Incorporating Tools for Practicing Thinking, Learning, and Teamwork

Rationale for incorporating thinking, learning, and teamwork as part of teaching content

Content is essential once you, usually working as part of a team, have thought through the issue at hand using a methodology you have evolved that works for you.

Thinking, learning, and teamwork require repetitive practice using the same methods until you get good enough at to evolve your own methods.

Practicing a skill requires repetition of the same technique until mastered well and “personalized.”

(Critical/systems) thinking and teamwork are the two abilities most desired and sought by employers.

Systems thinking and teamwork are essentials abilities for the practice of public health. Critical thinking is essential for further graduate or professional education. Integration of critical thinking into undergraduate curricula is part of the university’s QEP for

SACS accreditation. Learning science has uncovered a wealth of findings that traditional methods work for only a

select and small subset of students at best and that evolving, non-traditional methods work better for the majority of students.

We are social creatures and work better in groups and even better in persistent teams.

Annotated list of tools for practicing thinking, learning, and teamwork as part of teaching content

Learner-centered syllabus – Course syllabus is designed to provide everything the learner needs to be successful in the course, including clear objectives mapped to program competencies; evaluation details and rubrics; clear expectations and policies regarding class conduct, absences, late submissions, make-ups, etc.; explicit grading specifications; necessary equipment and software access; and Blackboard use and required skills.

Course question – A central question whose answer is pursued in each activity in the course.

Syllabus quiz – A short quiz in the first class that tests whether students are familiar with essential aspects, expectations, assessments, and other activities of the course.

Partnerships and teams – Self-selected, two-student partnerships for selected activities and teams of 2-4 partnerships for other selected activities.

Essentials – Listing of the essential information to be learned in a course module or unit, published at the outset of the module or unit and comprising sections presenting essential facts, theories, ideas, observations, and assumptions; essential diagrams and illustrations, and essential concepts (aka Fundamental and Powerful Concepts (F&PCs))

Frequent student evaluations using multiple techniques – Learning science shows that learning (and studying) is more effective when done frequently over an extended period of time; so does assessment of learning.

Student evaluations with rubrics using selected intellectual standards – Rubrics provide explicit evaluation standards; using selected intellectual standards in the rubrics gets students to aim for clarity, accuracy, relevance, significance, completeness, and logic, for example, in written work rather than focusing on right-or-wrong, which is reserved for factual assessments in tests and quizzes.

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Just-in-time-teaching experience (JITTE) – A JITTE is a short survey/quiz taken in Blackboard the day before a class (best in afternoon and night before midnight) that assesses the level of understanding and familiarity with the content in the next day’s class; powerful electronic tools are available that facilitate development and implementing, analyzing and graphing the results, and scoring, which can be done either on a participation only basis, close or correct answers, or a combination of the two. Experience in PHUN-101 suggests the latter works best split 50-50.

Reading quiz – Students are used to traditional teaching methods that don’t penalize them for not preparing for class by reading assigned material and instead waiting until just before one of the two to four tests. This technique does not facilitate learning, just getting grades. A reading quiz is 3-5 questions using iClickers at the start of class that can only be answered correctly by having read the material or lucky guessing. Students have 30 seconds to answer, after which the answer is revealed without discussion, resulting in about 40 seconds per question. The iClicker technology makes grading simple when combined with a straightforward Excel worksheet.

iClicker class participation – During class, questions can be posed for answering with iClickers; the questions can be based on the class JITTE, opinions to pursue, or anything else. Again the iClicker technology makes assigning class participation credit simple. I have also used iClickers to survey the class about whether an item just covered is understood by them.

Think-pair-share activity – An activity in which an issue or question is posed, followed by a short period of time (1 minute is usually enough; 2 minutes is worth doing occasionally just for all to see how long it really is), followed by a short period of time for two students to pair up to discuss each other’s thoughts, and finally a discussion for the individuals and pairs to share their thoughts.

List of randomly selected student names generated by simple spreadsheet – Lists are generated for the classes in a module or unit and used to stimulate class discussions when students are passive. Works best when students know the list exists and that they might be called on.

Flipped classroom – I am experimenting with this starting next week for scenario analyses. Student partnership or teams watch video lectures or collect information on a topic outside of class, then in class work on their homework assignment, interacting with the instructor on a one-on-one basis. This seems to work best with quantitative and other well-defined topics, such as biostatistics, epidemiology, and policy and scenario analysis. Warning: I have bee strongly advised that this technique is effort-intensive on the part of the instructor by someone who uses and embraces it.

Socratic dialog – Form of class discussion in which the instructors provides a next question or observation to advance the discussion and has to wing it since one never knows where it will go. An excellent technique that takes lots of practice and patience by the instructor. I’m a rank beginner but working on it since it’s especially productive with qualitative material.

Class analysis (CA) – At the end of class, each student writes (using a form) his or her answer to the question “What is the most important point on the module’s topic you learned in class today?” He or she then trades papers with another student (ideally his or her partner if present) who scores the other’s initial answer (using intellectual standards of clarity, accuracy, relevance, and significance) and the two discuss how to improve each other’s answers. Each than may choose to revise his or her answer. Students are assessed on their final answers, their assessments of their partners’ initial answer, and their partners’ final answers.

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State-elaborate-exemplify-illustrate analysis of a concept (SEE-I) – A very successful technique for students to analyze a concept (usually from Essentials) by doing just what its name says: state the meaning or definition of the concept, elaborate on the concept (“In other words, ….”), exemplify the concept (“For example, ….”), and illustrate the concept by analogy (“{concept} is like ….”). Can be done by individuals or partnerships; teams are more complicated. Assessed using intellectual standards of clarity, accuracy, and logic, for example. Submitted in Blackboard using a Word form or OpenOffice template (not best).

Concept map (Cmap) – Free software by one of the originators of concept maps (Novack) is very powerful in enabling students to build maps linking essential and other concepts that they analyzed with SEE-Is. Students are given a well-defined starting point, such as the list of concepts and linking phrases that need to be used, with extra-credit opportunities to add additional concepts (with penalties for implausibility). We have developed an effective Excel tool for scoring Cmaps by comparing the students’ Cmaps with the instructor’s benchmark. The tool recognizes unexpected propositions and asks whether each is plausible or not, and finishes by generating a report for the student giving the score and identifying issues.

Presentation/article analysis (PA) – An instructor presentation (yes, these remain a valuable technique unless overused) or article is analyzed using a form and outline adapted from Paul and Elder’s elements of thought. Best done as individuals but can use option of having the partner critique prior to submission and assign part of a student’s score on his or her partner’s score. Assessed using selected intellectual standards.

Readiness assessment test (RAT) – Modification of Michaelsen’s team-learning RAT done at the outset of a module by doing the RAT at the end to make sure the class is ready to move on to the next module. The rest is the same as Michalsen’s: multiple-choice test first done by each individual student, answer sheet handed in, then same test is done by each team. Scoring is 50-50. I’ve found additional learning occurs with a RAT review immediately following the RAT with an iClicker assessment by the students of the question and answer (e.g., confusing, other answer is correct, etc.) with discussion ensuing.

Scenario analysis (SA) – Students or partnerships are presented with a public health scenario that they are to analyze and draw conclusions or make recommendations. Done using a Word form following each of Palu and Elder’s elements of thought. Graded using intellectual standards that are more extensive than for any other activity.

Attention-resetting activity – The attention span of a student ranges from 7 to 14 minutes, after which he or she is no longer actively engaged. The solution I use is to in early classes is to stage an attention-resetting action that can be having them stand up and shake hands with someone more than 4 paces away, asking them to reseat themselves in a mirror image of where they are now, suddenly raising my voice in a sing-song fashion, falling off the stage or just down if no stage available, etc. After a few of these, the students seem to be waiting for something to happen and are inadvertently attentive.

Excel gradebook – Blackboard is not well-suited for anything much beyond simple grade calculations. With activities like JITTEs, CAs, and iClicker class participation, grading needs to be more flexible to not penalize students for missing a class or two. I have developed an effective Excel gradebook that, when combined with TA scoring on entry spreadsheets, works quite well for all of the scored activities above (and others). The gradebook includes tracking missing assignments, facilitating uploading scores to Blackboard, a darg-and-drop calendar for setting up

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the course schedule (that also sets up the gradebook), and a tool for making sure the scores in Blackboard and the gradebook are synchronized.

Interactive course and module calendars – I write in HTML and JavaScript almost as readily as I write in English and have taken to developing interactive calendars integrated with Blackboard. The calendar lays out the module or course as a calendar, listing in each day what, going on in the course and what is due for submission or action. Each is selectable and links them to the class, topic, JITTE, reading, or assignment, for example. For assignments and RATS, the calendar also gives the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the assignment is due or the RAT begins. I started this because there is no search function in Blackboard, resulting in the students’ having to intuit my menu-ing approach. The calendar has almost everything a student would want to search for. It’s easy and students prefer to use it. I don’t yet have a tool for generating a calendar. I argue with myself whether this is coddling but have decided ti’s close but not quite since it seems to improve attention to deliverables and preparation. No studies yet, however.

Plans for related tools in undergraduate program

Blackboard organization for students in the program for coordinating, notifying, informing, and communicating both with instructors and staff and among themselves. Each student has a Blackboard group just for him or her that is private from other students and can be used to communicate with the program, blog, etc. without concern.

Program calendars – see above. Electronic, online programs of study TA grading/scoring support Others as the needs arise

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