Download - Scholarship of Teaching: An Introduction
Scholarship of Teaching: An Introduction
BioQUEST Workshop 2007
Exploratory Evolution Education
Margaret Waterman June 11, 2007
SoTL Fellows Program At Southeast Missouri State Unversity
Teaching in a Scholarly Fashion
vs.Scholarship of Teaching
Teaching Scholarly: thoughtful deliberation about the teaching / learning process
Scholarly Teaching: using research findings to made pedagogical decisions
The Action Research Cycle
Identify Innovation
Gather Data
Analyze DataInterpret Data
Develop Action PlanDesign the Study
Be thinking about the following questions DESIGN From whom are you gathering data? When will you gather data?
METHODS How will you gather data? Where will you gather data?
Linking Study Design and Methods
Suppose the design is on one class (the who), pre and post test (the when)
How and where the data will be gathered are METHODS questions.
Pretest Do new thing Post test
Action Research Often Uses These Kinds of Methods to Gather Data
Surveys
Observations
Interviews
Artifact Analysis
ObservationsMethods:
Use a class map to keep track of who asks questions, answers questions, makes comments, where students go to get resources.
Make an audio or video recording of class discussion, Analyze for types of questions asked and student responses.
Goals
Understand discussion dynamics/ resource use.
Find out patterns of questions and effects of questions.
Methods: Questioning with Surveys Examples:
A survey of attitudes toward science
Rankings of importance of course elements
Student ratings of instruction
May include open-ended questions, e.g., what element of this course most helped you to learn?
May include some content, but if it is only about content, it’s a test (an artifact of the course).
Methods: Questioning with Interviews Advantage over surveys: can ask follow-ups,
more personal contact. Disadvantage: need to be consistent, go
through training and pilot process. Examples:
Sort readings by usefulness, giving reasons Solve a genetics problem aloud, explaining
thinking A focus group interview Interview of team members in small groups
Method: Examine and Score Artifacts Examples of artifacts:
Diagrams of cells before and after instruction Wear on computer keys to see which are hit most Answers to a test question Term papers Analyses of scientific papers Case analyses Research proposals
Methods: Artifact Analysis
Decide what you kinds of materials you want to collect
Justify why the artifact you are choosing is a good choice given your research question
Create a scoring rubric (guide) to assign points
Good for pre-post designs
A KEY TO SUCCESS: Pilot Test Your Instruments
Give a small group of people (not in your class if you can) your survey or interview
Collect sample artifacts to see if your grading scheme works
Try out your observation scheme to see if it needs to be tweaked.
Other Keys to Success
Talk about your design and instruments with Teaching Associates, SoTL Fellows, other colleagues.
Keep your data collection focused. Try to keep the project reasonable in scope
for the time you have available.
To create your own plans answer the questions below: From whom are you gathering data?
More than one class, subgroups? When will you gather data?
First week of classes? After the new thing has been introduced? Fall? Spring?
How will you gather data?Questions, artifacts, observations?
Where will you gather data?Classroom, online forum, dropbox survey?
Human Subjects
Because SoTL is work with humans, researchers must submit a Human Subjects form to their college.
Most projects are Category I - what one might do in the normal course of teaching.
The ways data will be collected and how individual privacy will need to be described.
It is not necessary to get student permission in most cases.
OK, I’ve got a project, now what? Present it!
http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/sotlConf/ Examples for 2007
September 3-5 15th Improving Student Learning Symposium"Improving Student Learning – For What?"Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, UKhttp://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/isl/isl2007/
October 11-13 International Society for Exploring Teaching and LearningSheraton Atlanta Hotel, Atlanta, GA http://www.isetl.org/
November 15-18 International Lilly Conference on College TeachingMiami University, Oxford, OHhttp://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/
And Then What? Publish It!! http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/pubOuts/index.shtml or
http://www.indiana.edu/%7Esotl/bandj.html for sample lists.
Academic Commons: online Electronic Journal on Excellence in College
Teaching International J. of Teaching and Learning in
Higher Ed
Discipline-specific Publications for SoTL American Biology Teacher
Bioscene: The Journal of College Biology Teaching *Cell Biology Education-Life Sciences Education
Journal of College Science Teaching
Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education
Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education
College Mathematics Journal
Learn More about SoTL Some universities and organizations have
support for SoTL (also see your professional organization’s web sites)
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/ National Center for Science Education
Illinois State University http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/sotlConf/
Indiana University, Bloomington http://www.indiana.edu/%7Esotl/index.shtml