CLASSROOM RESEARCH AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: THREE SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES‐INVOLVEMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY

The teaching‐learning paradigm that is experientially student‐centered was integrated into the original curriculum development of psychology at Collin County Community College. As a result of the emphasis on active learning from the department's inception, the administration and faculty have been able to observe, ask, review, and evaluate the experiential approach. Based on the data from these sources as well as national research, there appears to be a strong indication that indeed students do learn, grow, persist, and enjoy higher education more when they are actively involved in the learning process.

There are four elements that the department has employed to try to achieve student involvement: a laboratory component, extensive writing to learn, classroom research, and business/industrial linkages through internships. These four elements are inseparable in our educational process as the laboratory and internships require written reports, and the written assignments demonstrate the student's ability to communicate knowledge, understand method of inquiry, and give feedback on the learning process. Two courses, General Psychology and Life‐span Psychology are detailed in the article.

Evaluations conducted over the past three years are included which show active participation by the student in the learning process does promote synthesis and integration of theoretical knowledge as well as promoting the opportunity for students to think critically, creatively, and apply the knowledge to their own lives.     

Consequences of Project Organisation in Graduate Education

It is a common assumption that disciplinary differences in the organisation of research and knowledge structure have implications for graduate students' learning processes. The present study indicates, however, that even though the inclusion of master's degree students in faculty member's research projects are much more common in the natural sciences than in the humanities and the social sciences, such projects improve quality and effectiveness of graduate education in all fields of learning. Disciplinary differences imply, nevertheless, that projects should be organised differently. Graduate education in the humanities and the social sciences should be organised as research seminars and umbrella projects of individual student theses to a greater extent, rather than trying to apply a research organisation model developed in laboratory fields.     

Assessing the integration of audience response system technology in teaching of anatomical sciences

The goals of our study were to determine the predictive value and usability of an audience response system (ARS) as a knowledge assessment tool in an undergraduate medical curriculum. Over a three year period (2006–2008), data were collected from first year didactic blocks in Genetics/Histology and Anatomy/Radiology (n = 42–50 per class). During each block, students answered clinically oriented multiple choice questions using the ARS. Students' performances were recorded and cumulative ARS scores were compared with final examination performances. Correlation coefficients between these variables were calculated to assess the existence and direction of an association between ARS and final examination score. If associations existed, univariate models were then constructed using ARS as a predictor of final examination score. Student and faculty perception of ARS difficulty, usefulness, effect on performance, and preferred use were evaluated using a questionnaire. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between ARS and final examination scores in all didactic blocks and predictive univariate models were constructed for each relationship (all P < 0.0001). Students and faculty agreed that ARS was easy to use and a reliable tool for providing real‐time feedback that improved their performance and participation. In conclusion, we found ARS to be an effective assessment tool benefiting the faculty and the students in a curriculum focused on interaction and self‐directed learning. Anat Sci Educ 2:160–166. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Disciplinary Differences and the Integration of Technology into Teaching

ABSTRACT

The preparation of teachers involves academics from across the disciplinary spectrum but research on the differences between academic disciplines has revealed that a faculty member's discipline is a major factor in shaping the several aspects of course planning and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to present a model for investigating disciplinary differences as they may relate to teaching with technology, thereby enabling more effective integration of technology into the curriculum. Components of the model include: the structure and ethos of the discipline; preparation for, and experience as, a teacher; faculty assumptions about students; faculty beliefs and perceptions about technology; and the environmental context.     

Teaching Holistically to Achieve Deep Learning

Abstract

The article examines students' perceptions of student evaluations of teaching and compares them to faculty perceptions on several dimensions. Findings indicate students were much less likely to agree that SET encourage faculty to grade more leniently, that they have an influence on a faculty member's career, or that they lead to changes in courses and/or teaching styles. Faculty members believed that students rate easy, entertaining instructors more highly. Includes suggestions for change and future research directions.     

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL ROLE RESEARCH FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The authors present a rationale for using social roles as the basis for improving the community college institution through curriculum development, faculty and student services improvement, and institutional enhancement. The construct social role is defined as a pattern of behaviors and attitudes related to a specific function or position as expected by society. Havighurst's original social role concept provides background information for the current research project. This research attempted to revitalize Havighurst's social role theory within a contemporary context. Toward this end, data were collected from 300 adults. The data collection methods controlled for an equal number of respondents grouped by age, gender, and SES level. The implications for the community college and its primary mission were presented in the areas of curriculum development, and faculty and student services, as well as implications for the community college as an institution.     

Beyond the comfort zone: A curriculum and assessment “immersion” experience in graduate early childhood teacher education

Abstract

A graduate course in Early Childhood Education assessment which combines coursework and a practicum with young children is designed and implemented using constructivist principles and practice. Teacher education is more effective when field work and coursework are combined, and when students are able to apply what they learn in class to real life experiences with young children [Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 21 (1) (2000) 65], learning is enhanced. This course was constructed in a way that incorporated theory, application, reflection, and reconstruction, allowing students an opportunity to rethink their teaching practice through the experience of an early childhood practicum. The key components of the model — the components that are thought to most effectively help students to apply theory to practice, change some of their ways of thinking about teaching and learning are the following: the relationship of the coursework to the setting, continuity from previous courses, the laboratory school environment, the intensive faculty involvement, the co‐constructivist, collaborative nature of the faculty team, the collaborative nature of student work, the use of the three curriculum models, the use of embedded assessment, formative nature of the assessment, informed teaching (on‐going use of student feedback), the tools provided to student that assist in the process, and the practical hands‐on assessment techniques.

Changing students’ ways of thinking about the teaching, learning and assessment process is considered a vital part of the course. [Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 17(1) (Marshall, 1996) 43] has identified constructivist principles to guide teacher education. She believes that students must experience first‐hand those behaviors that she hopes they would exhibit in their own teaching (Rand, 1999, p. 126). It is through the processes of the course that graduate students are challenged to experience the implementation of emergent curriculum, examine their own beliefs in relation to their practice, articulate why they do what they do and see how classroom assessment strategies help to support meaningful teaching and learning. Furthermore, collaborative practice is considered an important factor that encourages and facilitates reflection, supports a more multi‐dimensional view of teaching and assessing young children, and enables students to listen and observe more effectively and look for the impact of children making choices. Through participation in this course, students became more aware of the impact their view of children and respect for children has on their ability to implement effective and appropriate assessment practices in the classroom. Students gained more of a conceptual understanding of the role of assessment in informed teaching, and were better able to meet individual children's instructional needs.

Finlly, students learned how to use tools inquiry, collaboration and reflection that are likely to assist them in future personal professional growth.     

Representing students' thinking about nutrient cycling in ecosystems: bidimensional coding of a complex topic

This study addresses the question of how to represent students' thinking about a complex topic in a way that is most useful to guide curriculum development, instructional decisions, and assessment of student learning. The development of a coding scheme that represents students' ideas along two dimensions, compatibility with expert propositions and elaboration of ideas, is described and applied to the analysis of interviews with four pairs of urban fifth- and sixth-grade students. Results indicate that decomposition is a linchpin concept for building an understanding of nutrient cycling, and that ideas which relate to children's natural framework theories provide a generative foundation for further learning. Finally, it is suggested that the elaboration dimension of the bidimensional coding scheme provides an indication of students' possession of valuable scientific habits of mind. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Learning Neuroscience: An Interactive Case-Based Online Network (ICON)

We have developed an interactive case-based online network (ICON) that provides a new learning environment and integrates the student's thinking across the different concentration tracks of one of Harvard's interfaculty science initiatives. ICON takes advantage of this cross-disciplinary, undergraduate curriculum as a model system to bring a compelling, integrative focus to bear on reshaping how Harvard students learn neuroscience. ICON contains 9 learning modules specific to each case: Case, Working Papers, Blackboard, Neuroimaging, Research Programs and Trials, Decision Tree, Learning Objectives, Virtual Contact, and Brainstorm. Modules allow the student to get away from interpreting vast amounts of available information, move toward selecting useful information, recognize discriminating findings, and build a conceptual understanding of real and meaningful problems in neuroscience. The result is that ICON introduces a new landscape within the academic curriculum where the active participation of faculty and students effectively intersects and captures an immediate, integrative learning experience for the student. The benchmark of ICON is the time spent by students and faculty to create a user-defined learning network that engages faculty to participate in the students' learning and transforms the way the student thinks.     

An Experiential Approach to Benchmarking Curriculum

Continuous curriculum improvement derives from a variety of perspectives, opportunities, and approaches. In this brief, we describe a process that facilitated student participation in curriculum development. We took our Supply Chain Management students to a regional conference affiliated with APICS and had them assess their knowledge readiness compared to professional standards. We used these data to identify our curriculum's strengths and weaknesses and to encourage faculty collaboration to adjust it accordingly. Our approach can be generalized to any academic discipline.     

学生参与课程变革探析

长期以来,学生的声音在课程变革中被严重忽视,这既不利于学生的发展,而且会极大影响课程变革的进程。事实上,学生具有参与课程变革的能力。基于对传统课程变革模式的反思,学生参与课程变革成为诸多课程学者共同关注的话题。为有效实现学生参与课程变革,可从转变观念、把握参与限度、畅通参与渠道、加强机制建设等几个方面做出实质性的努力。     

Renewing the Core Curriculum

The core curriculum accompanied the development of the academic discipline with multiple names such as Kinesiology, Exercise and Sport Science, and Health and Human Performance. It provides commonalties for undergraduate majors. It is timely to renew this curriculum. Renewal involves strategic reappraisals. It may stimulate change or reaffirm the status quo. Renewal of the core curriculum might include a retrospective analysis of conflicts and differences accompanying the academic discipline's development. These conflicts and differences remain salient today. They invite unified frameworks in substitution for the oft-divisive concepts of discipline and profession. The core curriculum can be linked to faculty identities, interests, and careers. Consequently, the preparation, career aspirations, and knowledge orientations of faculty merit consideration in the renewal process. Other renewal priorities include the curriculum's theory of learning as well as research on its outcomes and impacts.     

A model for using a concept inventory as a tool for students' assessment and faculty professional development

This essay describes how the use of a concept inventory has enhanced professional development and curriculum reform efforts of a faculty teaching community. The Host Pathogen Interactions (HPI) teaching team is composed of research and teaching faculty with expertise in HPI who share the goal of improving the learning experience of students in nine linked undergraduate microbiology courses. To support evidence-based curriculum reform, we administered our HPI Concept Inventory as a pre- and postsurvey to approximately 400 students each year since 2006. The resulting data include student scores as well as their open-ended explanations for distractor choices. The data have enabled us to address curriculum reform goals of 1) reconciling student learning with our expectations, 2) correlating student learning with background variables, 3) understanding student learning across institutions, 4) measuring the effect of teaching techniques on student learning, and 5) demonstrating how our courses collectively form a learning progression. The analysis of the concept inventory data has anchored and deepened the team's discussions of student learning. Reading and discussing students' responses revealed the gap between our understanding and the students' understanding. We provide evidence to support the concept inventory as a tool for assessing student understanding of HPI concepts and faculty development.     

The Computer and the College Curriculum

Using a sample of 751 undergraduate students and 85 of their faculty, the author examined the extent of faculty-student differences in their priorities placed on eight learning goals. The findings show that students placed significantly more importance on career preparation, scientific reasoning, personal development, and art and cultural appreciation and that faculty placed significantly more importance on critical thinking and mastery of discipline content. Students and their faculty did not differ significantly on the priorities they placed on basic academic skills, citizenship, and values. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of curriculum development and an increasing belief that student development and learning are improved when curricula assess and incorporate students' goals and priorities.     

学生话语的内涵和重要性:课程与教学的转向

新课程改革背景下,不断强调学生的主体性和参与性的重要性,因此倾听学生的话语变得越来越必要。但当前,学生话语在课程改革与课堂教学实践中处于"失语"的状态,学生的话语权严重缺失。因此,学生作为学习的主体,应该让他们积极参与到课程与教学的实践中来,促使传统的课程改革与课堂教学实践发生新的转向,最终促进学生的发展。     

In-Service Improvement of Teaching

We examine the validity of peer observation of classroom instruction for purposes of faculty evaluation. Using both a multi-section course sample and a sample of different courses across a university's School of Business and Economics we find that the results of annual classroom observations of faculty teaching are significantly and positively correlated with student learning outcome assessment measures. This finding supports the validity of classroom observation as an assessment of teaching effectiveness. The research also indicates that student ratings of teaching effectiveness (SETEs) were less effective at measuring student learning than annual classroom observations by peers.     

学生参与课程变革探析

长期以来,学生的声音在课程变革中被严重忽视,这既不利于学生的发展,而且会极大影响课程变革的进程。事实上,学生具有参与课程变革的能力。基于对传统课程变革模式的反思,学生参与课程变革成为诸多课程学者共同关注的话题。为有效实现学生参与课程变革,可从转变观念、把握参与限度、畅通参与渠道、加强机制建设等几个方面做出实质性的努力。     

Learning Plans

Abstract

Learning plans are essential tools for field education. The development of a learning plan invests the student in the learning process by encouraging ownership. It alsoserves as a model to help students understand the contracting process used when engaging clients. A well thought out learning plan assures accountability and avoids problemsthat may arise resulting from unclear field expectations. Yet, many students and field instructors have difficulty in developing meaningful plans that truly relate to the social work educational experience. This paper provides a framework for developing a learning plan that includes an overview of the student, faculty advisor, and field instructor's roles and the process utilized. Working from broad comprehensive learning goals, cognitive and affective objectives are developed. This leads to specified tasks and evaluative standards. A sample format is presented to further assist students, faculty advisors, and field instructors to develop useful, instructive, and evaluative learning plans.     

Enhancing Student Performance Using Tablet Computers

Tablet PCs have the potential to change the dynamics of classroom interaction through wireless communication coupled with pen-based computing technology that is suited for analyzing and solving engineering problems. This study focuses on how tablet PCs and wireless technology can be used during classroom instruction to create an Interactive Learning Network (ILN) that is designed to enhance the instructor's ability to solicit active participation from all students during lectures, to conduct immediate and meaningful assessment of student learning, and to provide needed real-time feedback and assistance to maximize student learning. This interactive classroom environment is created using wireless tablet PCs and a software application, NetSupport School. Results from two separate controlled studies of the implementation of this model of teaching and learning in a sophomore-level Introductory Circuit Analysis course show a statistically significant positive impact on student performance. Additionally, results of student surveys show overwhelmingly positive student perception of the effects of this classroom environment on their learning experience. These results indicate that the interactive classroom environment developed using wireless tablet PCs has the potential to be a more effective teaching pedagogy in problem-solving intensive courses compared with traditional instructor-centered teaching environments.