Transcript A Faculty Team works to create content linkages among various

A Faculty Team Works to Create Content
Linkages among Various Courses to
Increase Meaningful Learning of Targeted
Concepts of Microbiology
Gili Marbach-Ad, Volker Briken, Ken Frauwirth, Steve
Hutcheson, Lian-Yong Gao, Sam Joseph, David Mosser, Daniel
C. Stein, Richard C. Stewart, Wenxia Song, Robert Yuan and
Ann C. Smith
Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
University of Maryland
Linking Courses to foster in depth and research
oriented learning of Host-Pathogen Interactions
Course
Lecture
Pre-requisite +
General
Microbiology
Microbial Genetics
+
Immunology
Lab
Discuss
Students
+
On-line
800/yr
+
+
Immunology lab
60
+
+
Epidemiology
+
Pathogenic
Microbiology
Microbial
Pathogenesis
+
+
100
60
+
+
70
100
+
25
Linking Courses to foster in depth and research
oriented learning of host-pathogen interactions
1. Form a Scientific Teaching Group.
2. Develop bridges between course curricula.
(What to teach?)
3. Apply or develop teaching approaches that
support in depth and research
oriented learning. (How to teach?)
4. Develop an assessment tool.
1. Form a Scientific Teaching Group
Approach: Analogous to a Research Group
Research faculty meet to discuss teaching
Group has met monthly:
 Meet once a month to discuss research and once month to discuss
teaching!
 Average attendance: 9 faculty/meeting.
Follow with a Scientific Teaching Support Team
(ST Support Team) that meets weekly
ST Support Team includes the teaching group coordinator,
the science education faculty member and a graduate student.
Role:
 To review the education literature for presentation to the HPI
teaching group.
To investigate measures to be developed in the courses
(such as case studies, project oriented labs, debates).
 To document the research (annual meetings and journals).
2. Develop bridges between curricula of
the HPI courses.
(What to teach?)
Approach:
 Define HPI concepts
 Choose organisms to serve as anchors for
teaching HPI concepts

Streptococcus pneumoniae and Escherichia coli
3. Apply or develop teaching approaches that
support in depth and research oriented learning
(How to teach?)
Spring 2005
Immunology Lab
Fall 2005
Microbiology Pathogenic
Literature Based Learning
Research-Oriented Case Studies
Spring 2006
Immunology Lecture
Cooperative learning in discussion sessions
and Concept Maps
4. Design a tool to assess our
curriculum development progress
Fall 2004 – Assessment tool to look at depth of
understanding (BSCI 417, 424)
Spring 2005 – Questions designed to target levels of
Blooms taxonomy (BSCI 223, 412, 422)
Fall 2005 – Concept Inventory approach
• Two tier method to create multiple choice
questions for a HPI Concept Inventory
Odom, & Barrow, (1995). The development and application of a two-tiered diagnostic test
measuring college biology students’ understanding of diffusion and osmosis following a
course of instruction. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 32, 45–61.
Anderson, Fisher, Norman, (2002). Development and evaluation of the conceptual
inventory of natural selection. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 952-978.
Constructing the HPI concept inventory
The HPI Concept Inventory development involved
three phases:
(a) defining the content boundaries of the test
(b) obtaining information about students’ alternative
conceptions
(c) developing the instrument.
A. Defining the content boundaries
of the test
“What do we want our students to truly understand and
remember 5 years after they have completed the set of
ours courses?”
•
We aimed at concepts required for understanding
HPI at a level of sophistication appropriate for
microbiology majors.
•
We developed a list of 13 HPI concepts.
•
We all reviewed the content of the concepts to
establish validity.
B. Obtaining information about students’
alternative conceptions
Based on the HPI concept list, a 23-item
two-tier questionnaire was developed
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•
First tier questions were multiple choice with
two to five choices.
Second tier questions requested explanation of
first tier responses (explain your answer, or
defend your response).
Each question covered one or more concepts
from the HPI concept list.
Two-tier question
3A. Selection of an antibiotic resistant organism is
based upon a change in the
a. Phenotype
Question 3 covers the HPI concepts:
4. Microbes adapt/respond to environment
b. Genotype
by altering gene expression.
c. Both
3.Microbes respond to forces of natural
d. Neither
selection. Important responses include
changes in virulence and antibiotic
e. Either
resistance.
3B. Defend your response 10. Microbes adapt/respond to the
environment by altering their metabolism.
Two-tier question
4A. What determines a Gram stain reaction?
a. Distinction relating to bacterial structure
b. Distinction relating to bacterial function
c. both
4B. Defend your response.
Question 2 covers the HPI
concept:
1. The structural characteristics of a
microbe are important in the
pathogenicity of that microbe
Two-tier questionnaire
•
The 23 questions were piloted
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–
focus group of two graduate students and two undergraduate students.
Results were analyzed by the HPI teaching team .
•
The 23 questions were amended to 17 two-tier questions.
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The 17 question assessment was distributed via WebCT to
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200 students in General Microbiology (introductory class)
60 students in Bacterial Genetics (one of our HPI advanced classes).
•
To limit the time requirement for the students, the delivery of the
questions was limited to 5 questions per student.
•
For each question we received
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–
~ 60 responses from the introductory course,
~ 20 responses from the advanced course.
We met for one day
(9:00am – 4:30pm) to
score student responses
for alternative conceptions
and then to develop
multiple-choice questions,
that use commonly held
alternative conceptions as
distractors.
Common alternative conceptions
Selection of an antibiotic resistant organism is based upon a
change in the:
(a) Phenotype (b) Genotype (c) Both (d) Neither (e) either
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Students didn't understand that selection is based on phenotypes. One
student that chose (b) Genotype, wrote, “When an organism becomes
resistant to antibiotics (when it acquires an antibiotic-resistant gene that
has been inserted as a marker), the organism's genotype has been
changed.”
–
Misconception was with the understanding of the differences between
genotype and phenotype. Student wrote, “This must be a change in the
genotype because having antibiotic resistance will not necessarily
change the look of an organism (phenotype). It will merely allow it to
survive in situations where the antibiotic is present.”
C. Developing the final instrument
The HPI Concept Inventory
Following the analysis of all questions, each group built
multiple-choice questions for the final assessment tool.
For example:
Selection of antibiotic resistant transformed
bacteria is based upon a change in the:
A. phenotype of the bacteria.
B. genotype of the bacteria.
C. phenotype and genotype of the bacteria.
D. genotype and physiology of the bacteria.
E. genotype and morphology of the bacteria.
Feedback from the faculty members
 “…having the group meetings ‘pushed’ us to think and
discuss our teaching with our colleagues.”
 “The meetings provided support for improving our
teaching, especially for new faculty members.”
 “…the content discussions in the meetings have caused
me to rethink what I have doing.”
 “…I learned about educational theories through our
group conversations and how they might be applicable to
their work.”
 “Analyzing questions, according to Bloom taxonomy,
help me while formulating my exams.”
Next steps
1. HPI scientific teaching group continues to
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•
•
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Meet monthly
Work on bridging courses’ curricula
Work on meaningful learning in each course using
anchor organisms and HPI concepts
Apply or develop teaching approaches such as
Literature based Learning, Case Studies, Concept
Maps
2. We will asses our work
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HPI concept inventory
Distributed this fall as pre and post test.