Transcript Setting goals for effective & innovative courses

Pursuing an Academic Career
Webinar Series
Setting goals for effective & innovative courses
April 10, 2012
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Program begins at:
1:30 pm Eastern | 12:30 pm Central | 11:30 am Mountain | 10:30 am Pacific
You can find information about the event at
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerdev/AcademicCareer2012/april_2012.html
Pursuing an Academic Career
Series conveners and moderators
Prof. Rachel Beane
Bowdoin College
Prof. Mike Williams
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Monica Bruckner
Science Education and Resource Center
(SERC)
Setting goals for
effective and innovative courses
Presenter
Prof. Barbara Tewksbury
Hamilton College
What best describes your current
position?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Grad student
Post-doc
Researcher
Faculty member (incl. adjunct)
Other
What kind of course are you
designing goals for?
A. Intro level
B. Required course for undergrad
majors
C. Elective course for undergrad majors
D. Course for grad students
E. Other
Addressing questions from all y’all
What this webinar will address
How do I set reasonable goals?
How do I assess whether students have
met the goals?
How do I build a course around goals?
Where do I start??
What we don’t have time to cover
Specific teaching strategies, engaging
students, student retention
Balancing lecture and lab
Developing specific assignments, projects
Challenges of specific settings/courses
Choosing textbooks
Major theme of On the Cutting Edge
has been on making courses more
effective in terms of student learning
What does it mean to make a
course more effective?
Course Audition and Spoken
Language at RIT School for the Deaf
For pre-service teachers who will have
hearing-impaired students in class
Instructor wanted students well-prepared
for future tasks as in-service teachers
Goal: students will be able to analyze pupil
characteristics, classroom performance, and
learning environments to design, implement,
and assess lesson plans that will enhance
spoken language learning.
Goal: Analyze pupil characteristics, classroom
performance, and learning environments to
design, implement, and assess lesson plans that
will enhance spoken language learning
Previous organization
Around topics such as nature and
physiology of hearing loss, interpreting
audiograms, troubleshooting hearing aids,
designing lesson plans
Final high stakes project – not successful
New organization
Moderately hearing-impaired child
Severely hearing-impaired child
Profoundly deaf child
Goal: analyze pupil characteristics, classroom
performance, and learning environments to
design, implement, and assess lesson plans that
will enhance spoken language learning
Same topics revisited with
increasing complexity in each
course chunk
Enables students to have repeated
practice toward goals with
increasing independence
Same overall content but goals
threaded throughout the course
Students better prepared for future
What does it mean to make a
course more effective?
Example from a Mineralogy course
designed at a Cutting Edge workshop
several years ago
Required course for geo majors
Instructor wanted students to do more than
just “know about” minerals – wanted
students to be able to use knowledge to
solve geological problems.
Goals: Students will be able to synthesize
mineralogical data (visual inspection,
petrographic microscopy, XRD and SEM/EDS)
to address specific geological problems.
Goals: synthesize mineralogical data (visual
inspection, petrographic microscopy, XRD and
SEM/EDS) to address specific geological problems.
Previous organization
Around topics such as crystal chemistry,
Miller indices, systematic mineralogy, lattice
structures, space groups, etc.
Final project to “pull it all together”
New organization
Core
Mantle
Crust
Content in context, increasing complexity
of practice in analysis and synthesis
Making a course more effective
Faculty commonly have “application”
goals as well as content goals.
Typical course organization
Teach the content background and
techniques for most of the semester.
Assign a high stakes final project - can
students apply what they’ve learned and
do sophisticated hypothesis-framing,
independent data-finding, analysis, and
communication on their own?
Success is typically mixed and
commonly doesn’t “stick” well
Making a course more effective
If you want students to be good at
something, they must practice.
Course is more effective if students
have practice toward the
“independent analysis” goals
threaded throughout the course
instead of just in the final project.
Articulation of goals beyond
content coverage and technique
mastery are important because
they drive what kind of practice
students need during a course.
Importance of goals to course design
Example from an art history course
Survey of art from a particular period
Vs.
Enabling students to go to an art
museum and evaluate technique of an
unfamiliar work or evaluate an
unfamiliar work in its historical context
or evaluate a work in the context of a
particular artistic genre/school/style
Content coverage is not enough to
enable students to achieve 2nd set
of goals
Importance of goals to course design
Example from a bio course
Survey of topics in general biology
Vs.
Enabling students to evaluate claims
in the popular press or seek out and
evaluate information or make informed
decisions about issues involving
genetically-engineered crops, stem
cells, DNA testing, HIV AIDS, etc.
Requires very different kinds of
practice to enable students to
achieve the 2nd set of goals
Common denominator
 What sorts of things do you do
simply because you are a
professional in your discipline??
I use the geologic record to
reconstruct the past and to predict
the future.
I look at houses on floodplains, and
wonder how people could be so
stupid
I hear the latest news from Mars and
say, well that must mean that….
What do you do??
Physicist: predict outcomes based
on calculations from physics
principles
Art historian: assess works of art
Historian: interpret historical
account in light of the source of
information
English prof: critical reading of
prose/poetry
Approaching it from the
standpoint of what you do
 Your course should enable your students, at
the appropriate level, to do what you do in
your discipline, not just expose them to what
you know.
 Start by answering the question
 In context of the general topic of your course,
what do you do? What does analyze, evaluate, etc.
involve?
 Or, what is unique about your world view?
Type responses in chat window
 Keep text short!!! Start with “I …..”
 Timer will be on, and we will resume when the
timer runs out.
Goals: student-focused or not?
Teaching is commonly viewed as
being teacher-centered.
Reinforced by the teaching
evaluation process
Commonly reinforced by how we
phrase course goals: “I want to
expose my students to….” or “I
want to teach my students about…”
or “I want to show students that…”
Goals: student-focused or not?
“It dawned on me about two weeks
into the first year that it was not
teaching that was taking place in the
classroom, but learning.”
Pop star Sting, reflecting upon
his early career as a teacher
Goals: student-focused or not?
We can’t do a student’s learning
for him/her
Exposure does not guarantee
learning
Students learn when they are
actively engaged in practice,
application, and problem-solving
(NRC How People Learn)
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853
Goals: student-focused or not?
Focus should be on what the
students are able to do as a result of
having completed the course
Not just what the instructor will
expose them to or show them.
Need to set course goals for the
students, not the teacher.
Goals: student-focused or not?
We’ll set student-focused goals
We’ll answer the question what do I
want my students to be able to do??
I want my students to use their strong
background in order to ____
rather than just
I want my students to have a strong
background in ____
Goals involving lower
order thinking skills
Knowledge, comprehension, application
list
explain
calculate
identify
describe
mix
recognize
paraphrase
prepare
Examples of goals involving
lower order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students will
be able to:
 list the major factors that can lead to slope
failure.
 identify common rocks and minerals.
 recognize examples of erosional and
depositional glacial landforms on a
topographic map.
 cite examples of poor land use practice.
 know how to read phase diagrams.
 calculate standard deviation for a set of data.
Examples of goals involving
lower order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students
will be able to:
 discuss the major ways that groundwater
can become contaminated.
 compare and contrast the features of the
three major types of plate boundaries.
 describe how pressure and temperature
influence the behavior of rocks during
deformation, and give an illustrative
example.
 explain how the greenhouse effect works
and explain why burning of fossil fuels
increases the greenhouse effect.
Examples of goals involving
lower order thinking skills
While some of these goals
involve a deeper level of
knowledge and understanding
than others, the goals are largely
reiterative.
Goals involving higher
order thinking skills
Analysis, synthesis, evaluation, some
types of application
derive
predict
analyze
design
interpret
synthesize
formulate
evaluate
create
Examples of goals involving
higher order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students
will be able to:
 evaluate geologic risk in an unfamiliar area
and make an informed decision about
where to live.
 identify interconnections in systems and
predict how changes in one part/aspect of
the system will influence other
parts/aspects of the system.
 analyze the evolution of a region over time.
 use data from recent Mars missions to reevaluate pre-2004 hypotheses about Mars
geologic processes and history/evolution
Examples of goals involving
higher order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students
will be able to:
 Make an informed decision about a
controversial topic, other than those
covered in class.
 Frame a hypothesis and collect appropriate
field data to address a research question.
 Design models of ___
 Solve unfamiliar problems in ____
 Find and evaluate information/data on ____
 Predict the outcome of ____
Examples of goals involving
higher order thinking skills
What makes these goals different
from the previous set is that they
are analytical, rather than
reiterative.
Focus is on new and different
situations.
Emphasis is on transitive nature of
skills, abilities, knowledge, and
understanding
Why are overarching
goals important?
If you want students to be good at
something, they must practice;
therefore goals drive both course
design and assessment
What kind of goals to set?
Higher order or lower order
thinking skills?
Measurable outcomes or not?
Abstract or concrete goals?
We’ll set goals with higher
order thinking skills
Overarching goals involving lower
order thinking skills are imbedded
in ones involving higher order
thinking skills
“being able to interpret tectonic
settings based on information on
physiography, seismicity, and volcanic
activity” has imbedded in it many
goals involving lower order thinking
skills
Why is it important to articulate
higher order goals?
 Students learn more when they
successfully use their knowledge to do
higher order thinking skills tasks.
 Higher order goals tasks are hard for
students.
 If you want students to be successful,
they must practice.
 Assignments and activities need to give
students repeated, relevant practice
related to the goals that you value.
 Can’t design effective activities if you
don’t have the goals in mind.
We’ll set concrete goals with
measurable outcomes1
 Clearer path to designing a course when
overarching goals are stated as specific,
observable actions that students should
be able to perform if they have mastered
the content and skills of a course.
 A: Students will be able to interpret unfamiliar
tectonic settings based on information on
physiography, volcanic activity, and
seismicity.
Vs.
 B: Students will understand plate tectonics.
 A is measurable; B requires a proxy.
1You
can design a task that students can do that will allow you to
measure directly whether they have have achieved the goal.
We’ll set concrete rather
than abstract goals
Abstract goals are laudable but
difficult to assess directly and difficult
translate into practical course design
Students will appreciate the complexity
of Earth systems.
Students will be able to think like
scientists.
Do these goals
meet our criteria?
 Students will be exposed to the main
concepts in structural geology.
 Students will understand that global
warming is a complex issue.
 Students will be able to identify rocks and
minerals.
 Students will be able to apply their
knowledge of groundwater contamination
to analyze reports and claims in the
popular press.
Course goals draft
 Write a draft of one higher order goal
for the course you’re working on today.
 We will follow this with discussion of
several examples – if you’re willing to
share a goal for discussion, please
type the goal into the chat window in
the following form:
 For an XXX course: students will be able
to XXX
 Timer will be on, and we will resume
when the timer runs out.
Getting from goals to a course
Goals should be more than text at
the top of a syllabus
Goals should underpin:
Selection of content
Design of assignments and activities
Assessments of student learning
Goals phrased as we’ve written
them make it easier to design a
course that effectively addresses
those goals
Goals and choosing content
Example: environmental geo course
Goal: students will be able to
research and evaluate news reports
of a natural disaster and
communicate their analyses to
someone else
What content framework would be
effective for achieving the goals?
Be able to research and evaluate news
reports of a natural disaster and
communicate analyses to someone else
Instructor #1 chose four specific
disasters as content topics
1973 Susquehanna flood
Landsliding in coastal California
Mt. St. Helens
Armenia earthquake
Be able to research and evaluate news
reports of a natural disaster and
communicate analyses to someone else
Instructor #2 chose four themes as
content topics
Impact of hurricanes on building
codes and insurance
Perception and reality of fire damage
on the environment
Mitigating the effects of volcanic
eruptions
Geologic and sociologic realities of
earthquake prediction
Be able to research and evaluate news
reports of a natural disaster and
communicate analyses to someone else
Instructor #3 chose to focus on a
historical survey of natural disasters
in Vermont
Historical record of flooding in NW
Vermont
1983 landsliding
2-3 other places in Vermont that have
had natural disasters of different types.
Goals and content topics unite
to provide course framework
Previous examples
Same goals.
Different content topics mean that each
course will be different.
Choice of content topics drives how the
instructor will implement the course.
Students will learn different content in
the context of the same kind of practice.
Goals and content topics unite
to provide course framework
How about a different goal for the same
environmental geo course?
Students should be able to evaluate and
predict the influence of climate, hydrology,
biology, and geology on the severity of a
natural disaster.
Could we use the same topics? Yes!
How would the courses be different? In both
content and the type of practice that
students do!!
Intersection of context,
goals, and content
Research & evaluate news report or
evaluate and predict influence of
climate, hydro, geo, bio on the severity
of a natural hazard???
Which have the right imbedded lower
order goals for your students or
curriculum?
Which content topics make the most
sense for your students, your setting, your
experience, your students’ futures?
Accomplishing goals
Assignments and activities are the
vehicle for accomplishing course goals
Well-designed assignments allow
students to
Build their knowledge base
Engage in goals-related practice
Demonstrate their progress toward
achieving the goals
Accomplishing goals
 If you want students to be able to design
an informed community action plan on
an environmental issue
Acceptable measure would be that each
student is able to design an informed
action plan
 How will you get them there?
Not fair to teach them about related topics
during the semester and then ask them to
pull it all together at the end.
Course should give them practice to build
their abilities relative to the goal, not just
increase their knowledge base.
Accomplishing goals
Intro geo course
If you want students to be able to analyze
the underlying influence of geology on
human events…
Assignments/activities should provide:
Goals-related practice
Threaded throughout the semester with
increasing independence
Case examples with increasing complexity is a
great strategy
Accomplishing goals
 Case example 1: influence of climate change on
prehistoric settlement patterns in North Africa
 Practice toward goal of analyzing influence of geology on
human events
 Geologic content knowledge: 14C dating, fossils, lacustrine
sedimentation, stratigraphic columns, using sedimentary
rocks to interpret paleoenvironments, geologic time scale
 Case example 2: influence of development of East
African Rift on hominid evolution
 More sophisticated practice toward goal of analyzing
influence of geology on human events
 Geologic content knowledge: formation and evolution of
continental rifts, radiometrirc dating, rift volcanisms,
stratigraphic columns, fossils, using sedimentary rocks to
interpret paleoenvironments, geologic time scale, fluvial
and alluvial processes, faulting, geologic history of East
Africa, evolution
Goals and course design
 What about intro courses and courses
that have students with a wide range of
abilities?
 Ask yourself – in what way do I want the
course to change my students lives?
Make them better decision-makers?
Make them better able to evaluate georelated info in the popular press?
Make them better able to tell science from
pseudo-science?
 Key is what your students need at the
appropriate level
Online resources
On the Cutting Edge Course Design
Tutorial
 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tu
torial/index.html
Effective teaching strategies
 http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/pedagogies.html
Pursuing an Academic Career
Webinar Series
May 2, 2012 Developing a thriving research
program and balancing it with teaching,
service and other passions
Leaders: Rachel Beane, Michael Williams & Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe
Goals for participants are to:
• learn strategies for developing or expanding a research
program within the context of an academic position.
• gain ideas for ways to prepare for a faculty research
program while still a graduate student or post-doctoral
fellow.
• consider strategies for balancing the time demands of an
active research program with other responsibilities and
interests.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerdev/AcademicCareer2012/may_2012.html
We’re glad you were able to join us today.
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http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/ca
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