building the wikipedia proof assignment matt bejune
TRANSCRIPT
Building the Wikipedia-
Proof Assignment
How to Engender Critical Thinking and Active
Learning through Instructional Design
Matt Bejune, [email protected]
Information Literacy Librarian, Worcester State University
Session Description
The use of Wikipedia in student research assignments is a
common problem on college campuses despite our
repeated exhortations to use other, more scholarly
resources. How else might we address the so-called
Wikipedia problem? Join us for a lively discussion about
instructional design informed by John C. Bean’s Engaging
Ideas. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.
Session Goals
1. Demystify the “Wikipedia problem”
2. Examine Potential Solutionsa. Library Services
b. Instructional Design - John C. Bean and You!
The Problem as We Know It
How Freshman Conduct Course
Research Once They Enter College
● Interviews with first-term freshman
● Surveys from approx. 2,000 high school and
college students
● A comparative analysis of high school and
college libraries
Head, Alison J. Project Information Literacy Research Report: Learning the
Ropes: How Freshman Conduct Course Research Once They Enter College. 5
Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
<http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_2013_FreshmenStudy_FullReport.pdf>.
The Library: Your Ally
Information Literacy is:
a set of abilities requiring individuals to
"recognize when information is needed and
have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
effectively the needed information."
American Library Association. Presidential Committee on
Information Literacy. Final Report.(Chicago: American Library
Association, 1989.)
and...
it is a WSU Institutional Learning Outcome
and…
it is part of the LASC Curriculum
Having completed classes in the LASC, students will:
● Demonstrate effective oral and written communication.
● Employ quantitative and qualitative reasoning.
● Apply skills in critical thinking.
● Apply skills in information literacy.
● Display an appreciation for the interrelations among global and cross-cultural
communities.
● Develop a critical understanding of the U.S. experience.
● Understand the roles of science and technology in our modern world.
● Demonstrate and value personal creative expression.
● Understand how scholars in various disciplines approach problems and construct
knowledge.
● Make connections across courses and disciplines.
● Develop as healthy individuals – physically, emotionally, socially, ethically, and
intellectually.
● Display socially responsible behavior and act as socially responsible agents in the world.
Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The
Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing,
Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the
Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2011.
Is it really a Wikipedia problem?
“The research paper (or term paper) can be one of the most
valuable assignments we give students. Research assignments
flow from our desire that students become self-directed inquirers
who can bring their own critical thinking to bear on interesting
problems. But our students’ research papers are often
disappointing. Despite our admonitions that students should do
their own thinking and analysis in research papers, many
students regard a research paper as an informative pastiche or
an “all about” report on a topic area. We all know students’
tendency to manufacture a term paper by patching together
passages closely paraphrased from their sources. There is
something mechanistic about the way many of our students
produce research papers, something disturbingly unlike the
motivated inquiry and analysis that we value.” (224)
Student Misperceptions (226-7)
● Research = “all about” writing, as opposed to
analytical or argumentative writing
● Research = go to the library to gather
sources, rather than critical inquiry
(investigating, analyzing, synthesizing, etc.)
● They don’t have “anything original to say”
Faculty Misperceptions (227-8)
● Students learn how to write the “research
paper” in first-year composition classeso “It is a “pseudo-academic genre, a “mutt genre,” that
has different meanings to different teachers across
the curriculum.”
● Students learn how to use the library in first-
year compositions classes.
MacDonald’s Four-Stage Schema of
Students’ Development as Writers (228)
1. Nonacademic writing [what students bring from high
school]
2. Generalized academic writing concerned with stating
claims, offering evidence, respecting others’ opinions,
and learning how to write with authority [the goal of first-
year composition]
3. Novice approximations of particular disciplinary ways of
making knowledge [early courses in the major]
4. Expert, insider prose [advanced courses in the major]
Expert Insider Prose (254)
Difficult Subskills of Research Writing (229)
1. How to Ask Discipline-Appropriate Research Questions
2. How to Establish a Rhetorical Context (audience, genre,
and purpose)
3. How to Find Sources
4. Why to Find Sources
5. How to Integrate Sources into the Paper
6. How to Take Thoughtful Notes
7. How to Cite and Document Sources
Who teaches these subskills?
1. Bizup’s BEAM Model (236-9)
BEAM sources instead
of primary, secondary,
and tertiary sources.
2. Meaning-Constructing Assignments (232)
3. Modulating Difficulty Levels (232-233)
1. Instructor gives all students the same
problema. Provides all the sources
b. Provides some of the sources and asks students to
find one or two more on their own
c. Asks students to find all the sources
2. Instructor asks students to choose their own
topics (which they must convert into a
research problem) and find their own
sources
4. Scaffolded Assignments for Joining an
Academic Conversation (242-4)
● They say / I say (Birkenstein, 2009)
● Literature Review Establishing a
Controversy
● “State of the Art” Literature Review
● “Gap in Knowledge” Literature Review
5. Backward Course Design (244-250)
Consider Last Assignment First and Build
Accordingly
● Thinking pieces
● Mini-Guided-Research Paper
● Prospectus
● Exploratory Essay
6. Backward Curriculum Design (260-262)
“Working together, departmental faculty can design the
curriculum backward to ensure that the skills and
knowledge needed for expert insider prose are taught
gradually and sequentially in key courses throughout the
major. Backward design requires faculty members to give
up some autonomy in key courses in favor of coordinated
teamwork that may include at designated places in the
curriculum communally designed assignments or
community-designated assignment types--what Gerald
Graff (2009) calls a dismantling of “courseocentrism” in
favor of shared goals.”
Questions?
1. Do you have any “wikipedia-proof”
assignments? Do they also engender critical
thinking and active learning?
2. How do you handle students who do not rise
to the occasion?
3. Where does instructional design “live” on
campus? Who are the resident experts?
4. How can the library assist?