reed a. schwimmer geological and marine sciences first-year experience faculty development day...
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Reed A. SchwimmerGeological and Marine
Sciences
First-Year ExperienceFaculty Development Day
August 21, 2006
Redesigning GEO-100Earth Systems Science
How are coursesHow are coursescommonly designed?commonly designed?
• Make list of content items important to coverage of the field
• Develop syllabus by organizing items into topical outline
• Flesh out topical items in lectures, discussions, labs
• Test knowledge learned in course
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
What’s missing?
• Articulation of what your students need
• Articulation of goals beyond content/ coverage goals
• Deliberate consideration of strategies to achieve goals beyond content goals
• Plan for evaluation of success
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
An alternative goals-based approach
• Brings same kind of introspection, intellectual rigor, systematic documentation, and evaluation to teaching that each of us brings to our research
• Really shakes the tree and designs the course from the bottom up
• Assessment falls out naturally
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
Step 1: Context and audience
The course design process begins with answering the following:
• Who are my students?• What do they need?• Can’t set goals effectively until these
questions are answered• What are the constraints and support
structure?
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
• Freshmen to seniors
• Science and non-science majors
• Course is a requirement or elective
• Not active learners; they haven’t been taught how to learn
GEO-100 Audience
Step 2: Develop overarching goal(s)
• Teaching is commonly viewed as being teacher-centered
• Commonly reinforced by how we phrase course goals: “I want to expose my students to….” or “I want to teach my students that…” or “I want to show students that…”
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
Instead…goals can be student-centered
• “At the end of this course, students will be able to…”
• What do you want the students to be able to DO at the end of the semester?
• This focuses beyond the semester – what value has the course added to student lives, abilities, and skill sets?
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
So you don’t want students to…
list… explain… calculate…
identify… describe… know about…
recognize… paraphrase… prepare…
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
Instead, you want to facilitate higher-order
thinking tasks
derive… predict… analyze…
design… interpret… synthesize…
formulate… evaluate… create…
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1. Students will be able to derive the relationships between process and product.
2. Students will be able to synthesize the interactions between different Earth systems (e.g., lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere).
GEO-100 Overall goals
From these goals, course content can then be selected
• Choose broad content topics that will help you achieve your goals.
• Then for each topic, select content items that you want the student to master.
• “How will you give students practice in doing…”
• You don’t need to cover “everything.”
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
• Chapters are arranged around specific Chapters are arranged around specific topics, not the connecting processestopics, not the connecting processes
• Each chapter is treated as a separate Each chapter is treated as a separate entityentity
• Not organized to emphasize these Not organized to emphasize these connectionsconnections
The problem with textbooks
Example of table of contents from anEarth science textbook
• Develop the overall goal(s) early and keep focusing on it throughout the course.
• Use concept maps to illustrate the interrelationships within this goal.
• Have students demonstrate their understanding by creating concept maps.
One solution…
1.1. Connecting concepts and terms within a Connecting concepts and terms within a topic (within a chapter)topic (within a chapter)
2.2. Connecting concepts between topics Connecting concepts between topics (across chapters)(across chapters)
3.3. Connecting concepts to the overarching Connecting concepts to the overarching goal (generally not done in textbooks)goal (generally not done in textbooks)
Three levels of concept maps
warm cool
WINDWINDAIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES
HIGH LOW
RISING OR FALLINGRISING OR FALLINGAIR MASSESAIR MASSES
HL
SURFACE AIR TEMPSURFACE AIR TEMP
AIR DENSITY CHANGES
SUNLIGHT ANGLESUNLIGHT ANGLEAND DURATIONAND DURATION
SEASONSsummer winter
TILT OF EARTH’S AXISTILT OF EARTH’S AXISASTRONOMICALASTRONOMICALPROCESSESPROCESSES
• SHAPE OF ORBIT• TILT ANGLE• AXIS WOBBLE
WINDWIND
AIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES
HIGH LOW
warm cool
RISING OR FALLINGRISING OR FALLINGAIR MASSESAIR MASSES
HL
SURFACE AIR TEMPSURFACE AIR TEMP
AIR DENSITY CHANGES
SUNLIGHT ANGLESUNLIGHT ANGLEAND DURATIONAND DURATION
SEASONSsummer winter
TILT OF EARTH’S AXISTILT OF EARTH’S AXIS
ASTRONOMICALASTRONOMICALPROCESSESPROCESSES
• SHAPE OF ORBIT• TILT ANGLE• AXIS WOBBLE
Option 1 – Students arrange topics into a flowchart.Option 1 – Students arrange topics into a flowchart.
warm
WINDWINDAIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES
HIGH LOW
RISING OR FALLINGRISING OR FALLINGAIR MASSESAIR MASSES
HL
SURFACE AIR TEMPSURFACE AIR TEMP
SUNLIGHT ANGLESUNLIGHT ANGLEAND DURATIONAND DURATION
SEASONS
summer winter
ASTRONOMICALASTRONOMICALPROCESSESPROCESSES
Option 2 – Students describe the connections.Option 2 – Students describe the connections.
AIR DENSITY CHANGES
TILT OFEARTH’SAXIS
SHAPE OF ORBIT TILT ANGLE
AXIS WOBBLE
HEAT ENERGY CONC.
KINETIC ACTIVITYCONCENTRATION
EQUILIBRIUMDIFFUSION
WINDWIND
AIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES
RISING OR FALLINGRISING OR FALLINGAIR MASSESAIR MASSES
SURFACE AIR TEMPSURFACE AIR TEMP
AIR DENSITY CHANGES
SUNLIGHT ANGLESUNLIGHT ANGLEAND DURATIONAND DURATION
SEASONS
TILT OF EARTH’S AXIS
ASTRONOMICALASTRONOMICALPROCESSESPROCESSES
Option 3 – Students create their own flow chart.Option 3 – Students create their own flow chart.
Concept
SHAPE OF ORBIT TILT ANGLE
AXIS WOBBLE
HEAT ENERGY CONC.
KINETIC ACTIVITYCONCENTRATION
EQUILIBRIUMDIFFUSION
Connections
Final thoughts…
• As you enter a classroom, ask yourself this question: “If there were no students in the classroom, could I do what I am planning to do?” If the answer is yes, don’t do it. General Ruben Cubero, Dean of the
Faculty, United States Air Force Academy(Novak et al., 1999, Just-in-Time Teaching)
On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty
• If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
• Same goes for teaching. If the only tool in your teaching toolbox is lecturing, then….