the college classroom week 10: teaching as research

The College Classroom

December 4 and 6, 2013

Week 10: Teaching as Research and Success in an Educational Career

with special guests

Beth Simon, Ph.D.

LSOE, Computer Science and Engineering

Sr Associate Director for Learning Sciences and Technology, Center for

Teaching Development

Valerie Ramey, Ph.D.

Professor, Economics

Today

collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

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1. Teaching as research (TAR)

2. Success in an Educational Career (Beth)

3. Final project: microteaching

Categories of Educational Research [1]


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Theoretical research

Action or practitioner research

Evaluative Experimental

'Cause and effect' research

Case study

Systematic review Exploratory

Comparative

Grounded theory

Ethnography

Your posts: Education research in


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• philosophy

• organic chemistry

• economics of education

• sociology in med school

• engineering

• sociology of teaching

• biochemistry

• chemistry moocs

• educational psychology

• entrepreneurship

• anthropology

• MOOCS in higher ed

• engineering

• human geography

• oceanography

• applied ethics

• neuroscience

• science self-efficacy

• chemistry

• MOOCs

• history

• biology

• anthropology

• sociology

• chemistry

• genetics

• and more…

Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class

Deslauriers, Schelew & Wieman (2011)

Week 12: PPT lectures +

clickers as usual

Week 12: New instructors

use pre-reading, reading

quizzes, clickers, worksheets,

instructor feedback

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Control Section Experimental Section

Weeks 1-11: PPT lectures + summative clicker qs

Week 11: BEMA [3] concept test + CLASS [4]

Weeks 13: both classes given access to Experimental section resources

Week 13: 12 question test (Experimental)




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Table 1: Measures of student perceptions, behaviors, and knowledge.

*Average value of multiple measurements carried out in a 2-week interval before the experiment.

Engagement also varies over location in the classroom; numbers given are spatial and temporal averages.

Control Section Experimental Section




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What is the value of course-specific learning goals?

Simon & Taylor (2009)


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3 classes (A = computer literacy Fa07, B = computer

literacy Sp08, C = microbiology Sp08)

Last week of course (Wk 13): students asked to

complete up to five copies of, “For me, the use of

learning goals in this course is . . .”

Comments put into categories using content-analysis

based coding

A B C total

Comments 225 252 120 597

Students 59 76 51 186

(Evaluative)

What is the value of course-specific learning goals?

Simon & Taylor (2009)


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Teaching as Research (TAR)

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)


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The improvement of teaching and learning is a dynamic

and ongoing process, just as is research in any discipline.

At the core of improving teaching and learning is the

need to accurately determine what students have learned

as a result of teaching practices. This is a research

problem, to which instructors* can effectively apply their

research skills and ways of knowing.

CIRTL Network [6]

In its original form, this passage refers to “STEM instructors” but it applies to all

disciplines, not just science, tech, engineering and math.

Teaching as Research (TAR)

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)


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Teaching-as-Research involves the deliberate, systematic,

and reflective use of research methods to develop and

implement teaching practices that advance the learning

experiences and outcomes of students and teachers.

Participants in teaching-as-research apply a research

approach to their teaching practice.

CIRTL Network [6]

Conceptual steps in the TAR process are:


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1. Learning foundational knowledge.

What is known about the teaching practice?

2. Creating objectives for student learning.

What do we want students to learn?

3. Developing an hypothesis for practices to achieve

the learning objectives.

How can we help students succeed with the learning

objectives?

4. Defining measures of success.

What evidence will we need to determine whether students

have achieved learning objectives?

Conceptual steps in the TAR process are:


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5. Developing and implementing teaching practices

within an experimental design.

What will we do in and out of the classroom to enable

students to achieve learning objectives?

6. Collecting and analyzing data.

How will we collect and analyze information to determine

what students have learned?

7. Reflecting, evaluating, and iterating.

How will we use what we learned to improve our teaching?

8. Sharing the results.

How can we inform the community of our findings?

CIRTL Network [6]

Design a TAR project (in 10 minutes)


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1. One person at your table, pick a discipline and a

question to explore

2. Everyone together, sketch/draft/outline a research

project to explore that question.

use the whiteboard to summarize the project

be prepared to share your project


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(Image: Petra – Road block by Magh on flickr CC)

Institutional Review Board (IRB)


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Humans are involved in teaching-as-research. Human

subjects ethics approval from the IRB may be required.

analyze students’ test answers

video of yourself

(no students visible)

concept test

pre- and post-

middle of term survey

(eg, keep quit start KQS)

collect gender, ethnic,

socioeconomic data

video with identifiable

features of students

students’ other

classes, majors

survey

monkey

protection of privacy

Institutional Review Board (IRB)


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irb.ucsd.edu

irb.ucsd.edu/Exemption_fact_sheet.pdf

www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/checklists/decisioncharts.html

Play it safe…


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If you’re considering a teaching-as-research project,

consult with the Institution’s research ethics people.

Inform your Department Chair but don’t proceed only on

his/her approval – likely untrained in human-subjects

research ethics

Think carefully about an experiment that puts any

student(s) at a disadvantage – if it’s known an

instructional strategy works, you can’t (ethically) remove

that strategy from your instruction.

Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars will have an opportunity to

perform teaching-as-research in their Summer Session courses.

Success in an Educational Career

Education as PART of your career

Academic at Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI)

What if I want to do research in “education” in my field

What is needed/valued for promotion at PUIs

Grants in DBER (discipline-based education research)

Academic at (more) R1-type institutions

Can I afford to “do well” at teaching

Broader Impact in research grants


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Overview: Types of Institutions

Primarily Undergrad Institutions

3 courses per term

Variety of courses

Hired to replace someone else

Research REQUIRED – how will you involve undergrads?

More research-focused institutions

1 course per term?

Teaching well a “plus” (not enough to overcome not meeting research expectations)

AAU and PCAST initiatives


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TAR for Beth has been

Studies of pre-conceptions of computing students

Studies of Peer Instruction and student learning,

retention, experience

Studies of assessments/exams

Studies of new software developers in industry

Studies of debugging

Studies of educational technology (Tablet PCs –

Ubiquitous Presenter)


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Who funds TAR?

NSF alone

TUES in Dept of Undergrad Education

(Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM)

Get advice before you write your first one

Go to a workshop on how to review NSF proposals

NSF and NIH as “broader impact”

Go to a workshop on how to review NSF proposals

Ask your Center for Teaching for help on the BI component

Ask on CIRTL alum network

Partner with someone active in DBER at a PUI (fellow grad,

local institution)


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Succeeding as an Educator:

Practicalities

Getting started (your first class)

Spend time early – reap benefits

Don’t: “I’ll START with lecture, then switch”

You won’t (who has time to invest twice)

Better to make mistakes early (show improvement!)

Literature supports you! (see AAU and PCAST reports

later)


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Practicalities

Center for Teaching…

Get all lecture materials (including exams) from

someone at YOUR institution

Faculty Learning Communities

Commitment to year-long project

Build connections – do this early – year 1!

(saves immense amount of work and stress)

New Physics and Astronomy Workshop (your dept

chair applies for you)

Both R1 and PUI…

Know any others? collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

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Practicalities

When you start to get jaded/when your colleague says, “Students these days…”

So did Plato…

But society seems to have improved…

“Students don’t learn the way they used to…”

Learning Styles: Debunked

See excellent review of learning styles vs “multiple intelligences” at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/16/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-are-not-learning-styles/


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Practicalities

Reflective Teaching: Your promotion and tenure file

Teaching Philosophy… but practical

Review of courses you have taught

Identify what you did (provide examples)

Identify/document impacts

Identify what worked

Identify SOMETHING to improve (we aren’t perfect until

we’re dead)


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Questions!!!!


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Final Project:

Microteaching Experience

Microteaching: Create a lesson


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You’re NOT going to teach it. Instead, you’re going to

talk about it with your colleagues. Why?

teaching is only 1 part of a complete lesson: planning,

writing, before class, teaching, after class,…

I don’t want you “spend hours perfecting the visuals

[while] the content is very weak” (from Week 5:

Assessment)

feedback on entire lesson plan

practice talking about teaching with colleagues

Microteaching lesson


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1. learning outcomes

2. pre-reading assignment

3. pre-reading quiz

4. lesson outline

5. suggestions for assessment

Between December 9 -13, we’ll meet in small groups and you’ll talk for 10 minutes about your lesson.

Check the College Classroom blog for all the details of what to include and to schedule your presentation.

After your microteaching presentation…


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1. You’ll be asked to complete a surveymonkey survey

that both gives us feedback about TCC and assesses

(roughly) your grasp of the content.

2. When that’s complete, you’ll receive a Certificate of

Participation with a description of the course you

can put in your CV, teaching statement, etc.

References


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1. Lambert, M. (2012). A Beginner's Guide to Doing Your Education Research Project. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc. via Tomorrow’s Professor cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1233

2. Deslauriers, L., Schelew, E., & Wieman, C. (2011). Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class. Science, 332, 603, 862-864. DOI: 10.1126/science.1201783

3. Ding, L., Chabay, R., Sherwood, B., & Beichner, R. (2006). Evaluating an electricity and magnetism assessment tool: Brief electricity and magnetism assessment (BEMA). Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010105.

4. Adams, W.K., Perkins, K.K., Podolefsky, N.S., Dubson, M., Finkelstein, N.D., & Wieman, C.E. (2006) A new instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS). Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010101.

5. Simon, B., & Taylor, J. (2009). What is the Value of Course-Specific Learning Goals? Journal of College Science Teaching, 39, 2, 52-57.

6. Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (2010) Teaching as Research. www.cirtl.net/CoreIdeas/teaching_as_research

the college classroom week 10: teaching as research

Education

institutional review board

specific learning goals

learning objectives

cirtl network

improved learning

learning styles

student learning

conceptual steps