Slide1 : Barbara J. Tewksbury
Department of Geosciences
Hamilton College
btewksbu@hamilton.edu http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html Designing Effective and Innovative Courses A Practical Strategy
Aim of this workshop : Aim of this workshop Introduce a practical strategy for designing courses that
get students to think for themselves in the context of the discipline
stress inquiry and de-emphasizes traditional direct instruction
emphasize relevance, transferability, and future use
build in authentic assessment
How are courses commonly designed? : How are courses commonly designed? Make list of content items important to coverage of the field
Develop syllabus by organizing items into topical outline
Flesh out topical items in lectures, recitations, discussions, labs
Test knowledge learned in course
What’s missing? : What’s missing? Consideration of what your students need or could use, particularly after the course is over
Articulation of goals beyond content/coverage goals
Focus on student learning and problem solving rather than on coverage of material by the instructor
An alternative goals-based approach : An alternative goals-based approach Emphasis on designing a course in which:
Students learn significant and appropriate content and skills
Students have practice in thinking for themselves and solving problems in the discipline
Students leave the course prepared to use their knowledge and skills in the future
An alternative goals-based approach : An alternative goals-based approach Brings same kind of introspection, intellectual rigor, systematic documentation, and evaluation to teaching that each of us brings to our research
Really shakes the tree and designs the course from the bottom up
Assessment falls out naturally
Does it work? : Does it work? An effective design template
9 years of course design workshops; now part of NSF-funded On the Cutting Edge program (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops)
Available as an online tutorial
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html
An aside on terminology : An aside on terminology Design model is goals-focused
Terminology: goals vs. objectives vs. outcomes vs. learning goals vs. learning objectives vs. learning outcomes
Geology faculty at our workshops largely not fluent in edu-speak
Some have encountered terms defined differently in different venues
Our workshop participants wasted time and energy coping with the distinctions
An aside on terminology : An aside on terminology For our workshops, we collapsed goals, objectives and outcomes into one standard English term “goals”.
Goals for us will be concrete and measurable (“My goal in life is to make a million $$”; “My goal next year is to make the Olympic sock wrestling team.”
The course design process á la Cutting Edge : The course design process á la Cutting Edge Not meant to be the be all or end all – just one way to go about it!
Overview : Overview Articulating context and audience
Setting goals
Setting overarching goals
Setting ancillary skills goals
Achieving goals through selecting content
Developing a course plan with assignments, activities and assessments to achieve the goals
Step I: Context and audience : Step I: Context and audience Our course design process begins with answering the following:
Who are my students?
What do they need?
What are the needs of the curriculum?
What are the constraints and support structure?
Task: context & constraints : Task: context & constraints Go to Part 1.1
Read through the questions
What are the primary challenges posed by the context and constraints?
What opportunities are presented by the context and constraints that you could take advantage of in course design?
Step 2: Setting student-focused, overarching goals : Step 2: Setting student-focused, overarching goals Teaching is commonly viewed as being teacher-centered.
Reinforced by the teaching evaluation process
Commonly reinforced by how we phrase course goals: “I want to expose my students to….” or “I want to teach my students about…” or “I want to show students that…”
Step 2: Setting student-focused overarching goals : Step 2: Setting student-focused overarching goals “It dawned on me about two weeks into the first year that it was not teaching that was taking place in the classroom, but learning.” Pop star Sting, reflecting upon
his early career as a teacher
Step 2: Setting student-focused overarching goals : We can’t do a student’s learning for him/her
Exposure does not guarantee learning
Students learn when they are actively engaged in practice, application, and problem-solving (NRC How People Learn). Step 2: Setting student-focused overarching goals
Setting student-focused, overarching goals : Setting student-focused, overarching goals
Shouldn’t we be asking what we want the students to be able to do as a results of having completed the course, rather than what the instructor will expose them to?
Need to set course goals for the students, not the teacher
Setting student-focused, overarching goals : Setting student-focused, overarching goals Example from an art history course
Survey of art from a particular period
Vs.
Enabling students to go to an art museum and evaluate technique of an unfamiliar work or evaluate an unfamiliar work in its historical context or evaluate a work in the context of a particular artistic genre/school/style
Setting student-focused, overarching goals : Setting student-focused, overarching goals Example from a bio course
Survey of topics in general biology
Vs.
Enabling students to evaluate claims in the popular press or seek out and evaluate information or make informed decisions about issues involving genetically-engineered crops, stem cells, DNA testing, HIV AIDS, etc.
Setting student-focused, overarching goals : Setting student-focused, overarching goals Example from an education course
Survey of results of research on learning
Vs.
Enabling students to design classroom activities for students that are consistent with educational theory and the science of learning.
Common denominator : Common denominator What sorts of things do you do simply because you are a professional in your discipline??
I use the geologic record to reconstruct the past and to predict the future.
I look at houses on floodplains, and wonder how people could be so stupid
I hear the latest news from Mars and say, well that must mean that….
What do you do?? : What do you do?? Physicist: predict outcomes based on calculations from physics principles
Art historian: assess works of art
Historian: interpret historical account in light of the source of information
English prof: critical reading of prose/poetry
Task: What do you do? : Task: What do you do? Your course should enable your students, at appropriate level, to do what you do in your discipline, not just expose them to what you know.
Start by answering the question
In context of general course topic, what do you do? What does analyze, evaluate, etc. involve?
Alternatively, what is unique about your world view/the view of your discipline??
Setting overarching goals for your course : Setting overarching goals for your course We’ll set student-focused goals
We’ll answer the question what do I want my students to be able to do??
I want my students to have a strong background in ____
OR
I want my students to use their strong background in order to do ____
Goals involving lower order thinking skills : Goals involving lower order thinking skills Knowledge, comprehension, application explain
describe
paraphrase
list
identify
recognize
calculate
mix
prepare
Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills : Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:
List the major contributing factors in the spread of disease
Identify common rocks and minerals
Recognize examples of erosional and depositional glacial landforms on a topographic map
Cite examples of poor land use practice.
Discuss the major ways that AIDS is transmitted.
Calculate standard deviation for a set of data
Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills : Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:
Know about the role of mutations in the development of new disease strains
Compare and contrast the features and functions of RNA and DNA.
Describe how the Doppler shift provides information about moving objects, and give an illustrative example.
Explain how stem cells form and what applications might be developed.
Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills : While some of these goals involve a deeper level of knowledge and understanding than others, the goals are largely reiterative. Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills
Goals involving higher order thinking skills : Goals involving higher order thinking skills Analysis, synthesis, evaluation, some types of application predict
interpret
evaluate
derive
design
formulate
analyze
synthesize
create
Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills : Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:
Develop and test age-appropriate lesson plans.
Analyze an unfamiliar epidemic (which is different form recalling those covered in class)
Evaluate the historical context of an unfamiliar event.
Use data from recent Mars missions to re-evaluate pre-2004 hypotheses about Mars geologic processes and history/evolution
Frame a hypothesis and formulate a research plan.
Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills : Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:
Make an informed decision about a controversial topic, other than those covered in class, involving hydrogeologic issues.
Collect and analyze data in order to ___
Design models of ___
Solve unfamiliar problems in ____
Find and evaluate information/data on ____
Predict the outcome of ____
Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills : Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills What makes these goals different from the previous set is that they are analytical, rather than reiterative.
Focus is on new and different situations.
Emphasis is on transitive nature of skills, abilities, knowledge, and understanding
Why are overarching goals important? : Why are overarching goals important? If you want students to be good at something, they must practice; therefore goals drive both course design and assessment
What kind of goals to set? : What kind of goals to set? Higher order or lower order thinking skills?
Measurable outcomes or not?
Abstract or concrete goals?
We’ll set goals with higher order thinking skills : We’ll set goals with higher order thinking skills Overarching goals involving lower order thinking skills are imbedded in ones involving higher order thinking skills
“being able to interpret tectonic settings based on information on physiography, seismicity, and volcanic activity” has imbedded in it many goals involving lower order thinking skills
We’ll set concrete goals with measurable outcomes : We’ll set concrete goals with measurable outcomes Clearer path to designing a course when overarching goals are stated as specific, observable actions that students should be able to perform if they have mastered the content and skills of a course.
I want students to be able to interpret unfamiliar tectonic settings based on information on physiography, volcanic activity, and seismicity.
Vs.
I want students to understand plate tectonics.
We’ll set concrete rather than abstract goals : We’ll set concrete rather than abstract goals Abstract goals are laudable but difficult to assess directly and difficult translate into practical course design
I want students to appreciate the complexity of Earth systems.
I want students to think like scientists.
Task: evaluating goals : Task: evaluating goals Go to Part 1-2b.
Determine if each goal:
Is student-centered
Is focused on higher-order thinking skills
Has “measurable outcomes”
Is concrete, rather than vague and abstract
For goals that don’t measure up, how would you improve them?
Do these goals meet our criteria? : Do these goals meet our criteria? I want to expose my students to the history of economic thought.
I want my students to understand that poverty is a complex issue.
I want my students to be able to identify rocks and minerals.
Students will be able to apply their knowledge of statistics to analyze reports and claims in the popular press.
Task: write overarching goals for your course : Task: write overarching goals for your course The overarching goals are the underpinning of your course and serve as the basis for developing activities to meet those goals.
1-3 overarching goals is ideal.
There is no one right set of overarching goals for a particular course topic.
Heed the guidelines in Part 1-2c!!
On the large Post-It : On the large Post-It Your name
Course title, level, and # of students
Prerequisites, if any
Does your course serve as prerequisite for other courses?
Any other important info on context, challenges and opportunities
First draft of overarching goals
Step 3: Setting ancillary skills goals : Step 3: Setting ancillary skills goals Ancillary skills
Accessing and reading the professional literature
Working in teams
Writing and quantitative skills
Critically assessing information on the web
Self-teaching, peer teaching, oral presentation
Limit the number of ancillary skills goals : Limit the number of ancillary skills goals To improve skills, students need repeated practice and timely feedback
Hard to provide adequate practice and feedback unless goals are limited.
Step 4: Achieving goals thru selecting content topics : Step 4: Achieving goals thru selecting content topics What general content topics could you use to achieve the overarching goals of your course?
Choosing content topics and achieving goals : Choosing content topics and achieving goals How you choose and organize content topics can have profound influence on ability to achieve the goals
Choosing content topics and achieving goals : Choosing content topics and achieving goals Carol DiFilippo’s Course Audition and Spoken Language at RIT
For pre-service teachers who will have hearing-impaired students in class
Goal: students will be able to analyze pupil characteristics, classroom performance, and learning environments to design, implement, and assess lesson plans that will enhance spoken language learning.
Goal: Analyze pupil characteristics, classroom performance, and learning environments to design, implement, and assess lesson plans that will enhance spoken language learning : Goal: Analyze pupil characteristics, classroom performance, and learning environments to design, implement, and assess lesson plans that will enhance spoken language learning Previous organization
Around topics such as nature and physiology of hearing loss, interpreting audiograms, troubleshooting hearing aids, designing lesson plans
New organization
Moderately hearing-impaired child
Severely hearing-impaired child
Profoundly deaf child
Goal: analyze pupil characteristics, classroom performance, and learning environments to design, implement, and assess lesson plans that will enhance spoken language learning : Goal: analyze pupil characteristics, classroom performance, and learning environments to design, implement, and assess lesson plans that will enhance spoken language learning Same topics revisited with increasing complexity in each course chunk
Enables students to have repeated practice toward goals with increasing independence
Same overall content but goals threaded throughout the course
Assessment?
Integrating practice toward goals : Integrating practice toward goals Aaron Kelstone’s course on Deaf Heritage at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Goal: students will be able to synthesize past and present events in deaf heritage to formulate a personal understanding of their experiences as deaf or hard of hearing individuals; analyze a current event in Deaf Heritage that may generate ethical or personal issues for the future.
Goal: synthesize past and present events in deaf heritage to formulate a personal understanding of their experiences as deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals : Goal: synthesize past and present events in deaf heritage to formulate a personal understanding of their experiences as deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals Previous organization
Chronologic history of deaf culture
New organization: change over time in various issues
Issues of identity
Education
Language development
The arts
Ethics, genetics, and technology
Assessment?
A case study approach : A case study approach Persa Batra’s course on the Human Dimensions of Climate Change at Mt. Holyoke College
Goal: To enable students to analyze the characteristics of past societies that have been impacted by climate change in order to determine what made them vulnerable. To use this analysis in order to predict what regions of today's world are most vulnerable to future climate change. To formulate strategies for how we collectively and as individuals can take action to reduce these vulnerabilities."
Goals: Analyze characteristics of past societies to determine what made them vulnerable to climate change; predict what regions of today's world are most vulnerable to future climate change. : Goals: Analyze characteristics of past societies to determine what made them vulnerable to climate change; predict what regions of today's world are most vulnerable to future climate change. Case study approach: analysis of archaeological and historical reconstructions of societies impacted by climate change, and comparison to those more able to adapt
Neolithic Kebaran people of southwest Asia
Akkadians of ancient Mesopotamia
Classic Maya
Iceland, France, England and Ireland during the Little Ice Age
India during the 1876-78 famine.
Assessment?
Connecting to faculty expertise : Connecting to faculty expertise Wendy Panero’s Course Mineralogy at SUNY Oswego
Required course for geo majors
Goal: Students will be able to synthesize mineralogical data (visual inspection, petrographic microscopy, XRD and SEM/EDS) to address specific geological problems.
Goal: synthesize mineralogical data (visual inspection, petrographic microscopy, XRD and SEM/EDS) to address specific geological problems. : Goal: synthesize mineralogical data (visual inspection, petrographic microscopy, XRD and SEM/EDS) to address specific geological problems. Previous organization
Around topics such as crystal chemistry, Miller indices, systematic mineralogy, lattice structures, space groups, etc.
New organization
Core
Mantle
Crust
Assessment?
Making more relevant to students : Making more relevant to students Megan Longtine-Jones’ course on Physical Geology at North Hennepin Community College; Gen Ed course
Goal: Students will be able to integrate different types of data (e.g. topographic maps, geologic maps, cross-sections, stratigraphic columns, photographs, diagrams and/or tables and figures) to reconstruct scenarios that reflect the internal and/or surficial processes that create the widely varying landscapes that we see today and to evaluate potential hazards associated with them.
Goals: Integrate data to reconstruct processes that create landscapes that we see today and to evaluate potential hazards associated with them. : Goals: Integrate data to reconstruct processes that create landscapes that we see today and to evaluate potential hazards associated with them. Previous organization
Around topics such as igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, geologic time, plate tectonics, surficial geology, hydrogeology, etc. (standard textbook items)
New organization: Minnesota focus
Modern processes and consequences (surficial processes including flooding &, mass movement, hydrogeology, land use, seismicity)
Processes and results in recent past (Pleistocene processes and landform interpretation, etc.)
The rock record of past events in Minnesota
Assessment?
Implementing a “just in time” approach : Implementing a “just in time” approach Linda Reinen’s course on Tectonics at Pomona College
Goals:
Read and interpret the scientific literature in order to identify, list, and synthesize information relating to a specific topic and/or question
Collect and analyze data to address a scientific question. This includes: formulating a data-collection plan, collecting data, graphing data, identifying patterns within the data, and quantifying results)
Synthesize data collected from a variety of sources to test current tectonic models for the southern California region.
Goals: synthesize info from literature, collect & analyze data, carry out project on California neotectonics : Goals: synthesize info from literature, collect & analyze data, carry out project on California neotectonics Initial thoughts on organization
Long intro background section on solid Earth geophysics and plate tectonics before tackling California issues
Then tectonic geomorphology, crustal movement (geodesy, etc.), then seismicity
Revised organization: ditch the long background section and integrate it “just in time”; invert order of topics
Seismicity
Crustal movement
Tectonic geomorphology
Assessment?
Challenging assumptions : Challenging assumptions Brad Hubeny’s course on Historical Geology at Salem State College
Goals:
When faced with a new piece of geologic information, students will be able to determine HOW we know this information and what the assumptions are in the analysis
Students will be able to cite examples from the past and make an informed prediction when asked about Earth’s future.
Students will be able to synthesize the geologic history of a particular area by interpreting the regional geologic evidence and be able to put this information in the context of Earth history
Goal: Analyze how we know “pieces of information”, make predictions about the future w/rt changes in Earth systems, and interpret regional geologic histories from data : Goal: Analyze how we know “pieces of information”, make predictions about the future w/rt changes in Earth systems, and interpret regional geologic histories from data Initial thoughts on organization
March through time using traditional stratigraphic sequences in N. America
Concerns: students need a chronologic perspective
Revised organization: take systems approach; focus on topics that address change over time, hang an updatable timeline in the classroom
Sea level changes
Mass extinctions
Climate change
Chemical cycles
Integrate a more local focus
Still a work in progress
Fleshing out content topics : Fleshing out content topics Higher order thinking skills goals have imbedded in them lower order thinking skills goals
Broad content topics have imbedded in them many concepts and content items that would be covered in a standard survey course
Fleshing out content topics : Fleshing out content topics Geology and Development of Modern Africa
Not a “Geology of Africa” course
Overarching goal: students will be able to analyze the underlying influence of geology on human events
Context is Africa, although goal is more general
Overarching goal: students will be able to analyze the underlying influence of geology on human events : Overarching goal: students will be able to analyze the underlying influence of geology on human events Content topic #1: influence of climate change on prehistoric settlement patterns in North Africa
Imbedded content items
Geologic content knowledge: 14C dating, fossils, lacustrine sedimentation, stratigraphic columns, using sedimentary rocks to interpret paleoenvironments, geologic time scale,….
Assessment?
Overarching goal: students will be able to analyze the underlying influence of geology on human events : Overarching goal: students will be able to analyze the underlying influence of geology on human events Content topic #2: influence of development of East African Rift on hominid evolution
Imbedded content items
Geologic content knowledge: formation and evolution of continental rifts, radiometirc dating, rift volcanisms, stratigraphic columns, fossils, using sedimentary rocks to interpret paleoenvironments, geologic time scale, fluvial and alluvial processes, faulting, geologic history of East Africa, evolution
Assessment?
Selecting content coverage : Selecting content coverage A course that is not a survey course can be content-rich
Courses with depth rather than breadth are viable alternative
Topic coverage doesn’t have to be linear
Selecting content coverage : Selecting content coverage Can meet content expectations for subsequent courses if topics selected carefully
Combination of clearly-stated goals and specific content topics provides clear pathway to designing practice for students in tasks related to the goal
Task: choose content topics to achieve overarching goals : Task: choose content topics to achieve overarching goals Go to Part 1.4.
List your overarching goal(s).
For each, list possible broad content topics that you could use to achieve that goal.
On your Post-It, list name and course title, revised goal(s), broad content topics, and a first stab at an overall course plan (Part 2.1)
Importance of having a teaching toolbox : Importance of having a teaching toolbox If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Same goes for teaching. If the only tool in your teaching toolbox is lecturing, then….
Importance of having a teaching toolbox : Importance of having a teaching toolbox As you enter a classroom, ask yourself this question: “If there were no students in the classroom, could I do what I am planning to do?” If the answer to the question is yes, don’t do it. General Ruben Cubero, Dean of the
Faculty, United States Air Force Academy
(Novak et al., 1999, Just-in-Time Teaching)
Importance of having a teaching toolbox : Importance of having a teaching toolbox Learn about successful student-active assignment/activity strategies
think-pair-share, jigsaw, discussion, simulations, role-playing, concept mapping, concept sketches, debates, long-term projects, research-like experiences….
assignments involving writing, poster, oral presentation, service learning….
Make deliberate choices of the best strategy for the task.
Aligning assessments and goals : Aligning assessments and goals What students receive grades on must be tasks that allow you to evaluate whether students have met the course goals
If students are graded largely on their abilities to recall, define, recognize, and follow cook-book steps, you have not evaluated their progress toward goals involving higher order thinking skills.
Don’t assess what is easily measured – assess what you value
Aligning assessments and goals : Aligning assessments and goals
Example: Students will be able to evaluate and predict the influence of climate, hydrology, biology, and geology on the severity of a natural disaster.
Give students an unfamiliar example
Can they do it??
How well does this process work? : How well does this process work? Goals-setting is hard but worth the effort
Once the goals are set (provided that they are specific, measurable, higher order thinking skills goals), the course and the assessment “falls together”
How well does this process work? : How well does this process work? Authentic assessment is easy to integrate if goals are kept in mind
Workshop participants’ ideas about course design are completely transformed.
Participants report applying the same design principles to other courses and to department curricula.
Course Design Tutorial : Course Design Tutorial http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html