Assignment 2 – Learning Theories

Jacob AdlerBrescia University, Owensboro, KY

Here I discuss two different topics about learning theories. See attached PDFs below for direct access to the articles themselves.

CUREs in Learning Biology

I find that biology students loved to be challenged to explore the world that they live in. I have adopted course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and have provided many opportunities for students to be successful in these efforts. Below are two of my personal favorite reports on CUREs and their use in helping students learn biology.

Corwin LA, Graham MJ, and Dolan EL. Modeling Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: An Agenda for Future Research and Evaluation. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 2015. Vol. 14, 1-13.

Auchincloss LC et al. Assessment of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 2014. Vol. 13, 29-40.

Active Structured Courses in Learning Biology

Students learn best by personal repetitive exposure to biological topics. One of the best ways to help instill many of the topics in both my introductory and advanced courses has been to create active adaptive learning strategies to help my students better understand the material. Below are two of my personal favorite reports on active structured courses to help students learn biology.

Freeman S, Haak D, and Wenderoth MP. Increased Course Structure Improves Performance in Introductory Biology. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 2011. Vol. 10, 175-186.

Freeman S et al. Prescribed Active Learning Increases Performance in Introductory Biology. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 2007. Vol. 6, 132-139.

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Christine AndrewsLane Community College, Eugene, OR

Tanner, K. (2013).  Structure matters: twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity.  CBE-Life Sciences Education. 12, 322-331.

I’ll be honest, one of the reasons this article resonates with me is because it is easy to implement the strategies. Not only does Tanner present the strategies but for most of them she explains why they are important and presents the research that supports them. When I read the article last year I had already heard of most of the strategies but I did not understand why the might be useful and I definitely did not know the research supporting them. While I had used several in my classes before I started implementing them in a more intentional way, I started having students work more in pairs then in groups, I started “random calling” (something I hated the idea of before) and having students explain before I did. My classroom changed almost immediately. I had always used active learning but I found that with pairs instead of groups that everyone was active instead of just some people leading the group and the others following (or not paying attention at all). I also found that after using pairs for a while that even when they got in bigger groups everyone was participating because they knew it was expected.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S., McDonough, M., Smith, M., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., and Wenderoth, M.P (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS. 111, 8410-8415.

I am actually using this article as a stand in for a talk I heard Scott Freeman give in 2011 about active learning. Freeman was the first person to present data behind active learning to me. I knew there was data supporting it but it was not until I heard Freeman’s talk that I had actually saw any of this data. In a way Freeman’s early data on clicker use was what really sold me on the benefits of the teaching model I was already using (because it was less boring).

Handelsman, J., Miller, S., and Pfund, C. (2007). Scientific Teaching. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.

I find this whole book useful. Not only does it go through the importance of active learning it also reviews the importance of assessment and data collection. It gives concrete examples of how to integrate the two. Another aspect of this book that is of importance to me is it covers institutional reform not just a single classroom. Institutional reform is proving to be the bigger challenge for me. Changing my teaching has gone pretty smoothly but trying to get institutional assessment are participation has been more of a struggle. To help with institutional reform half the book is dedicated to running workshops on various topics associated with active learning and assessment.

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Amy Beadles-BohlingUniversity of Portland, Portland, OR

Knight, J. and Wood, W. (2005). Teaching more by lecturing less.  Cell Biol. Educ. 4, 298-310.

One of my goals for this experience is to move my classroom away from a "sage on the stage" approach to a more student-centered active learning environment.  In many ways I feel I am already doing this, however what is missing is a systematic way to examine the impact of these changes. Identifying how this has been done in the past seems like one of the best ways to move in that direction, thus I was attracted to Knight and Wood's article which examined the effect of "student participation and cooperative problem solving during class time" vs. a "traditional lecture format" on student learning gains.  The in class questions (ICQs) and group work described by the authors are approaches that are similar to some I already use, and this article gave me a specific method I can use to assess the effects of these changes on my student's: calculation of their normalized learning gains. 

Cakir, M.  (2008).  Constructivist approaches to learning in science and their implications for science pedagogy: a literature review.  International Journal of Environmental & Science Education.  3:4, 193-206.

One pedagogical method I have used since I began teaching the University of Portland 7 years ago is the use of workshops.  These are weekly meetings led by peers that facilitate deeper interaction with materials covered during recent class periods with the professor, and are based on the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model.  This approach is structured around one of the ideas proposed by Vygotsky termed the "zone of proximal development" which asserts that learners build upon what they already know, and that the assistance of a peer (or teacher) who has successfully incorporated this knowledge will aid that student in deepening their understanding.  According to PLTL, this approach will work best with someone who has more recently incorporated this knowledge because they will use language that is more easily understood by a novice than someone who has greater expertise.  I believe this works, and much data has been presented in the educational literature that supports the use of these methods for chemistry and physics, however, I don't have tangible data I can share to support my belief that the use of workshops with my students deepens their understanding of biology.  By reading this particular review, I was trying to strengthen my understanding of the theory underlying constructivism, and to begin to flesh out what sort of questions I need to ask on order to truly assess the effectiveness of this instructional approach.  Ultimately, I want to gather data to support (or refute) the continued use of workshops to support student learning.

Tanner, K. (2013).  Structure matters: twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity.  CBE-Life Sciences Education. 12, 322-331.

I was attracted to this article based on its practicality.  I read this article half-way through my spring semester last year and immediately tried some of the suggested strategies including wait time, multiple hands, multiple voices; and cardstock name tents.  these "low hanging fruit" ideas were very simple to implement, and I immediately noticed a shift toward greater participation in the classroom.  I have read several of Dr. Tanner's articles, and attended a workshop led by her and her post-doc last Spring where she again provided lots of practical ideas about how to shift toward a more learner-centered classroom.  Now I want to find a way to incorporate her last suggestion: collect assessment evidence from every student every class, and am hoping our time together in June will assist me with formulating a plan to do just that!

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Dwayne BoucaudQuinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

Wood, William B., Innovations in Teaching Undergraduate biology and Why We need Them., Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2009.25:93-112.

This review gives a very nice compartmentalized and useful summary of various practices. It groups each of the new practices by comparison to a traditional practice and the aspect of the course that it addressed. It also rates each of the practices on two criteria: how practical the practice is to implement and evidence of it increasing student learning from the literature.

Hanauer, David I. and Graham F. Hatfull., Active Assessment:   Assessing Scientific Inquiry (Mentoring in Academia and Industry)., Springer, 2009.

This was an early read for me in how to assess what was being learned in the lab class. This is very useful for those trying to go beyond the cookbook labs and to engage students in a research based lab experience. Although I do find it very useful I still find it hard to put into practice many of the recommendations. This is mainly due to the constraints of resources and the structure of the lab classes: multiple sections taught by multiple faculty.

Girmally, C., Brickman, P. and Lutz, M., Developing a Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS): Measuring Undergraduates’ Evaluation of Scientific Information and Arguments., CBE—Life Sciences Education, Vol. 11, 364–377,Winter 2012.

Developing scientific literacy in my students has always been an important goal for me. It is, however, very hard for me to come up with meaningful ways to measure how well I am achieving that goal. This paper has helped with that by giving categories of various questions and the types of science literacy skills they address. This has been very helpful during the development of a microbiology debate assignment and its assessment.

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Michele CulumberWeber State University, Ogden, UT

Bransford, J.D., and Donovan, M.S. 2005. Scientific Inquiry and How People Learn. From: “How Students Learn:  History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom Committee on How People Learn, A Targeted Report for Teachers, Center for Studies on Behavior and Development.” NRC 2005.  Chapter 9. 

This source discusses some interesting ideas about how students learn science and how to use this to develop better teaching strategies.  The idea that understanding science is a developmental process, from right or wrong to opinion, to informed and supported with evidence, was new to me and I think important for understanding where student are in their ability to process information.  It may not be possible to argue with someone about a topic, using evidence, if they are stuck thinking that science is either right or wrong. The chapter also goes through the importance of identifying student misconceptions and of the power of having students identify and correct their own misconceptions through experimentation.  I also appreciated the chapter’s emphasis that the scientific method differs between scientific disciplines and that often the scientific method can become just another set of facts for students to memorize.  Instead, the scientific method can be taught through example as: “observation, imagination and reason, and experimentation.”  Inquiry experiences don’t have as much value if they do not allow students to use their imagination to develop explanations and new experiments to explore the observations.  I think that this could be very powerful in my laboratory courses.   

I would like to compare what this chapter discusses to the next-gen science standards.  Thematically they seem similar but the standards are more specifically expressed.  Couch, B.A., Brown, T.L., Schelpat, T.J. Graham, M.J., and Knight, J.K. 2015. Scientific teaching: Defining a taxonomy of observable practices. CBE-Life Sciences Education 14:1-12. 

This paper builds a taxonomy of a pedagogical goal with teaching approaches and practices that can help meet those goals.  I am often frustrated because I’m told we need to be meeting a certain goal, but not how or why.  This paper went through many techniques and practices that can be used to move toward and assess those goals.   More than anything this paper has a list of references that cover different teaching goals that could be useful.  Russell, J.E. et. al. 2015. Bridging the undergraduate curriculum using an integrated course-embedded undergraduate research experience. CBE-Life Science Education 14:1-10.   

I have been interested in building a lower-division, research-based introductory microbiology course for our newest majors.  This meets with considerable resistance among faculty who feel that this would be too difficult to do with new students.  However, I think that it could be valuable for recruiting and retaining students as well as teaching them valuable thinking and laboratory skills.  This paper discusses an interdisciplinary course that uses a research project to link different fields of biology and to develop a long term research project for students.  This could be applicable to our college as we work to develop a new integrated life science course.  

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Sara DickValparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN

Leonard, William H. (2000) How do college students best learn science? Journal of College Science Teaching;  29(6):385 

This article discusses constructivism vs. objectivism. Constructivism is learning by building on what is already known. The learner adapts what they already know to new concepts, and actively build that knowledge into a new framework. Objectivism is the notion that we can impart knowledge – we distribute it to the students and they pick it up and then know it. The article then discusses learning styles and how best to help students in each category. I am struck by the ubiquity of active and cooperative learning that helps a wide variety of the learning styles mentioned. The article closes with some suggestions for how to apply constructivism in the classroom, along with references for more information. This resonates with my teaching style because I know that I would have benefited from a constructivist approach, but I was more comfortable with the standard lecture style.   

Bernot, Melody J.; and Metzler, Jennifer. (2014) A comparative study of instructor- and student-led learning in a large nonmajors biology course: student performance and perceptions. Journal of College Science Teaching 44(1):48-55 

This article describes an experiment in which a very large course was split into two sections, one that was taught traditionally, and one that was taught in an active learning ‘no lecture’ format. Each section was taught by different instructors that had both taught the course before. The active learning section did not have any lectures, during the class time the students worked in groups on the student learning objectives. There was a large amount of student dissatisfaction and push back in the active learning section, but both sections performed similarly on exams, quizzes and homework. I am not surprised that the students didn’t like the no-lecture format – it is much different than teaching has been for them before. There were some that expressed the feeling that the professor wasn’t teaching them, and they didn’t see the point in coming to class. I am sure that they got more out of the experience than they are willing to admit. This article resonates with my teaching style because I am aware that my microbiology students are very good at memorization and regurgitation, but not showing much evidence of critical thinking. I think that the authors’ suggestion at the end of the article – incorporating more structure and some lecturing into the active learning process will meet with better success.  Evans, Darrell J. R., Zeun, Paul, and Stanier, Robert A. (2014) Motivating student learning using a formative assessment journey. Journal of Anatomy 224:296-303  

This article describes a formative assessment journey provided for students in an anatomy course which consisted of timed release of assessments the student could use to practice material in the course. The assessments included word search puzzles, in-lecture quizzes, dissection checklists, and self-assessment quizzes, among others. There was a mix of in lecture assessments, and Learning Management System online assessments, with some that provided immediate feedback, while others delayed answers for a week. The object was for students to be using the assessments throughout the semester so the knowledge could build upon previous work. This article was useful for me because this is exactly what I would like to do in my course next fall.  

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Donnasue GraesserQuinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

Promoting Student Metacognition. Kimberly Tanner. CBE Life Sciences Education (2012).

This article is one of my “go-to” favorites in terms of thinking of how students learn. The article begins by presenting two scenarios. The first student, Josephina comes into instructor office hours to commiserate about a test grade. When asked how she studied for the test, she reports that she studied hard the weekend before the exam, made note cards, and wonders why she didn’t do well on the exam. This article first resonates with me because the first thing I have always asked a student when they want to talk about a test is “How did you prepare for the test,” and I’ve heard some version of Josephina’s response probably hundreds of times.

The article continues with another student, Maya. Maya has developed metacognitive approach towards effective, intentional learning: planning, monitoring her own understanding of concepts, reflection about her understanding these concepts, and strategies to resolve confusion. The second reason this article resonates with me is that I struggle to guide more of my students in their evolution from Josephina’s approach to Maya’s approach. Although I’ve tried many of the activities/strategies in this article (Muddiest Point, modeling problem solving), my own classroom is not at the point of being “grounded” in metacognition. Scientific Teaching: Defining a Taxonomy of Observable Practices. Brian Couch, Tanya Brown, Tyler Schelpat, Mark Graham, Jennifer Knight. CBE Life Sciences Education (June 1, 2015).

This recent article provides a tangible, accessible framework for Scientific Teaching. The taxonomy is a set of 15 pedagogical goals aligned with 37 supporting practices and observable behaviors for each of those practices. In terms of student learning, the taxonomy includes cognitive processes that should be cultivated in students, and provides specific goals, approaches, and practices that support these cognitive processes, and support in the form of research based evidence in which these practices are based. Some of the cognitive processes in the taxonomy include exploring the relationship between science and society, engaging in experimental design and interpretation and participating in formal scientific discourse, with the “dual intentions of preparing scientifically literate citizens as well as training future scientists.” The taxonomy also provides specific goals for HOW students participate in a course, through a constructivist approach in which student “build their own mental models through active engagement.” This article resonates with me as I’m a strong proponent of the principles of Scientific Teaching, but sometimes I have trouble putting Scientific Teaching into practice – sometimes due to time constraints or inertia in my teaching practices. However I find one of my greatest obstacles to Scientific Teaching is often student resistance. The taxonomy provides a practical framework, that I hope will allow me to incorporate incremental changes into my courses. Because the taxonomy is so detailed and well-aligned, I foresee it will be a valuable resource to specifically assess specific changes and practices. The Social Contract of Education. Robert Carroll, Claude Bernard Distinguished lecture published in Advances in Physiology Education. (March 1, 2015).

In this lecture Dr. Carroll‘s objective is to “extend beyond the typical cognitive content and delve into the affective domain.” My teaching philosophy has always been based on a foundation of mutual respect and responsibility for student learning, so this lecture really piqued my interest. In many ways his perspective of the learning environment as a “contract” seems harsh and impersonal. But his basic premise is that students learn and respond better if expectations are made clear to them, and ultimately the “contract” is beneficial to student learning. He sees an effective learning environment as a “contract” in which the instructor: (a) establishes the basis for the contract; (b) makes it clear what the value of the contract is to the students; (b) establishes personal relationship with the students; (d) deals with students as individuals and let’s himself/herself be seen as an individual; (e) clearly identifies what the instructor is willing to provide as well as clarify the expectations of student efforts

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Finally, Dr. Carroll emphasizes that the social contract needs to have an exchange of value, showing respect for the time and effort of the student. That brings to mind the student I spoke about in my first citation “Josephina” who feels she deserves a better grade because she put in the effort to make note cards and study. This brings to mind so many questions: How do I match what my expectations are for my students, and what they perceive as the expectations of them? How do I best provide value in terms of student learning? How do I strike that balance of guiding students, while also expecting them to develop independent skills and metacognition?

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Michael HanophySt. Joseph's College, Brooklyn, NY

Hart, C., Mulhall, P., Berry, A., Loughran, J., & Gunstone, R. (2000). What is the purpose of this experiment? Or can students learn something from doing experiments?. Journal of research in science teaching, 37(7), 655-675.

As a student, I often saw little connection between the labs we were doing and the material in lecture – labs followed an odd sequence that did not match lecture topics and little effort was made to make the objectives of a lab clear. This article addresses those problems and discusses the structure of labs that can result in real learning. National Academy of Sciences (US). Working Group on Teaching Evolution. (1998). Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science. Joseph Henry Press.

Alles, D. L. (2001). Using evolution as the framework for teaching biology. The American Biology Teacher, 63(1), 20-23.

As Dobzhansky said, nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. The 1998 National Academy of Sciences report and the article from The American Biology Teacher both stress this. I make evolution the major unifying theme in my major’s microbiology course. Gooday, G., Lynch, J. M., Wilson, K. G., & Barsky, C. K. (2008). Does science education need the history of science?. Isis, 99(2), 322-330.

In recent years, I have developed a real interest in the history of science and think that it provides an interesting and useful framework for teaching science. And I don’t mean history in the way I was taught it – dates of discoveries and the names of the lone individual responsible for that discovery, reducing scientists like Koch and Pasteur and Virchow to a single sentence in a text. It is far better to take a long look at the way scientists in the past came to their conclusions, thus modeling good scientific thinking for our students.

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Angela HartsockUniversity of Akron-Wayne College, Orrville, OH

a MIND for NUMBERS: How to excel at math and science by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/Mind-For-Numbe.../dp/B00G3L19ZU

This book is for anyone interested in understanding how learning happens and how to get better at learning difficult subjects like math and science. It is written in a really accessible way and addresses physically how learning happens in the brain, strategies to improve learning, how to deal with procrastination, how to enhance memory, and how to actually apply all these concepts to learning/studying. I have really enjoyed reading this book from a personal (selfish) perspective but also from the perspective of how to go about providing guidance to students for their out of classroom strategies and learning.

Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology by John Dunlosky, Katherine A. Rawson, Elizabeth J. Marsh, Mitchell J. Nathan, and Daniel T. Willingham Psychological Science in the Public Interest 2013 14(1): 4-58.http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/rgoldsto...nglearning.pdf

This article focuses on learning techniques used by students outside the classroom. The article explains a range of learning techniques, discusses their implementation (how often students use them), and then ranks them by effectiveness. I use the results of this study as a small group activity the first day of class. Students indicate which techniques they use and then rank how effective they believe each technique to be. Invariably, students rank as effective (and report using) the techniques which are most ineffective and students typically have very little knowledge of the alternative and most effective techniques.

Why Not Try a Scientific Approach to Science Education? by Carl Wieman, Ph.D. http://www.changemag.org/Archives/Ba...-approach.html

I read this a long time ago but several points stuck with me.

(1) Regardless of how distinguished and accomplished the lecturer is, students retain very little information following a traditional lecture. For most of us in this program this is obvious. However, I still encounter colleagues who suggest that the main issue is the “quality” of the lecturer. I find these quality comments in some cases to be a backhanded way of saying that if you are “good” then you can just lecture and you don’t need to engage in other teaching strategies.

(2) Students need to be taught how to think like an expert. I think when I was a student I believed that if I just kept learning the facts and forging ahead that someday it would all start to click. I like the idea that thinking like an “expert” can be taught even in introductory courses. And, that this expert like thinking is then going to make all subsequent learning opportunities more meaningful.

(3) Effort needs to be refocused on the out of classroom activities and experiences of the student. This concept has become a big part of what I hope to address in this residency program. The idea is that most professors spend the majority of the their time designing and controlling their classroom environment while putting very little effort into designing and controlling what their students are doing outside the classroom. I remember being a bit hard-nosed about this at first, thinking that students need to be mature enough to manage their own time and learning outside of class, but I have really changed position on this issue the longer I teach.

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Karen HuffmanGenesee Community College, Batavia, NY

http://www.improvewithmetacognition.com/

This is a site dedicated to metacognition as the title implies.  There are resources for developing metacognitive practices for the student as well as developing metacognitive practices for the instructors.  The resources include a blog area, an area to share ideas, and research on metacognition.

Being aware of learning and how we learn (and teach) is an essential part of becoming a more critical and creative thinker. 

Kruidenier, J. R., MacArthur, C. A., & Wrigley, H. S. (2010). Adult Education Literacy Instruction: A Review of the Research. National Institute for Literacy.

I find many of my students, even the good ones, struggle with reading science- the textbook and articles.  I do a lot of modeling in my classroom to improve reading skills and found this article while researching this assignment.  It holds a lot of promise for me to learn more on how to increase basic literacy as well as science literacy skills in my classroom.

www.msche.org/publications/SLA_Book_0808080728085320.pdf

Student Learning Assessments: Options and Resources from Middle States

Along with metacognition and reading skills, knowing how to assess what is being learned is my third major interest.  I like this publication because it includes lots of assessment examples and options.   

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Adam KleinschmitAdams State University, Alamosa, CO

Tanner, K. D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 11(2), 113-120. Available from: http://www.lifescied.org/content/11/2/113.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr.

I have introduced the concept of metacognition to undergraduate students in past semesters as a strategy to become better self-learners and thus increase their likelihood of success in their courses. I really like the author’s suggestion of incorporating metacognition self-questions throughout course sessions to help promote student self-awareness of learning.  I envision myself implementing this strategy in addition to the explanation of what metacognition is at the beginning of the semester, as I think this will not only help students but my teaching though collecting and analyzing student reflections (formative assessment). Lopatto, D. (2007). Undergraduate research experiences support science career decisions and active learning. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 6(4), 297-306. Available from: http://www.lifescied.org/content/6/4/297.full.

In the genomics course I teach each fall, I incorporate a classroom undergraduate research experience within the laboratory using Genomics Education Partnership (GEP) resources. The data in this article supports the hypothesis that research enhances the educational experience of science undergraduates. Additionally, my institution is a Hispanic serving institution, thus I am very interesting in the findings in this article that underrepresented groups reported higher learning gains than comparison students.  It is a major goal of our institution to improve retention of minority students in the pathway to a scientific career. Couch, B. A., Brown, T. L., Schelpat, T. J., Graham, M. J., & Knight, J. K. (2015). Scientific Teaching: Defining a Taxonomy of Observable Practices. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 14(1), ar9. Available from: http://www.lifescied.org/content/14/1/ar9.full.

I am very interested in scholarship of teaching and learning, which promotes the use of scientific evidence to justify the use of particular teaching methods in the classroom.  The authors of this article review the evidence-based pedagogical approach to teaching called "Scientific Teaching" and provide a taxonomy that can be used by instructors for peer evaluation of teaching as well as an instrument for course design.  I am currently working on revamping my course learning goals and aligning them to course assignments and activities.  

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Karla LightfieldUniversity of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

Relations between Intuitive Biological Thinking and Biological Misconceptions in Biology Majors and Nonmajors. John D. Coley and Kimberly Tanner. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 2015.  

This is an interesting article that talks about some potential cognitive similarities between common (but seemingly unrelated) misconceptions that students have when learning biology. Understanding the source of these misconceptions is an important first step to tackling them in the classroom. These misconceptions represent differences in the ways biology experts and biology novices construe the biological world. Surprisingly, Biology majors seem to have more hardwired misconceptions than nonmajors. Three relevant construals are described in the article. First, teleological thinking describes the tendency to prefer causal based explanations. Second, essential thinking is the tendency to believe that underlying principles directly determine the overt features of a system. Finally, anthropocentric thinking tends to give more weight to the role of humans in the natural world. Students who rely on these forms of thinking have a harder time succeeding in the biology and thus work is needed to understand and combat these misconceptions. The main thing that I took away from this article is the need to remain cognizant of research in cognitive science when thinking about and designing curriculum.  A Delicate Balance: Integrating Active Learning into a Large Lecture Course. JD Walker, SH Cotner, PM Baepler and MD Decker. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 2008.  

I found this article helpful because the courses that I teach are always large lecture format. In this article the researchers examine a large introductory biology course using active learning mechanisms in one section of the course and more “traditional” lecture in the second section of the course. It highlighted some difficulties and benefits of using active learning mechanisms in these large lecture classes. The most important thing that I took from the article is that even in very large courses active learning mechanisms can improve student learning outcomes, particularly for those at the bottom of the course.   Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement: A meta-analysis. Malte Schwinger, Linda Wirthwein, Gunnar Lemmer, and Ricarda Steinmayr. Journal of Educational Psychology. 2015.

I found this article very interesting because it describes a phenomenon that I see often in my students, colleagues and myself. This is the tendency to provide self-handicaps in order to avoid the perception of failure and the resultant lowering of self-esteem.  The authors perform an analysis on a large number of studies of self-handicapping and find that this mechanism is widespread and nearly universal in academic settings. The authors conclude that in order to improve student achievement we need to use interventions to prevent self-handicapping. These interventions can include using mastery-based goals that allow the student to judge negative feedback in a more positive light. 

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Carl LucianoIndiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA

McAllister, L., Whiteford, G., Hill, B., Thomas, N., & Fitzgerald, M. (2006). Reflection in intercultural learning: examining the international experience through a critical incident approach. Reflective Practice, 7(3), 367-381.

Intolubbe-Chmil, L., Spreen, C. A., & Swap, R. J. (2012). Transformative learning: Participant perspectives on international experiential education. Journal of Research in International Education, 11(2), 165-180.

I am cheating here because this actually includes two references. In these paper the authors describe their perception of what goes on in a student’s mind during a study abroad course. They write that in such courses, student find themselves in a more or less unfamiliar environment-a new country, a new culture, new surroundings. In the struggle to make sense of the unfamiliar the student has to put together the new experiences in a way that makes sense to him and that this is when the real learning takes place. They call this a “critical incident” or “dissonance”. This resonated with me because I had noticed the same general phenomenon in my students, but was never able to express the idea as well as these authors.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415.

When I first integrated my own personal learning experiences into my ideas about learning in general I realized I learned the most by doing. So I always tried to include active learning experiences in my classes and especially tried to make my lab classrooms very active. I wrote my ideas into grant proposals and was lucky enough to get some of them funded. So I wanted to include a citation on active learning for this assignment but there are so many to choose from and no one original research paper stood out. Therefore I chose this recent high-profile paper that summarizes a large body of literature from many different studies and seeks to move the STEM education field on to new questions.

Fox, R. (2001). Constructivism examined. Oxford review of education, 27(1), 23-35.

I am a strong believer in constructivist learning and again I think this is based on my own experiences. The whole notion of constructivism resonates with me and so I wanted to include a citation on constructivism. Again, there are many choices but I was surprised to notice that a majority of the papers are fairly old. I chose this one-because it is more recent than most, and because it presents a critical overview. This review is also interesting because it picks apart the idea of constructivism as too empirical and too individualistic-thus too fuzzy and not useful for generating questions.

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Julia MassimelliUnivesity of California Irvine, Irvine, CA

Chew, S. L. (2010). Improving classroom performance by challenging student misconceptions about learning. Observer, 23(4), 51-54.

I use Dr. Chew’s video series (related to this article) “How the get the most out of studying (http://www.samford.edu/how-to-study/default.aspx?id=45097158623) as a first week assignment for any class I teach. Dr. Chew’s main point in this article (and videos) is that students make choices about their studying practices, attendance to class, multitasking, etc. based in their beliefs about how people learn best, which is often full of misconceptions. Some of these misconceptions are: 1) “learning is fast” 2) “Knowledge is composed of isolated facts”, typically written down in flashcards to aid memorization. This is definitely not an approach that would lead to comprehension of the material; 3) “Being good at a subject is a matter of inborn talent”. 4) “I am very good at multitasking”. The key for successful learning is discovering the truth behind these misconceptions, as well as the level of processing students are using while studying. Deep processing includes not only elaboration or making meaningful associations between the concepts they are studying and related concepts, but also the capability to relate concepts to their own personal experience. This is particularly meaningful to me and I usually ask my students to describe one concept they remember leaning when they were in middle school. I then ask them why they remember it so well. They usually give me examples that are related to emotions or a meaningful experience. Dr. Chew also points out the importance of practicing appropriated retrieval and application for the material (i.e., practicing re-call and use of the information). I think this is related to peer-teaching. If they can explain the concept to a peer they have reached a deep level of understanding and they can easily retrieve the information. Ambrose, S., M. Bridges, M. DiPietro, M. Lovett, and M. Norman, 2010. How learning works: seven research-based principles for smart teaching. Wiley, San Francisco, CA. 

The second principle listed in this book says: “How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know”. This resonated with me a lot because I see this in myself, in the way I learn. Also, it is the first question I ask any student that comes to my office hours asking for advice to improve their studying and grades: “how do you study? Do you try to make connections or just to memorize the material?” Relating this to the first learning theory I listed, I think the most important aspect of learning is what we think about when we are studying. The connections we make, the relationships we establish, and even (why not?) our emotional response to certain topics. I often see that students that are struggling with a topic are likely just trying to memorize concepts (or memorize my slides) without any sort of organization that enables them to reason about the situation later. For these students I try to encourage the use of concept maps, or outlines to create the habit of putting their thoughts in order and think about a topic in an organized way. Ambrose et al., (2010) presents interesting research about knowledge organization, stating that its usefulness will depend on the tasks they need to support. This invited me to reflect upon the tasks I ask my students to perform in class, which are related to the knowledge organizations they will most likely develop, as a way to promote students’ learning. MARTON F and SÄLJÖ, 1976. On Qualitative Differences in Learning — 1: Outcome and Process. Brit. J. Educ. Psych. 46, 4-11. MARTON F and SÄLJÖ, 1976. On Qualitative Differences in Learning — 2: Outcome as a function of the learner's conception of the task. Brit. J. Educ. Psych. 46, 115-27.

For a commentary about these articles: http://facultyprograms.org/images/ST...20Learning.pdf 

Ference Marton and Roger Saljö demonstrated that students learn not what teachers think they should learn, but what they perceive the task to demand of them. They can essentially use two types of strategies for learning: surface or deep. Those using a ‘surface’ approach see a task as requiring specific

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answers to questions, so they learn in pieces (I guess unorganized, as stated in item 2); students using a ‘deep’ approach want to understand, so they focus on themes and main ideas. One of the main points of the articles is that when students don’t get the point of what they were reading is “simply because they were not looking for it.” This is extremely meaningful to me. Basically this is telling us that the students’ perception of our classes and courses plays a big role and dictates the intention and the vigor with which they will apply their usual or preferred study strategy. And this is where our role as educators plays a huge role. The assessments we write will set the learning environment and move students toward a deep or surface approach.

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Christopher ParkerTexas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, TX

Allen DE, Duch BJ, Groh SE. 1996. The power of problem‐based learning in teaching introductory science courses. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 1996:43–52.

ASCD, Marzano RJ. 2004. A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works. Prentice Hall.

Spiegel CN, Alves GG, Cardona TS. 2008. Discovering the cell: an educational game about cell and molecular biology. Journal of Biological … 43:27–36.

Marzano’s “A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works” includes several different teaching strategies, but two in particular are of interest to me.  The first is the use of analogies and metaphors to help students to grasp complex concepts.  Although I use this technique often my majors and non-majors classes, it is in the non-majors classes that this really pays off.  The other strategy that is of interest to me is the use of schematic note taking (aka mind mapping/concept mapping/graphical note taking, etc.).  I try to get my students to use concept mapping to draw (literally) connections between the different concepts presented in the chapter.  However, this is sometimes easier said than done. The other two references directly relate to the reason I applied for this residency.  I am a huge fan of board games in general and am fascinated by how games can be used to teach complex concepts.  Most game-based education tools now days are computer based, but there are still a few of us that are fans of analog games, as well.  The project that I have my students work on is not to play the board game, but to design the game from the ground up.  My reasoning is that in order to design a thematic board game, they must fully understand the subject material.  The exercise is assigned as a group project that is completed throughout the semester.

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Mia RayTrinity Washington University, Washington, DC

Fink, L.D. & Fink, A.K., eds. 2009 Designing Courses for Significant Learning: Voices of Experience, Issue #119 in Jossey-Bass' New Directions for Teaching and Learning.

After attending a workshop of the same title from Dee Fink I learned about integrated course design and how to redesign my courses in Anatomy and Physiology.  By establishing learning goals, assessment activities and learning activities for each objective I am able to better redesign an AP course that meshes active learning with lecture and laboratory. 

Bowen, Jose, 2012. Teaching Naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning. 

I am very interested in improving student learning and information retention in my course and in the past I relied heavily on technology to supplement my lectures and labs. However after attending a seminar at the innovation in teaching and learning conference at George Mason by Professor Bowen, I learned that there is value in my face-to-face interactions with the students.  Dr. Bowen emphasizes that by using technology outside of the classroom, rethinking assignments and course design professors can create more active learning opportunities that spark critical thinking. 

Brown, P.C., Roediger, H.L., 2014. Make it stick: The science of successful learning.

In my courses I require students to learn and memorize a lot of material.  This source explains how learning and memory work through the use of stories by highlighting the principles of learning that are highly effective for information retention. 

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Nathan ReynaOuachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, AR

Student Involvement: A Developmental Theory for Higher Education. A. Astin. 1999. Journal of College Student Development.

The author describes several learning approaches that faculty and administrators tend to support and builds a case for student involvement as a means for learning. When we were given this assignment I really did not know the names and ideas behind specific learning theories. This article does a good job explaining the differences between many common theories. One example is the Content Theory of learning. The idea is to expose student to as much content and material as possible. However, it places the student in a passive learning role and they often do not invest in their learning. The author points out that many of these learning theories are good for a specific personality type but not for the student population as a whole. The main point is that educators should spend less time on what they do (teaching techniques) and more on keeping the student motivated to learn. The author suggests that all teaching practices should be related increased student involvement.  What makes a good student? How Emotions, Self-Regulated Learning, and Motivation Contribute to Academic Achievement. Mega et al. 2014. Journal of Educational Psychology.

This article focused on how to motivate students to learn. It focused on the idea that if you can get students to self-regulate their learning they will be better students. It looked at several different theories as to why students do well in a class. The authors found that emotion was the primary factor that affected student learning and motivation to learn. Students who had a negative emotion were less likely to do well in a class. Students who had a positive emotion were more likely to be self-regulated learners and stated more motivated throughout the experience. These emotions were also applied to how a student responded to failure.  Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education.A. Kolb and D. Kolb. 2005 Academy of Management Learning & Education.

This is a rather long article. It focuses on the experiential learning theory and the research to support the theory. The experiential learning theory focuses on the idea that student knowledge gains through experience with a subject. The author’s point out that if not done correctly the experiential learning theory will quickly result in students mindlessly entering observed data. The key to this idea is that students must be invested in the outcome and in their learning. The authors looked at the influence of observational and active experimental activities on concrete and abstract learning outcomes. The highest outcomes were achieved in a blended type environment. Students must be able to conduct their own research but also must reflect on observe outcomes. The authors also point out the idea that while learning is best achieved through experience that this does not mean all experiential learning ideas are effective.

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Rachna SadanaUniversity of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX

Tanner KD, Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity, CBE-Life Science Education, 2013, Vol 12, 322-331.

This article resonates with my teaching philosophy because the article describes multiple strategies that created an active learning environment in the classroom and help engage every student. If a student is engaged in the classroom, the student is bound to learn. 

Russell JE, Bridging the Undergraduate Curriculum Using an Integrated Course-Embedded Undergraduate Research Experience (ICURE),  CBE-Life Science Education, 2015, Vol. 14, 1-10.

I was interested in this article because it discusses the possibility of integrating a multidisciplinary research project in undergraduate education. I am a firm believer that authentic research based lab truly help undergraduate in developing problem solving, critical thinking and laboratory skills. I have implemented a project based lab (SEA-PHAGES) in freshmen biology lab and a project based lab in upper level cell biology lab. This article has provided me a novel idea of creating a long term project based lab that will integrate multiple disciplines.

Tanner KD,  Promoting Student Metacognition, CBE-Life Science Education, 2012, Vol. 11, 113-120.

This article is a reflection of students from my classroom. Some students are aware of what they know and what they don't know or are confused about, and some students just memorize content and do not analyze it deeply. As an instructor, my goal is help students become aware of their learning.

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Padma SeshadriSuffolk County Community College, Grant Campus, Brentwood, NY

Marbach-Ad, G. and P.G.Sokolove. 2000. Can Undergraduate Biology Students Learn to Ask higher Level Questions? Journal of Research in Science teaching. 37: 854-870.

I find this paper interesting because I encourage my students to ask questions. I have found that the students pay more attention and are more enthusiastic about learning when they know that they get a chance to participate and the questions are welcomed by the instructor. This study compares the active learning class with the traditional class and has found that the active learning class was better at coming up with “insightful, thoughtful, content related questions”. The students’ questions help us to learn how much they understand and how their thought process works. The student questions also stimulate our thought process on a particular topic. As the students ask questions, they learn and remember the content of the test and the lecture. I also liked the classification of student questions into eight different categories. Learning the facts from the textbook and the lectures is important, but learning to think is even more valuable for analyzing and solving problems.

Prince, M. and R. Felder. The Many Faces of Inductive Teaching and Learning. 2007. Journal of College Science Teaching. 36: 14-20. 

I am always looking for ways to improve students’ critical thinking and analytical skills in addition to enhancing the students’ motivation and enthusiasm to learn. This paper reviews the various inductive teaching methods to heighten the motivation and intellectual development. The paper points out the inductive methods include discovery learning, inquiry based learning, problem-based learning, case based learning and just-in-time teaching. The common thread among these inductive teaching methods is that the students are given a challenge and the students then learn what they need to know to deal with that challenge. I n inquiry based learning, the students might be given a hypothesis to be tested and they learn during the process of testing the hypothesis. The studies have shown that often this type of learning improve thinking, problem solving and lab skills. In problem-based learning, the students work in teams to figure out and define a problem. Then, they think about what they know and what they need to know to solve the problem. Instructor gives guidance to the students to get the information themselves. Project based learning is similar to problem based learning, but here “the solution process is more important than the final product”. In all these methods, the students play an active role in acquiring knowledge. There are discussions and interaction with the instructor and the team members as in the case of problem-based and project based learning.

Hoy, A.W., H. A. Davis and E. M. Anderman. 2013. Theories of Learning and Teaching in TIP. Theory into Practice. 52: 9-21. 

This review paper helped me to become more familiar with learning theories. Behavior theories focus on “change in behaviors, skills and habits”. Cognitive theories of learning emphasize “thinking, decision making, remembering, creating and problem-solving”. Constructive theories of learning stress that the knowledge is constructed and created by people. Inquiry and problem based learning are part of the constructive theories, which also highlight that the students’ efforts play a major role in the learning process. Sociocultural theories of learning include social and cultural aspects into the learning process. These theories are like “four pillars of teaching”. The students first understand the concept (constructive theory). Then keep that knowledge in their memory (cognitive process). The knowledge then changes their behavior and applies the skills they have learned (behavior theory). The student is a specific social cultural environment and therefore, those factors influence the learning process to a certain extent. It seems that I try to apply constructivist learning strategies in my class room by giving my students a project and asking them to work in groups to complete the project. I can see as they work on the project they are constantly discussing various aspects with me and their team mates. That, in turn, helps them to acquire knowledge and remember what they have learned.

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Zakiya WhatleyGettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA

I searched for sites that summarized different learning theories, and I came across "How Students Learn -- and How We Can Help Them" a working paper by John Kihlstrom. There were a lot of theories (and links to the research) that supported my teaching style. 

I encourage students to organize information and draw connections between old and new content. This strategy is supported by elaboration and organization principles. In class, students work in groups to make concept maps to explain complex topics. Students link their assigned topic to  topics that were assigned to the rest of the class. It's important that they understand the facts, but I don't want them to get lost in the details. I believe students benefit from activities like this, helping them zoom out and see the big picture/concepts. Wallace, J. D., & Mintzes, J. J. (1990). The concept map as a research tool: Exploring conceptual change in biology. Journal of research in science teaching, 27(10), 1033-1052. Khodor, Julia, Dina Gould Halme, and Graham C. Walker. "A hierarchical biology concept framework: a tool for course design." Cell Biology Education3.2 (2004): 111-121. 

Functional context theory proposes that there are greater learning gains when students perceive information to be functionally important. I try to avoid students asking "Why do we need to know this?" by illustrating situations where the knowledge is beneficial or even necessary. This is much easier in my intro bio and personal genetics courses. This theory ties in with the situated learning theory - knowing students' current knowledge base and teaching from that point. 

Allen, Deborah and Tanner, Kimberly. "Approaches to Cell Biology Teaching: Learning Content in Context—Problem-Based Learning." Cell Biol Educ Summer 2003 2:73-81; doi:10.1187/cbe.03-04-0019.

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