ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN DURING 2000-2001Workshop Conducted by Dr. Barbara Walvoord Faculty and staff were invited to attend a half-day workshop on April 24, 2001 on the scholarship of teaching and learning run by Barbara Walvoord, head of the CASTL program at Notre Dame. Thirty five people attended a morning workshop to help individuals identify questions for SoT&L and think about methods of data collection. An additional thirty five people attended an afternoon workshop as departmental representatives. This session was devoted to the use of SoT&L in departmental assessment. Summary of Content of Morning Workshop on SoT&L There is videotape available of this workshop. If you would like to borrow it contact contact the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies 716-878-3093 or Cheryl Albers at AlbersCM@BuffaloState.edu
I. Shaping question for classroom based investigations How effective is what I'm doing? How can I be more effective? How to communicate and document teaching effectiveness? II. Gathering data to answer questions Measuring student learning III. Making links between pedagogy and student learning I. Shaping questions for classroom based investigation Almost any question is a good starting point, but clearly stating the question is an important first step. When the classroom is a forum for inquiry, questions often undergo revision during the course of a study. The scholarship of teaching and learning is on going and does not lend itself to closure. Often answering one question will bring up a question that will cycle the researcher into a new investigation. There are at least three categories of questions that can be used to guide the scholarship of teaching and learning. First are questions that focus on a particular characteristic of the teaching situation such as strategies for distance learning, or for large groups. Teachers who ask these questions will attempt to understand what is happening when students are involved in a particular activity and how teachers can maximize the learning that takes place. Second are questions that are concerned with the effectiveness of a particular practice. Teachers who ask these questions are concerned changing their behaviors to become more effective in the classroom. Questions in this category might arise from student evaluations. The third category of questions is concerned with how to document the outcomes of teaching and learning for a specific purpose such as accreditation, promotion, or publication or presentation. II. Gathering data to answer questions Gathering data to address a specific question involves determining ways to measure student learning. Many scholarship of teaching and learning questions require a concrete, disaggregated way to systematically measure learning. The goal of data collection is to obtain useful information that will guide pedagogical decision-making. Instead of thinking of measuring in dichotomous terms as objective or subjective, it is possible to think of a third alternative, which might be called "informed professional judgment". Teachers who use this method to measure student learning use years of experience and professional training to make a sophisticated judgment on student performance. Collecting data in the classroom is complicated; almost every variable is constantly varying. If you wait for the perfect research design you will never start. Some people who do not have a solid research question can begin the scholarship of teaching and learning by collecting exploratory data. This is a technique used in qualitative research to ask "What is going on here and what does it mean to the people who are in the setting?" For example students might be asked to turn in a log of how they work on an assignment. By examining such logs a teacher gains understanding of student work patterns and their connections to achievement in the class. Another example is the "One minute paper" which provides students with an opportunity to react to a particular teaching strategies. Such data can be useful in analyzing the degree to which specific teaching activities contribute to student learning. III. Making links between pedagogy and student learning Grades can be used as data but grades provide more useful data when the teacher has carefully articulated the criteria on which grades are based. The use of grading rubrics based on primary traits provide a richer data source because they reflect more specific information on the teaching objective and how they are evidenced in student work. Asking students is another way to approach linking teaching to student outcomes. One form of student evaluation might focus on asking students to rate the effectiveness of various teaching strategies on their learning. WORKSHOPS CONDUCTED AS A FOLLOWUP TO THE SPRING WORKSHOP Two groups of interested faculty and staff met three times during fall semester to build on the work begun with the Barbara Walvoord workshop in May 2001. This is a copy of the flyer that announced the workshops to the college community. BROWN BAG IT We invite two kinds of participants:
Group I October 16, November 6 and November 27 from 12:15-1:15 Group II October 17, November 7 and November 28 from 12:00-1:00
B.Y.O. brown bag lunches will be consumed in Bulger Communication Center 104. Workshop space is limited, but no preparation or background is needed. To register call the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at 878-3093. |