The research paper is a very traditional, but tired, method for developing critical thinking. Unfortunately, students are seldom inspired to do more than go through the motions of gathering a few facts before they get to what they consider the meat of the assignment-writing the paper. When research assignments are inspiring, students engage in the process of research, which is a continuous stream of decision-making, packed with critical thinking potential.
Scott Mateer Traci Ness, Geneva DeMars, Jennifer Brofft Bailey, Melanie Link
We have implemented an authentic research experience into a multi-section undergraduate introductory biology laboratory course to introduce students to the process and application of science. Throughout the semester, students use basic molecular techniques to determine if insects they collected and identified are infected with Wolbachia. Students use bioinformatics to ascertain whether the detected strains are novel. Exploration of Wolbachia diversity provides a framework for promoting critical thinking skills. Students collaborate to conduct literature reviews, develop hypotheses, collect and analyze data, and organize and communicate results. The structure of each lab is designed to support student success: substantive pre-lab assignments prepare students for full engagement, while integrated discussions and post-lab assignments encourage synthesis and application skills. This model can be applied to other curricula across disciplines.
Open Educational Resources (OER) is prevalent in many levels of education. Baccalaureate institutions are beginning to realize the value of developing and using these OER to delivery a variety of subjects with little or no cost to students. This "free" area of course materials has many ways of application to pedagogy. There are textbooks, e-books, course libraries, course packs, and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). There are also numerous subject specific resources available via the Internet. In conjunction with a colleague we chose to use a combination of OER materials and the Internet to create a "no-cost" e-book that emphasizes collaborative problem solving, relevant classroom activities, and summary essays for the student. The course is titled "Introduction to Computing." However, the lessons learned and resources discovered are applicable to any college level subject.
Wednesday Morning Pecha Kucha Session Presentation 4 Thomas Grant
Research with writing and communications students shows the SBH Maieutic Method, a dialogue between student and instructor based in a Platonic notion of birthing knowledge, leads to significant growth in moral reasoning skills as measured by the DIT2 (n=105, p=0.005). The research was directed toward developing a pedagogy and curriculum for teaching professional ethics. However, a control group in a non-ethics class, but one also taught with the SBH Maieutic Method, also showed significant gains in moral reasoning. The SBH Maieutic Method has been shown to lead to significant gains in moral reasoning in college athletes, military personnel and media students. This suggests that the method itself, which encourages independent thinking, may help all students develop critical thinking skills used to answer complicated ethical questions.
Thursday Afternoon Pecha Kucha Session Presentation 1 Lee Woodham Langub
The "go to" assessments for many years in college classrooms have been tests and papers. With the move towards online instruction, as well as improved online applications, a number of tools have emerged as powerful alternatives for assessment. This presentation will showcase a number of these and discuss possibilities they hold for teaching and engaged student learning.
Opportunities for first year students to develop critical thinking skills are essential, however, freshmen are often overwhelmed with adjustment to college, and therefore unable to accommodate this skill. Inquiry 1000, a new one credit hour discussion-based course in Area B, is designed to engage second term freshmen or first term sophomores in the discovery, exploration, and analysis of ideas that faculty members, across a variety of disciplines, study and investigate. All INQR 1000 students participate in the INQR EXPO--an academic festival showcasing student work via posters, photos and videos-- scaffolding the research process they might demonstrate their junior or senior years.
College-wide data on passing grades vs. W/F's show that introductory online astronomy labs suffer higher W/F percentages than face-to-face astronomy labs and other science classes. Course assessment data reveal that those online lab students who persist to semester-end do as well as ftf lab students. Both types of students face the same non-science major learning challenges. But ol students struggle with personal technology and time/space isolation as shown by student availability data. For a viable, synchronous 4-member study group (a proven tool for success) to form, a pool size of >= 60 students is needed. Clearly, targeted timely intervention techniques are needed to promote student persistence, such as more detailed pre-registration advising, pooling parallel sections, and frequent, low stakes performance checks with instructor feedback.
The Right Stuff: Appropriate Mathematics for All Students was a project by the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges funded by the National Science Foundation. The project promotes a redesigned college algebra course that engages students in data modeling, effectively uses technology, equips students with strong problem solving skills, increases critical thinking skills, and enhances quantitative literacy. Mathematics has traditionally been taught using "skill and drill" methods, which often leaves students bored, uninterested, and distasteful of math. An approach incorporating data analysis, modeling, and technology makes College Algebra relevant, refreshing, and interesting. As a result, faculty are preparing students mathematically for their majors, future careers, and life.
Teachers often craft student engagement techniques after the syllabus has been created but what would happen if we let students be involved earlier in the process? How could student involvement be enhanced if they have control over the types of assignments, the weighting of assignments, and the content of the course? What if we started the first day of class by handing out a syllabus with course objectives and said, okay how do we get here together? This brief Pecha Kucha will describe the instructors' process and experience of creating a student generated syllabus for a senior capstone course. The primary objective of the course is for students to conduct a self-designed research project, write a report, and give a professional presentation.
Teaching basic college-level geology, such as rock and mineral identification, requires hands-on learning and a great deal of individual attention. The flipped classroom paradigm, in which lectures are presented online and class time is dedicated to group activities and laboratories, thus has a particular appeal. Is a flipped classroom better suited to teaching geology than a traditional classroom? An introductory Physical Geology classroom was flipped, using a 20-30 minute online lecture to be viewed before class. Students engaged with additional hands-on activities and labs during the gained time. Learning was assessed through quizzes. Compared to a control, the flipped classroom demonstrated approximately equal achievement. The flipped classroom may be more appropriate for fully hybrid STEM classes.
Teaching while, expounding, inspiring and capturing the hearts and minds of students in the 21st century can be challenging to say the least. Resources are lacking and often times the faculty members are compelled to operate under conditions that are synonymous with managed care in the world of human services. Nevertheless, solutions and best practices must be discovered and cultivated to meet not only the strategic plan of the university but equally important, the missions and goals of the departments as well as the various governing accreditation bodies that are involved in various disciplines. This learning initiative proposes a unique and passionate solution to meeting and exceeding these goals and objectives while addressing the specifics of innovative 21st century pedagogies.
Active learning typically involves engaging students in a variety of interactive and/or hands-on activities. An instructor may have a sense of whether activities and assignments were effective but may also want to examine the perspective of students. The instructor may want to know whether students feel they have learned and whether they found the experience to be engaging. This presentation will describe an efficient and effective technique for assessing student perceptions of learning and enjoyment of assignments and activities in diverse classrooms. As an end-of-course evaluation, this assessment allows students to critically evaluate their experience in the course and to (perhaps) recognize when less enjoyable assignments may nevertheless enhance their learning. Examples from humanities, physics, and psychology classes will be included.
Thursday Morning Pecha Kucha Session Presentation 2 Keith Pacholl
The presentation emphasizes two major areas: engaging with students and personalizing the online environment. It will give concrete examples of how to engage with students, including the use of interactive features within a learning management system and other software. It will also discuss how to promote student creativity by allowing them to personalize assignments while at the same time meeting rigorous academic expectations. Creating a successful online classroom requires a teacher to personalize the online environment, and I will conclude with a discussion of how to personalize the content of the class. I hope that by the end of the presentation, faculty and students who have been on the fence about teaching or taking online classes might be motivated to give it a try.
