Reaching Students What Research Says About Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (2015) / Chapter Skim
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3 Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching
3 Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching
Pages 53-88
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From page 53... ...
Rather, effective teaching in these disciplines involves ascertaining what students know, what they don't know, and what they think they know but do not really under stand accurately or fully. Using that information, you can help students establish a solid framework of understanding that can better support new knowledge.
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General Insights About How Students Learn Karl Wirth, a geosciences professor at Macalester College, is one of many instruc tors who have been strongly influenced by research on how people learn. In designing new instructional strategies, Wirth and others have drawn on four decades of findings from cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and related fields.
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Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 55
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they calculate and record on spreadsheets the rela- collection of exemplary teaching activities.b This tive percentages of each element remaining, as well exercise also uses a familiar analogy of sorting can as the proportion of magma remaining as a fraction dies by color as a "bridge" to help students under of the original magma. They graph the changing stand a complex concept -- a strategy consistent with composition in the layers.
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Through this process, the learner "constructs" new understanding and meaning. Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 57
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In this case, instructors will need to address inaccurate or incomplete preconceptions and guide students in reorga nizing their thinking in more fruitful ways, as discussed later in this chapter. A related idea from research on cognition emphasizes that meaningful learn ing occurs when students select, organize, and integrate information, either inde pendently or in groups, and take control of their own learning (National Research Council, 2000, 2012)
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Although relatively few students report using metacognitive strategies when studying on their own (Karpicke, Butler, and Roediger, 2009) , research suggests that students can develop metacognition over time when metacognitive strategies Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 59
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The ability to "transfer" knowledge to new contexts inside and outside the classroom helps students learn related information more quickly. Knowledge transfer is a mark of a well-educated person and an ultimate goal of education -- but it is often an elusive goal.
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Giving students complex, realistic problems can also provide them with practice in transferring their knowledge to a new situation. Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 61
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. Much in the way that children learn to talk by hearing the people around them converse or that adults acquire new skills by working alongside colleagues, students construct understanding through social interactions, such as .
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To become competent in biology, for example, students Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 63
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DBER studies have also examined the effectiveness of strategies for promoting conceptual change. This research is reviewed at length in Chapter 4 of the 2012 NRC report on DBER; the major findings are summarized below.
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With this information in hand, instructors can then help students replace or refine misconceptions and use what they already know as a framework for building a more complete and accurate understanding. As discussed in more detail in Chapter 5, scholars have designed various tools to assess students' conceptual understanding.
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that list a few of the muddiest the online Concept Warehouse system to generate points cited by students for a particular topic and a word cloud of the muddiest points.) For example, explain each one using voiceover narration and visu after a lesson on crystallographic planes -- geomet- al aids.
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5 Except where noted, the information in this example comes from an interview with David Sokoloff, July 10, 2013. Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 69
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To help students understand 70 Reaching Students
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Using Insights About out of the wayto Inform Teaching release. Learning 71 Keep hand out of the way of motion detector.
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. In geosciences, evidence on the effectiveness of instructional strategies in foster ing conceptual change is derived mostly from studies of individual courses during brief periods.
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DBER studies have identi fied the particular difficulties students experience with various aspects of problem solving. In addition, the research literature offers insights about instructional approaches that can help students develop greater expertise with problem solving.
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com identifiably different from those used by pared the diagrams of chromosomes drawn experts. Students typically focus unduly during problem solving by two groups: a group with more knowledge of meiosis and on the superficial features of a problem, chromosomes and a group with less knowl edge.
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This difference between the working backward approach of novices and the working forward approach of experts has been documented in numerous studies. In physics, for example, research has shown that expert problem solvers typically begin by considering the qualitative aspects of a problem and using that informa tion to decide on a solution strategy before taking the quantitative step of writing Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 75
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. Helping students to improve problem-solving skills Taken together, these findings suggest that it is important for science and engineer ing instructors to help students recognize the need for both a good mental model of a problem and a sound method to solve it.
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By storing information succinctly, Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 77
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Research suggests that when students construct their own representations, in addition to interpreting those produced by experts, they are often more engaged and learn better (Ainsworth, Prain, and Tytler, 2011)
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. Similarly, circles and Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 79
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tracked the processes used by undergraduate students in general and organic chemistry, as well as by graduate students and faculty members, as they drew Lewis structures. Many students, and even a few faculty members, were confused about how to draw valid Lewis structures.
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These diagrams, called cladograms, typically take the form of a tree or a ladder, or in some cases circles nested within larger circles. Biology students have trouble understanding these diagrams and translating among alternative formats that show the same set of relationships Nested Circles Tree Ladder (see, for example, Novick, Stull, and A B C D E F A B C D E F Catley, 2012)
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V ertical continuation from the top, V ertical continuation from the top only and horizontal continuation from the side The problem Student's answer The problem Student's answer General legend 6 5 4 3 2 1 Examples of incorrect attempts by students to draw a vertical cross-section of a block of Earth's crust. Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 83
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In these ways, they not only can help students develop competence with representations, but also can make sophis ticated concepts easier to understand. It is not a foregone conclusion, however, that animations and their kin enhance student learning or do a better job than does using other types of representations.
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Although the example in the following case focuses primarily on ecology, modeling will work well for any scale in biology, including the cellular level, and for other science and engineering disciplines. Using Insights About Learning to Inform Teaching 85
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(This project also included A case study about the interaction of moose and graduate students and post-docs at Michigan State gray wolves in Isle Royale National Park illustrates University, as well as faculty members at other insti- how students in an ecology course construct models tutions.) A goal of the practice-based approach to as a way to understand the relationships among instruction is to help students conceptualize and species in an ecosystem.
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Resources and Further Reading Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (National Research Council, 2012) Chapter 4: Identifying and Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding in Science and Engineering Chapter 5: Problem Solving, Spatial Thinking, and the Use of Representations in Science and Engineering Chapter 7: Some Emerging Areas of DBER How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition (National Research Council, 2000)
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