literacy

1. Introducing Students to Cases and Information Literacy How can You Use Case Studies and PBL to Increase Information Literacy in Microbiology Education Pat Marsteller ASMCUE Englewood, CO, May 16-17, 2013

2. Agenda • Rules Cases • Context and Facilitation • Addressing Information Literacy • Discussion and tools

3. TransformationStrategize how quickly and how far to move from A highly structured classroom to… amore student-centered classroom

4. Ideal • Students drive their own learning by: • Asking their own questions • Strategizing how best to investigate • Create their own ways to demonstrate their understanding • Professors reluctant to give up control • Fear that students won’t learn what is needed • Need to manage behavior • Perception that Cases are “not teaching” Reality

5. Rules Cases • Who’s the Boss? • “We’ll never finish on time – just let “But I did all the work!”“That’s because you hogged it all!” Students work as a class and in groups to explore group dynamics, drawing on their own expertise about what works and what doesn’t. • The Class Rules • Student groups get together to research group dynamics and become experts on what works and what doesn’t in doing cases.

6. Sample from Who’s the Boss? Four students gather around a table for a group lab. Major Works sits down and starts reading the lab without waiting for his peers to get settled. • Major Works (Demandingly) Alright, did anyone do the reading?” The rest of the group members, Sam Wallflower, Carol Less and Maddie Sidetrack sit down at the table. Sam Wallflower begins to open his mouth while raising his hand, but is stopped by Major’s next comment. • Major Works: “Well, since I’m the only one that did, I will assign our roles for the lab. Carol, you can be the recorder. Of course, I will record as well, for my own files.” Carol Less slouches at her chair and answers simply with raised eyebrows. Meanwhile, Maddie Sidetrack starts jamming out to her ipod. • Major: “Maddie, since you’re so energetic, why don’t you go around collecting the data. And you…”, looking at Sam, “What’s your name again?” • Sam: (answers in what seems like a silent voice) “Sam.”

7. Assignment: • Come up with a list of group rules that you think will make your group work effectively. You may also consider penalties for infractions. • What roles might be most effective so that each person participates?

8. Should you assign roles? • Manager • Public Relations & Communication • Quality control • Process Analyst • Data Analyst • Media consultant • Recorder

9. Sample Role Description Team Leader • Develops questions and comments about the groups findings • Leads the group in their discussions about their findings • Leads the individual members in sharing their findings with each other each day • Leads discussions in a way that allows group members to learn from each other, the text, the experience etc. • During reading of the case this person: • Fills in the Know and Need to Knowcolumns • Makes sure all other groups members are completing their assigned tasks • Leads the other group members in their sharing of their assigned tasks

10. Group Roles (from POGIL)

11. Group Roles (from POGIL)

12. Group Roles (from POGIL)

13. Provide Context for New Information • Personal Experience • What have you heard? • Have you ever experienced…? • Do you know anyone who…? • Predict • What do you think will happen? • What might you do?

14. Coaching Students to Identify, Research, and Discuss Your Learning Objectives • Discuss Learning Objectives • Restate the problem and action plan • Follow logical flow of information • Define terms/acronyms first, then key LIs • Who researched something similar? What can you add? How/where did you find that info? • Challenge correct AND inaccurate statements • How do you know that? What evidence supports your claim? Confirmed by multiple sources? • Check for Understanding and Demand Summary/Synthesis

15. Check for Understanding • Repetition, especially of new/fancy words (viral load, neuromuscular) • Differentiate scientific vs. common use meaning of familiar terms (model, theory, history, negative/positive, drugs, adaptation, fitness) • Recall • What did we say about…? • Complete your sentence

16. Address Behavioral Problems • Overachiever/Disruptive Student • Assign an active task (e.g., record notes) • Deputize (e.g., make sure everyone gets a chance to speak) • Quiet/DisengagedStudent • Address by name • Invite specific contribution • Use a person-centered question

17. Demand summary and synthesis • Who can summarize what we just learned? • How does that relate to what we talked about earlier? • What did we learn from that student’s research? What was interesting/surprising? • Do we have consensus? Let’s review our different ideas and evaluate which ones are still valid.

18. More Facilitation Resources • Emory (cases & resources) • www.cse.emory.edu/prism/resources • www.cse.emory.edu/prism/learningissues.cfm • PBL Facilitation Guide • Buffalo (cases & articles) • http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu • Don’t: What Not To Do when Teaching Cases (Herreid, 2001) • Delaware (cases & videos) • www.udel.edu/inst • www.udel.edu/inst/resources/groups-in-action.html • Nat’l Institute for Science Education: Collaborative Learning • http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/CL/default.asp

19. Not Enough Time! • stopwatch or timer • Question bank Too Much Time! • Self/Group evaluation • What did we do well? How can we improve? • Minute paper or Think,Pair, Share • Affected you most • New information? • Busted myth? • Most interesting?

20. “the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.” - American Library Association Information Literacy

21. Information Literacy Principlesfrom National Forum on Information Literacy, infolit.org • Define: Articulate a need for information as one or more relevant, focused, and manageable questions. Know where to locate and gain understanding of acceptable, common definitions of terms associated with the needed information. • Access: Search, find, and retrieve information from a variety of print and electronic resources (e.g., databases, Internet). • Evaluate: Judge the currency, appropriateness, and adequacy of information and information sources for a specific purpose. • Manage: Conduct a rudimentary and preliminary organization of accessed information for retrieval and future application. • Integrate: Extract and combine information from a variety of sources and draw fundamental conclusions. • Create: Summarize and adapt information to describe an event, express an opinion, or support a basic argument, viewpoint, or position. • Communicate: Adapt and present information for a peer audience.

22. President Approved! “Every day, we are inundated with vast amounts of information.  A 24-hour news cycle and thousands of global television and radio networks, coupled with an immense array of online resources, have challenged our long-held perceptions of information management. Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation.” President Barack H. Obama, proclaiming a National Information Literacy Awareness Month, October 2009

23. Essential Web Research Skills • Search efficiently and effectively • Distinguish kinds of sources, and analyze a source’s validity and reliability • Cross-check facts, even from reliable sources • Conscientiously and properly attribute the words and ideas of others • Cite sources accurately and appropriately From Microsoft (2010). Search to Research: Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills. Retrieved April 16, 2011 from http://www.microsoft.com/education/criticalthinking/

24. Microsoft’s curriculumhttp://www.microsoft.com/education/criticalthinking/ • Mechanics of searching • Validity and reliability • Citing web sources • Civil discourse • Plagiarism

25. Google’s curriculumhttp://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html • How can appropriate search terms and queries guide targeted searches? • How and why do researchers evaluate search results? • How can I narrow my search to get the best results? • How and why do researchers evaluate search results? • How do I evaluate and decide which credible sources to use for a specific task? Plus, “A Google A Day” Challenges!

26. Your Library and your librarians • Research Guides • Pub med • Electronic databases • Citation styles • And many more services that students often forget about

27. Understanding Science Resources • http://undsci.berkeley.edu/ • http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/scienceflowchart • http://undsci.berkeley.edu/teaching/1316_activities.php

28. Hobbit Learning Issue Research Upon finishing the first day of the case, each member of the group will commit to researching a number of learning issues. It’s very important that each group member do his/her best work researching the issues so that the whole group will master all the learning issues it has identified. For each of your issues, please prepare a report including: • 1. A description of the issue. What are you trying to learn? • 2. A thorough list of the resources you used while researching your issue ( > 3 resources). Please include a critical explanation of why you found the resource to be trustworthy or not. For example, list several websites you tried in order to understand the issue. For each website, explain why you found it helpful or useless. Would you recommend the website to other students for help in understanding the issue? Is the author of the information you are reading qualified to make such statements? Remember to give a critical explanation for each resource you use during your research of the issue. • 3. A concluding paragraph that will fully explain the issue to others who didn’t do the research but who want to learn about the issue. It is your job to teach the others in your group what you learned by doing your research. If you find conflicting evidence, describe how you determined which resource to trust.

29. Wild about Chocolate? What’s so special about chocolate? Is it good for you? Are there benefits of all kinds of chocolate? How do scientific experiments help us answer the question of whether we should go wild for chocolate? List the elements of a good experiment Identify the various components within an experiment Describe the steps in the scientific method Synthesize hypotheses for future study From Cases OnLine

30. Maybe Vampires Don’t Suck? • Learning Objectives: • Define both science and pseudoscience and be able to differentiate between the two. • Become familiar with reputable information resources and know how to use them. • Know how to evaluate whether an information resource is reputable. • Become familiar with APA style basics. • Understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. • Become familiar with important psychological concepts like ADHD and NIMH • From Cases OnLine

31. Information Literacy Resources • http://infolit.org • http://www.microsoft.com/education/criticalthinking/ • http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html

32. Explore and Join Science Case Net • at http://sciencecasenet.org • Sign up for or create groups • Find case studies and PBL problems • Find collaborators • Learn about teaching with cases • Learn about research on case based learning

33. Thank You!