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Rethinking Course Design
Barbara Tewksbury, Hamilton [email protected]
A Practical Strategy for Designing Effective and Innovative Courses
Could start this session by trying to develop list of topics for your course
Misses the real point of an effective course Focus should not be on exposing
students to topics.Focus should be on developing
students’ abilities to solve problems in the discipline and apply what they have learned to future tasks.
Designing a course
Setting course goals
What do we want students to be able to do when they are finished with the course?
What value have we added to their future abilities as a result of having taken the course?
Why build a course around goals for students?
Teaching is commonly viewed as being teacher-centered.
Reinforced by the teaching evaluation process
Commonly reinforced by how we think of our courses: “I want to expose my students to….” or “I want to teach my students about…” or “I want to show students that…”
Why build a course around goals for students?
“It dawned on me about two weeks into the first year that it was not teaching that was taking place in the classroom, but learning.”
Pop star Sting, reflecting uponhis early career as a teacher
We can’t do a student’s learning for him/her
Exposure does not guarantee learning
Students learn when they are actively engaged in practice, application, and problem-solving (NRC How People Learn).
Why build a course around goals for students?
Setting course goals
Answering the question, “What do I want my students to be able to do” is crucial.
A course should give students first hand experience in what we want them to be able to do when they are done with our courses.
If you want students to be good at something, they must practice; therefore goals drive both course design and assessment.
The difference that student-focused goals make
Example from an art history courseSurvey of art from a particular period
Vs.Enabling students to go to an art museum
and evaluate technique of an unfamiliar work or evaluate an unfamiliar work in its historical context or evaluate a work in the context of a particular artistic genre/school/style
The difference that student-focused goals make
Example from a bio courseSurvey of topics in general biology
Vs.Enabling students to evaluate claims in the
popular press or seek out and evaluate information or make informed decisions about issues involving genetically-engineered crops, stem cells, DNA testing, HIV AIDS, etc.
The difference that student-focused goals make
Example from an intro geo courseSurvey of geologic processes and hazards
Vs.Enabling students to make informed decisions
about where to purchase property and defend those decisions with evidence or analyze the underlying influence on human events (history, pre-history, international relations, culture) or evaluate a local issue with geologic underpinnings and make an informed decision for community action or read a news report about a geologic event, find additional reliable information, and evaluate the accuracy of the news report.
Changing the focus
What sorts of things do you do simply because you are a professional in your discipline??I use the geologic record to reconstruct the
past and to predict the future.I look at houses on floodplains, and
wonder how people could be so stupidI hear the latest news from Mars and say,
well that must mean that….
What do you do??
Physicist: predict outcomes based on calculations from physics principles
Art historian: assess works of artHistorian: interpret historical account
in light of the source of informationEnglish prof: critical reading of
prose/poetry
Task: What do you do?
Your course should enable your students, at appropriate level, to do what you do in your discipline, not just expose them to what you know.
Start by answering the questionWhat do you do in your discipline?Alternatively, what is unique about your
world view/the view of your discipline?
Establishing goals for your students
More than having students gain a strong background
We’ll answer the question what do I want my students to be able to do??Students will use their strong background
in order to ____
rather than justStudents will have a strong background in
____
Goals involving lowerorder thinking skills
Knowledge, comprehension, application
explain
describe
paraphrase
list
identify
recognize
calculate
mix
prepare
Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students will be able to:List the major features of the different types of
plate boundariesIdentify common rocks and mineralsRecognize examples of erosional and
depositional glacial landforms on a topo mapCite examples of poor land use practiceExplain the difference between raster and
vector data setsCalculate standard deviation for a set of data
Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students will be able to:Compare and contrast the carbon cycle and
the hydrologic cycleDiscuss the influence of temperature and
pressure on rock rheologyDescribe how seismic waves provide
information about the Earth’s interior, and give an illustrative example
Explain how LiDAR can be used to detect prior incidents of mass movement and give examples
While some of these goals involve a deeper level of knowledge and understanding than others, they largely require students to reiterate.
Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills
Goals involving higherorder thinking skills
Analysis, synthesis, evaluation, some types of application
predict
interpret
evaluate
derive
design
formulate
analyze
synthesize
create
Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students will be able to:Analyze an unfamiliar natural disaster (which is
different form recalling those covered in class)Evaluate the geological context of an unfamiliar
event.Use data from recent Mars missions to re-
evaluate pre-2004 hypotheses about Mars geologic processes and history/evolution
Interpret subsurface structure from map and field data.
Frame a hypothesis and formulate a research plan.
Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills
At the end of this course, students will be able to:Make an informed decision about a
controversial topic, other than those covered in class, involving hydrogeologic issues.
Collect and analyze data in order to ___Design models of ___Solve unfamiliar problems in ____ Find and evaluate information/data on ____Predict the outcome of ____
Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills
What makes these goals different from the previous set is that they are analytical, rather than reiterative.
Focus is on new and different situations.
Emphasis is on transitive nature of skills, abilities, knowledge, and understanding – important for the future
Why are goals important?
If you want students to be good at something, they must practice
Goals should therefore drive both course design and assessment.
What kind of goals to establish?
Higher order or lower order thinking skills?
Measurable or not?Abstract or concrete goals?
We’ll choose goals involving higher order thinking skills
Goals involving lower order thinking skills are imbedded in ones involving higher order thinking skills“being able to interpret tectonic settings
based on information on physiography, seismicity, and volcanic activity” has imbedded in it many learning outcomes involving lower order thinking skills
We’ll choose concrete goals with measurable outcomes
Clearer path to designing a course when goals are stated as specific, observable actions that students should be able to perform if they have mastered the content and skills of a course.Students will able to interpret unfamiliar tectonic
settings based on information on physiography, volcanic activity, and seismicity.
Vs.Students will understand plate tectonics.
Or (worse)Students will learn about plate tectonics.
OrStudents will develop a strong background in….
We’ll set concrete goals rather than abstract goals
Abstract goals are laudable but difficult to assess directly and difficult translate into practical course designI want students to appreciate the
complexity of Earth systems.I want students to think like scientists.
Do these goals meet our criteria?(student-focused, higher order, measurable, concrete not abstract)
The course will show students that geology is relevant to everyone’s lives.
Students will develop a strong background in… Students will know about Earth systems. Students will learn that statistics can be
manipulated and misleading. Students will understand that global warming is a
complex issue. Students will think like scientists. Students will design age-appropriate lesson plans
consistent with research in cognitive development & geoscience education best practice..
Your task: write at least 1 goal for the students in a course
The goals are the underpinning of your course and serve as the basis for developing activities.
1-3 primary goals is ideal - if you have 5, 10, or more, you’re at the task level, not the course level.
There is no one right set of primary goals for a particular course.
Heed the guidelines!
Student-focused (“Students will be able to….”)
Higher order (use verbs such as interpret, solve, predict, analyze, synthesize, construct, design, evaluate, formulate)
Concrete (avoid “appreciate”)Measurable (avoid “understand”)Focus on preparing them for the future,
not just for the final exam
Designing a course around goals
Not fair or effective to teach them about related topics during the semester and then ask them to pull it all together at the end
Students need practice to build their abilities relative to the goal, not just their knowledge base
What students practice must match what we would like them to be good at
What do students need practice in?Example: students will be able to
evaluate the geologic hazards in a region, make an informed judgment about land use, and incorporate what they have learned in other courses into that judgment.Finding, evaluating, and teaching themselves new
informationApplying what they know to make informed
judgmentsReflecting on how their thinking/learning has changedArticulating future plans/intentions
Last two – can’t just hope that students notice…..
Brainstorming
What kind of practice could you thread throughout the course (not just one sidecar module or single culminating project) that helps students make progress toward the goal?
What could you integrate that will help students evaluate progress in their abilities toward the goal?
17 years of course design workshops; now part of NSF-funded On the Cutting Edge program (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops)
Available as an online tutorialhttp://serc.carleton.edu/
NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html