How to teach the perfect undergraduate science

course (and why that won’t happen)

Gordon E. UnoDepartment of Botany and Microbiology

University of Oklahomaguno@ou.edu

TOP FIVE PROBLEMS of TEACHING and LEARNING SCIENCE

(other than $$, colleagues, administrators, and inertia)

MAJOR PROBLEMS

1. A focus on scientific terms and not science as a process

2. The absence of critical thinking and inquiry in lectures and labs

3. Focusing on teaching instead of learning, understanding, and explaining

4. Monotonous lectures and confirmatory labs

5. Not knowing what your students know and can do (do they really get it?)

Problem 1: Focusing on scientific terms and not science as a process

• Students do not understand how science works• Science taught as historical record and not as

a creative, dynamic, investigative activity• Teach/learn details without an overview• Content alone guides course development;

objective questions used with one answer• Reward student’s memory but not thinking

(students as dump trucks)• Assume students understand a subject when

they answer questions requiring lots of detailP.S. (Content is fine, but seek deep understanding)

STUDENTS:The Thylakoid Complex

(Students love to memorize)

FACULTY:The Game Show Mentality(Asking “are you smarter than

a 5th-grader” type questions)

“What is the capital of France?”

Problem 2: Absence of Critical Thinking and Inquiry in Lectures and Labs

• Students see but do not make careful observations

• Lost art of asking good questions (faculty & students)

• Courses lack inquiry and problem-solving activities

• Students work toward “correct” answers in lab• Data collection is planned and “experiments”

are outlined for students.

Problem 3: Focusing on teaching instead of student learning,

understanding, and explaining

• Planning “what am I going to teach” instead of “how am I going to get students to learn?”

• Students and faculty don’t know/think about how students learn (e.g., metacognition)

• Faculty ignore student misconceptions and assume background knowledge

• Students don’t synthesize or link information• Students regurgitate information; don’t explain

in their own words• Students filter information before learning; bias.

Problem 4: Monotonous Lectures and Confirmatory Labs

• Talking at students vs. discussing with

them (using Powerpoint slides is still lecturing)

• Need to “cover” all the material• Movement away from laboratories• Lack of lab and process skills practice• No student ownership of investigations• Few “need to know” situations • No/few opportunities for independent

(authentic) research.

Problem 5: Not knowing what your students know and can do

• Exams without questions requiring use of thinking or process skills

• Few opportunities for discussion• Teaching students who learn differently than

you and who use technology differently• Lower expectations for higher evaluations• No formative assessments; only multiple-choice

tests given• No reflection of your own teaching methods

(how do you know what you do is helping students learn?)

Many Barriers to Overcome

• Short attention spans of students• Disinterest and negative attitude of students

toward science • Irrelevance of subjects to students • Students’ social interactions are superficial• Decline of student self-discipline, self-

motivation, and course rigor (search for the path of least resistance)

• Poor attendance and study skills• Intellectual conflicts based on religion, limited

experience, and misconceptions• Difficulty of science, math, and engineering

INDIANAPOLIS—The National Science Foundation's annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard.

"For centuries, we have embraced the pursuit of scientific knowledge as one of the noblest and worthiest of human endeavors, one leading to the enrichment of mankind both today and for future generations," said keynote speaker and NSF chairman Louis Farian. "However, a breakthrough discovery is challenging our long-held perceptions

Convergence of National Science Education “Reform” Projects

• College Board’s Revision of All Advanced Placement (AP) Science Courses (Bio, Chem, Phys, Env Sci)

• Revised Science Education Standards from the NRC

• HHMI List of Competencies for Incoming and Graduating Medical Students

• “Seven Principles of Learning” From: Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate (STEM) Teaching, NRC, 2003

• Introductory Biology Project (IBP): ibp.ou.edu

• Evolution Across the Curriculum (NESCent, NRC, UCMP, BSCS, AIBS)

Teaching the Perfect Science CourseWhat To Do:

1)By the end of your course, what do you want your students to know, understand, value, and be able to do?2)What will you do to help your students “learn and do” whatever?3)How will you know that your students possess this knowledge and these skills? (e.g., if you value data manipulation, then you have to let students work with data and then evaluate their ability to do so)

Problem 1: Focusing on scientific terms and not science as

a process

What To Do---

Use organizing themes throughout course to help students retain “facts”

e.g,,“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” Dobzhansky, 1973

Find patterns and examples of generalizations in nature (e.g., form and function)Give students the opportunity to practice inquiry skills in discussion, labs, and “lecture”

NRC Learning Principle 1 Learning with understanding is facilitated when new and existing knowledge is structured around major concepts and principles of the discipline.

Knowing many disconnected facts is not sufficient for developing expertise or understanding. Breadth of coverage and recall of facts may hinder students’ abilities to organize knowledge effectively.

“Use Big Ideas or Themes in Your Discipline”

Goals of the AP Science Revision

Produce a more inclusive and more engaging program of study for each AP science discipline by identifying:

•concepts to be studied in depth and measured on the exams

•the need for reduction in breadth of content and an increase in depth of understanding

•essential reasoning and inquiry skills •emerging areas of research that capture essential

concepts within the discipline

Science Practices:Science Inquiry &

ReasoningEssential Knowledge

Learning Objectives

Enduring Understandings

Structure of the AP Biology Curriculum Framework

4 Big Ideas

Curriculum Framework: Big IdeasThe unifying concepts or Big Ideas increase coherence both within and across disciplines. A total of Four Big Ideas:

The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.

B I G I D E A1

Living systems retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes.B I G I D E

A3

Biological systems interact, and these interactions possess complex properties.

B I G I D E A4

Biological systems utilize energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain homeostasis.

B I G I D E A

2

Building Enduring UnderstandingsFor each Big Idea, there are enduring understandings which incorporate core concepts that students should retain. Total of 17 enduring understandings across the four Big Ideas.

The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.

B I G I D E A

1

Enduring Understanding 1.A: Change in the genetic makeup of a population over time is evolution

Enduring Understanding 1.B: Organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry

Enduring Understanding 1.C: Life continues to evolve within a changing environment

Enduring Understanding 1.D: The origin of living systems is explained by natural processes

Problem 2: The Absence of Critical Thinking and Inquiry in

Lectures and Labs

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

• Observe and Ask Good Questions• Hypothesize and Predict• Design an Appropriate Investigation• Collect, Process, and Interpret Data• Draw Conclusions• Infer and Generalize• Communicate Effectively• Relate Cause and Effect• Recognize Assumptions and Evaluate• Apply Knowledge to New Situations

INQUIRY ACTIVITIES

• Emphasize Critical Thinking

• Learner-Centered

• Focus on Science as a Process

• Content is Learned in Context

• Hands-on and Minds-on

• Questioning and Discussing Are Essential

Problem 3: Focusing on teaching instead of student

learning, understanding, and explaining

WE LEARN:

10% of What We Read

20% of What We Hear

30% of What We See

50% of What We See and Hear

60% of What We Write

70% of What We Discuss

80% of What We Experience

95% of What We Teach

AP Emphasis on Science Practices

1.0 The student can use representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems

2.0 The student can use mathematics appropriately

3.0 The student can engage in scientific questioning to extend thinking or to guide investigations

4.0 Student can plan and implement data collection strategies in relation to a particular scientific question

5.0 The student can perform data analysis and evaluation of evidence

6.0 The student can work with scientific explanations and theories

7.0 The student can connect and relate knowledge across various scales, concepts, representations, and domains

The science practices enable students to establish lines of evidence and use them to develop and refine testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena

SCIENCE PRACTICE

S

NRC Learning Principle 3Learning is facilitated through the use of metacognitive strategies that identify, monitor, and regulate thinking processes.

Students monitor their current level of understanding and decide when it is not adequate. How do students know what they know? (What do I need to know to solve a problem? I don’t get it?)

“Provide opportunities for students to observe experts as they solve problems.”

“Helping students understand how they learn.”“What learning strategies do you show students?”

Experts typically organize factual and procedural knowledge into schemas that support recognition of patterns and the rapid retrieval and application of knowledge.

Students often assume equal importance of all terms and ideas.

Example of a LEARNING STRATEGY

AfricaAsiaBrazil CanadaEurope Germany JapanKenyaMontrealMunichNairobiNorth AmericaRio de JaneiroSouth AmericaTokyo

AfricaAsiaEurope North AmericaSouth America

Brazil CanadaGermany JapanKenya

MontrealMunichNairobiRio de JaneiroTokyo

AfricaKenya

NairobiAsia

JapanTokyo

Europe Germany

MunichNorth America

CanadaMontreal

South AmericaBrazil

Rio de Janeiro

Parenchyma

Chloroplast

Xylem

Chlorophyll

Phloem

Petiole

Blade

Epidermis

Stipules

Calvin cycle

Problem 4: Monotonous Lectures and Confirmatory Labs

The New AP Biology Course Emphasizes Inquiry-Based and

Student-Directed Labs

33

NRC Learning Principle 6: The practices and activities in which people engage while learning shape what is learned.

When students learn content in a limited context, they miss the applicability of information to solve novel problems. Engaging students in “authentic research” increases interest and useful content knowledge.

“Use Problem-based and Case-based learning fostering problem-solving skills and strategies.”

“Allow students to conduct investigations to answer their own questions.”

Problem 5: Not knowing what your students really know and

can do

AP Integrating the Content and Science Practice

Science Practice 5.3The student connect phenomena and models across spatial and temporal scales

Learning Objective (1.B.2 & 5.3)The student is able to evaluate evidence provided by a data set in conjunction with a phylogenetic tree or a simple cladogram to determine evolutionary history and speciation

Essential Knowledge 1.B.2Phylogenetic trees and cladograms are graphical representations (models) of evolutionary history that can be tested

NRC Learning Principle 2

Learners use what they already know to construct new understandings.

Students learn a new idea or process by relating it to ideas or processes they already possess. (Learners construct interpretations of newly encountered problems and phenomena to agree with their own prior knowledge—even when these interpretations are wrong.)

“Constructivism”

Basic KnowledgeConcept 1

Basic KnowledgeConcept 1

Concept 1 Concept 2

NewIdea

Misconceptions, Filtered Information, or

Naïve ExplanationsConcept 1

BIOLOGICAL LITERACY

Nominal Biological LiteracyStudents: identify terms and questions as biological in nature, possess misconceptions, and provide naïve explanations of biological concepts.

Functional Biological LiteracyStudents: use biological vocabulary, define terms correctly, but memorize responses.

Structural Biological LiteracyStudents: understand conceptual scheme of biology, understand procedural knowledge and skills, and can explain biological concepts in their own words.

Multidimensional Biological LiteracyStudents: understand the place of biology among other disciplines, know the history and nature of biology, and understand the interactions between biology and society.

SELECTED MISCONCEPTIONS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ON THE FIRST DAY OF AN INTRODUCTORY BOTANY CLASS

Algae-a type of fungus Era-the aroma or Surrounding

Anthropology-the study of plants Finite-forever

Capillary-something in your blood Genus-the reproductive part of a plant

Carboniferous-a total meat eater Germinate-spraying to eliminate harmful air

Carrying capacity-how much you carry

Locus-an insect, or kind of plant

Chaparral-an animal Sampling-small, young tree

Eocene-some plants used this as food intake

Testosterone-a male sexual organ

Epiglottis-little pigments inside the plant

Virus-a sickness caused by bacteria

HOW DO WE KNOW STUDENTS KNOW? GOOD ASSESSMENTS SHOULD:• Be Varied---poster sessions, paper tests, oral

presentations, papers, reports • Encompass complex aspects of student

achievement • Make students’ thinking visible (don’t reward

memorization of discrete bits of knowledge) • Identify strategies used by students to solve

problems• Provide timely and informative feedback

(formative and summative) collect cards each day

Jared, the Subway man, lost a lot of weight eating a low calorie diet. Where did all the fat / mass go? 

A) The mass was released as CO2 and H2O.

B) The mass was converted to energy and used up.

C) The mass was made into ATP molecules.

D) The mass was broken down to amino acids and eliminated from the body.

 Note: The correct answer is A. Distracters for the “Jared question”

show that students confuse matter and energy, thinking about them interchangeably. Teachers who are aware that students may use this thinking when they study cells, organisms, and ecosystems can explicitly address this in their course design (Wilson et al. 2006). Thus faculty can use these related sets of questions (clusters) to recognize and follow students’ faulty reasoning spanning content across a course.

COMPONENTS OF AN EXEMPLARY SCIENCE PROGRAM

• Promotes Interest, Excitement, and Acceptance of Science as a Process

• Teaches Relevance To Real World• Makes Process And Selective Content Equal• Uses Investigative Experiences and Themes• Fosters Critical Thinking And Problem-

Solving• Uses Appropriate Assessments• Focuses on the Student Learner• Encourages Inquiry and Research

Checklist for Science Activities, Classes, and “Lectures”

Each activity should address at least

3-4 of the following items.

ACTIVITIES SHOULD:

1. Uncover student misconceptions and naïve explanations

2. Generate and hold student interest (be relevant)

3. Allow students to be active learners4. Help students understand major concepts

(and how these relate to themes)5. Let students learn content in context6. Let students experience science as a

process7. Provide opportunities for careful

observations of natural phenomena

8. Encourage students to ask and investigate their own questions (design and conduct their

own experiments)9. Help students process and interpret data and

information (inc. reliability of sources)10. Allow students to collaborate, discuss,

communicate, link ideas, synthesize, study cause and effect vs. correlation

11. Promote student reflection on understanding (provide formative feedback)

12. Assess what you think students should be able to know, value, and be able to do

(assessment reflects what you do in class)