Mastering in first year Biology courses

Claire Masson Mandy Harper

Gail ForbesAllen

Dr. David Pritchard M.I.T.

For Students, One-on-One tutoring

• 24/7 availability• Hints (Socratic Method)• Personalized feedback

Mastery Learning

Optional Hints

Declarative Hint

Many Hints are Socratic; emulating the Expert / Novice

experience

For Teachers, Harness Student Data

• Diagnostics at-a-glance

• Student & class-level learning audit

• Time & difficulty calibrated content

Two-Way Learning

“Law of Conservation of Energy”• Most difficult• Most time-consuming• Lowest average score

What did my students misunderstand?

Diagnostics @ Assignment Level

Diagnostics @ Class Level50% of the Class made a physics error and received coaching tip;

another 50% made a trig error and received a different piece of advice

Diagnostics at Student Level

See Time Stamp

Review wrong answer attempts with coaching advice

Diagnostics at Class Level

Compare My Class to System Avg: time and difficulty

Click on Title to see more info

Starting life at uni Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to great places!

You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

Any direction you choose.

Out there things can happenAnd frequently doTo people as brainyAnd footsy as you.And when things start to happen,don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along.You’ll start happening too.

Catching them is one thing, supporting students in their learning to succeed at university is something else

• they enter an environment with minimal constraints

• represent a more diverse group than ever before• variables in the personal, social and academic

domains

What is required for transition to uni?

• first year students need – to demonstrate the characteristics of self-directed

learners– self-motivation – individual effort– academic preparedness (prior knowledge)

and frustratingThe sad ^ reality for many students.....

I’m sorry to say sobut, sadly, it’s truethat Bang-ups and Hang-ups

can happen to you

You can get so confused...and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,headed....toward a most useless place.The Waiting Place. . .

First year student engagement in higher education is changing....Or why do they end up in The Waiting Place

• Increased levels of employment while studying.

• Large classes (reduced funding encouraging massification).

• Less formal contact time with access to course materials online

• Deficient prior knowledge• Students have different strategies

Ideal learning behaviour.....

External Events

Sensory Memory Register Working Memory Long Term

Memory

Perception

Attention

Retrieve

Learning

Selection Organisation Integration

Information processing model

Richard Hamilton, FoEd, UoA

How ?. . . Enhancing Meaningful Learning

Selection strategies – activate relevant priorknowledge by identifying most importantinformation

– Review objectives, summaries– Read assigned reading– Be alert to lecturers signals e.g., coming back to idea

or relating to other ideas

Organisational strategies – create meaningfulunits of information

– Create outlines– Create concept maps– Identifying similarities/ differences

Integration strategies – make the information meaningful and memorable by creating links with prior knowledge / or modify existing knowledge.– Question new information– Think about and answer questions– Think about implications– Generate own examples

Students struggle to develop these skills as they need to actively engage with the lecture material / curriculum

Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education:

1. Encourages contact between students and faculty 2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students3. Uses active learning techniques4. Gives prompt feedback 5. Emphasises time on task6. Communicates high expectations7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

(Chickering & Gamson, 1987, p.2)

Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education:

1. Encourages contact between students and faculty 2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students3. Uses active learning techniques4. Gives prompt feedback 5. Emphasises time on task6. Communicates high expectations7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

(Chickering & Gamson, 1987, p.2)

Focus of course redesign:• Communicate standards and expectations• Use early and continuous assessment and timely

feedback to: • monitor student progress• identify early those at risk and provide support.

• Encourage students to self-manage and self-assess

• Reward those who are succeeding• RESOURCE = Mastering Biology

– Activities, resources and grade book function

Feedback

• Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative

• From “The Power of Feedback (John Hattie and Helen Timperley)

What kind of feedback?

• Most effective feedback gives information enabling student to confirm / add to / restructure information– More effective when it provides information on

correct responses

• Less effective feedback – praise, rewards and punishment– Contains little learning related information

Feedback in the learning environment?

• Lecturing (expert) which involves imparting information and translating for understanding– (The student can answer Where am I going?)

• Students become active learners, develop time management and error detection skills– (How am I going? And Where to next?)

Mastering Bio / A & P activities can provide support

BIOSCI 101 experience• Redesign of course to include Mastering as

“homework” for preview and review• Initially optional• Design adjusted to give credit for completion (4% )• Access issues• Preliminary results include pass rate improvement• Currently designing efficacy study – lots of

questions• Other courses to undergo redesign in 2011 to

include Mastering

Students who completed MB assignments by due dates (i.e., developed regular review and practice behaviours and gained high Mastering Bio scores of 3-4 / 4), also tended to pass the course with high grades.

The survey of the 2010 cohort

• 91.2% would recommend MasteringBiology to other students

• 83.5% preferred doing their assignments in MasteringBiology than in other online systems or written homework.

• 91% said their understanding of the material in the course increased due to MasteringBiology.

Student comments• “it is a good way to learn while being lazy, kudos to

you!”

• “Mastering Bio!!! This helped me learn, because it not only helped me learn by reading information, it also aided me visually and that enabled me to understand the subject further.”

• “because it was probably what got me through the course, by motivating me to complete doable tasks by a certain date, it taught me to keep on top with class work.”

For how long did you personally use MasteringBiology?

Less than two weeks

Two weeks to one month

One to two months

Two to three months

Entire course

When did you start to use MasteringBiology?

Before the start of the course

In the first week of the course

In the second week of the course

In the third week of the course

Which is your preferred way of doing your biology assignments?

MasteringBiology

Another online system

Written homework

You’ll be on your way up!You’ll be seeing great sights!You’ll join the high flierswho soar to great heights.

Comments from Bruce Albertseditor-in-chief of Science (Jan 2009)

An outstanding education system imparts values that support good citizenship,

while empowering adults to be life-long learners and problem solvers who

make wise decisions..... Such an education system must continually evolve to

remain relevant to the interests and needs of each new generation. To achieve

these goals we will need much more emphasis on both science education and

the “science of education. ‘......

Only by collecting and analyzing data on student learning can we hope to sort

out the many variables that determine effectiveness.