diane ebert-may department of plant biology michigan state university ebertmay@msu.edu pathways to...

Diane Ebert-MayDepartment of Plant Biology

Michigan State University

ebertmay@msu.eduhttp://first2.org

Pathways to Scientific Teaching

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Engage

Question 1

•

Where on the continuum is the ideal classroom ?

Question 2

•

Where on the continuum is your classroom ?

Teacher to Learner

Centered Continuum:

What does it look like?

Where are you?

How People LearnBransford et al 1999,

2004

Explore: Out of Thin Air

What is going on?• Teaching without Learning!

• Brainstorm:

• Diagnose situation - the learning challenge

• Where is the missing link?..misconception?

How and when do you identify student learning difficulties?

Don’t have to grade

Pre-test (e.g., diagnostic questions - identify misconceptions)

Engagement activity - brain teaser, discussion starter, ‘need to know’ questions

Surveys or polls (clickers?)

Others

May use pretest or diagnostic (clicker) question

Example Problem

Experimental setup:Weighed out 3 batches of radish seeds each weighing 1.5 g.

Experimental treatments:1. Seeds placed on DRY paper towels in LIGHT2. Seeds placed on WET paper towels in LIGHT3. Seeds placed on WET paper towels in DARK

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.

• No Water, light• Water, light• Water dark• No idea

Results Mass of Radish Seeds/Seedlings

1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g

Write an explanation about the results.

Explain the results.Write individually on carbonless

paper.

• Photosynthesis as Energy

• Biomass from Soil

• Energy as Biomass

• All Green

• Plant Altruism

• Thin Air

• Respiration as ‘breathing’

• One Earth - All together now

Misconceptions about Photosynthesis, Respiration, and the Carbon Cycle

What is assessment? Data collection with the purpose of

answering questions about…students’ understanding

students’ attitudes

students’ skills

instructional design and implementation

curricular reform (at multiple grain sizes)• Informing BOTH instructors and

students about learning.

JigsawNew groups: 5 groups of 4

Count off -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

All 1s work on same paper ....2s, 3s, 4s, 5s

Return to ‘home’ groups and share what you found in each of the papers.

Report out

Paper AssignmentsGroup 1: Climate change....

Group 2: Novel assessments...

Group 3: Practicing scientific inquiry...

Group 4: Unleashing problem solvers...

Group 5: Active homework...

In your groups:Read the paper, discuss, record...

1. What are the student learning goals?

2. What is the Bloom-level of each goal?

3. Describe the type of assessment used in the unit. Do the assessments align with the goals?

4. What are the active learning strategies?

Return to “home” groups:

Select two types of assessments that you learned about in the papers.

1.Compare two types of assessments.

2.Brainstorm other types of assessments.

Explain

• Subsample= You don’t need to grade everything!!

• Classroom Assessment Techniques (Angelo & Cross 1993); Muddiest Point, Minute papers etc..

• Pyramid Exams- Individual 75% + Group 25%

• Diagnostic Questions & Clickers

• Rubrics

Assessment and Feedback Approaches

Assessment GradientHigh

Ease of

Assessment

Low

Multiple Choice, T/F

Diagrams, Concept maps, Quantitative

response

Short answer

Essay, Research papers/ reports

Oral Interview

Low

Potential for

Assessment of Learning

High

Theoretical Framework• Ausubel 1968; meaningful learning• Novak 1998; visual representations• King and Kitchner 1994; reflective judgment• National Research Council 1999; theoretical frameworks for assessment

How do you go about developing a unit on the Carbon Cycle?

How would you start?What would you do?

Instructional Design

Learning ObjectiveIdentify desired results

Learning OutcomeDetermine acceptable evidence

AssessmentsData collected & Feedback given

Instructional Design & ActivitiesPlanned learning experiences and instruction

Like This?

Backward Design

Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe 1998, 2005

Backward Design

How do you go about developing a unit on the Carbon Cycle?

Activity:• Misconception- List a common misconception for carbon cycle.

• Learning objective- Write the correct version of the concept.

• Learning outcome- Describe the specific performance or behavior that will demonstrate student understanding. (Use Bloom’s Taxonomy of another resource to help articulate the outcomes.)

• Activity- Describe the activity that will engage students and help them achieve the learning objective

• Assessment- Describe the evidence you will collect and the type of feedback you will give students to define their progress towards understanding.

Instructional Design Worksheet

How am I going to grade all this stuff??

Case: Workshop Woes?

“I attended a workshop about assessment, and the main thing I learned is that I am suppposed to assess students before class so I can target

what the students need to know. So, I created a series of pre-class quizzes for the students, but most students don’t do them because they are

not graded. However, I don’t have time to grade 320 of these each week--- much less the 16

other assessments that the workshop suggested. I’ll just go back to trusting my gut to know how

well the students are doing.”

• What issues might be contributing to this

situation?

• What is the professor’s definition of assessment?

• Other than grades, what strategies could

motivate the

students to participate in assessments?

• What suggestions do you have for the professor?• Have you faced similar challenges?

Case: Workshop Woes?

What are students learning well?What are students learning poorly?

How to promote learning by improving instruction, learning activities, assignments, classroom climate

What do the instructors need to know?

What are they learning well?What are they learning poorly?

Information on how to improve-- not just grades, but feedback.

What do the students need to know?

How do we develop rubrics?

Describe the goal/objective for the activity, problem, task...Select the assessment tasks aligned with goalsDevelop performance standardsDifferentiate levels of responses based on clearly described criteriaRate (assign value) the categories

Results Mass of Radish Seeds/Seedlings

1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g

Write an explanation about the results.Explain why the LIGHT, WATER gained mass, while the other treatments lost mass..

Write individually on carbonless paper.Practice with sample responses

How would you go about grading these responses?What criteria would you use?

Level of Achievement General Approach ComprehensionExemplary(5 pts)

• Addresses thequestion.• States a relevant,justifiable answer.• Presents arguments ina logical order.• Uses acceptable styleand grammar (noerrors).

• Demonstrates an accurate andcomplete understanding of thequestion.• Backs conclusions with dataand warrants.• Uses 2 or more ideas,examples and/or arguments thatsupport the answer.

Adequate(3 pts)

• Does not address thequestion explicitly,although does sotangentially.• States a relevant andjustifiable answer.• Presents arguments ina logical order.• Uses acceptable styleand grammar (oneerror).

• Demonstrates accurate but onlyadequate understanding ofquestion because does not backconclusions with warrants anddata.• Uses only one idea to supportthe answer.• Less thorough than above.

Needs Improvement(1 pt)

• Does not address thequestion.• States no relevantanswers• indicatesmisconceptions.• Is not clearly orlogically organized.• Fails to use acceptablestyle and grammar (twoor more errors).

• Does not demonstrate accurateunderstanding of the question.• Does not provide evidence tosupport their answer to thequestion.

No Answer (0 pts)

Scoring Rubric for Quizzes and Homework

Ebert-May http://www.flaguide.org/cat/rubrics/rubrics1.php

Advantages of Scoring Rubrics

Improve the reliability of scoring written assignments and oral presentationsConvey goals and performance expectations of students in an unambiguous wayConvey “grading standards” or “point values” and relate them to performance goalsEngage students in critical evaluation of their own performance Save time but spend it well

Write a scenario that explains the phenotypic changes in the trees and animals. Use your

understanding of evolution by natural selection.

Coding Student Responses

Misconceptions Correct

Change in the individual Change in the population

Need to Change/ Must Change/ Choice

Change due to genes

All members of a population are equally fit

Individuals within a population have varying

fitness levels

Traits acquired during a lifetime are passed on

Genetic traits help the individual to survive and

reproduce

Assessment Database

Faculty Computer

Student DataSpreadsheet

Questions

Spreadsheet

Link Qs and student answers

Student ID

Spreadsheet

De-identified student data

Upload

Search Resultseg. Excel, SAS, SPSS

Search

Download

EdMLFIRST III

Database

Database Server

“Educational Metadata Standard”

EdMD

• Based on Ecological Metadata Standards (Michener 1997)

• Describe what collected, who collected, where collected, when collected, how collected, why collected

What is in the Educational Metadata Standard?

Where•Institution, class size

How •Experimental and sampling design•Administration of assessments •Instructional design

Who•Project personnel

WhatAssessment instruments

Rubrics and assessment concepts

WhyClassroom study

• Finding assessment instruments

• Administer the instrument, teach, and prepare student data

• Prepare metadata and upload student assessment data

• Analysis and download

• Results of analyses

How do I use the database?

Do students learn better?

Team at MSU•Rett Weber - Plant Biology (postdoctoral researcher)•Deb Linton - Plant Biology (postdoctoral researcher)•Duncan Sibley - Geology•Doug Luckie - Physiology•Scott Harrison - Microbiology (graduate student)•Tammy Long - Plant Biology•Heejun Lim - Chemistry Education •Rob Pennock - Philosophy•Charles Ofria - Engineering•Rich Lenski - Microbiolgy•Janet Batzli - Plant Biology [U of Wisconsin]

“...we note that successful people are the ones who take advantage of those around them to ultimately benefit students.”

•Ebert-May D, Weber R, Hodder J, Batzli J (2006)

Finally...