Each section is the name and description of the various activities we have demonstrated with you during our two workshops. The descriptions are intended to share with you my thinking when I use these activities or forms of assessment and why. Please let me know if you want me to provide a more explicit description of any of these. Also if there are other questions/ideas you think we should have covered let us know and we will do our best to address them.

 Theory as a Basis for Practice
Qs– When should we discuss theory in our workshops? What do we do with faculty who want it? What do we do with faculty who discard educational theory?

Consider the relationship of theory to practice analogous to soil and plant growth. Theoretically the nutrients and structure of soil influence plant growth. So, too, in education. For example, the theoretical basis of cooperative learning should influence the kind of teaching practice we choose when we incorporate cooperative learning. To begin to help your teams become aware that good educational practices are theoretically based, consider using a good example from cooperative learning.

To discuss theory "a little," show data from one study that demonstrates that/how cooperative learning "works." I recommend doing this after your groups engage in several different kinds of cooperative learning.

The key description of cooperative learning theory from Johnson, Johnson and Smith 1998:
Positive interdependence (from social interdependence theory) and group accountability.

There is a new publication about active learning that is very good. We have ordered a copy for each of the field station teams. Look for it in the mail.

Johnson, D., R. Johnson, K. Smith. 1998. Active learning: cooperation in the college classroom. Interaction Book Co. Edina, MN. (for additional orders call: 612-831-9500)

Activities for Engaging Faculty

Videos
Q – What and when should we use videos?
Good engagement activities.
Citations: A Private Universe (What causes the seasons?)– The Annenberg CPB, Math & Science Collection (1-800-965-7373)
Minds of Our Own (Where did the mass of this tree come from?) – Program Two: Lessons from Thin Air The Annenberg CPB, Math & Science Collection

I use both of these films as engagement activities to generate discussion by faculty. Many themes are included in these two films.

1. Students are not learning what we think they are learning.
2. Even students from prestigious universities have misconceptions about scientific concepts.
3. Inquiry is a way to help students confront their misconceptions, build mental frameworks so they can better understand content/concepts.

Sometimes I use the entire film, other times I use segments. My choice depends on the nature of my group and the amount of time we have in the workshop.

Thinking Together: Collaborative Learning in Science. The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.
This film shows how collaborative learning looks and works in a large classroom and provides some theoretical bases for the instructional practice of collaborative learning. It is based on Eric Mazur’s work in physics education at Harvard. We have not shown you the tape, but it is a good one to show the learning potential of "talking to your neighbor" about a concept.

20 Questions Walk
Qs– How do we find out students’ prior knowledge before we begin the class or workshop? How do we model active learning from the very beginning?

As you experienced (or not!!), this is a good engagement activity to conduct outdoors. The goal can be multifaceted but is generally used to help students make observations about their natural system and to then ask questions that are testable or can lead to testable questions. The activity uses cooperative groups. The facilitator can interject natural history or answer questions about the natural environment that help students focus on their question.

During implementation, note the length of time you are providing information in relation to the length of time students are exploring and asking their own questions. You are the facilitator.

When the teams reassemble, each team can report their "best" question and the whole group could critique the nature of the questions and whether or not the questions are testable. Then as we did in Oregon, the group can select one question to investigate further.
Comment to Diane from Jan - I think that one of the real values of this type of approach is that it can be adapted to a lot of situations. It can be used as a beginning of a much larger series of activities – e.g. actually conducting experiments, or it can be used to introduce the concept of hypothesis development in situations where you don’t have the time or the abilities to conduct the real experiment.

Gallery Walk or Carousel Brainstorm
Q – What questions should we use? What is the advantage of this technique?
We use this as an engagement activity to accomplish several goals:

1. Set the tone for an interactive workshop – this is not going to be a sit in your seat while I lecture at you for the next hour.
2. Gather responses to several carefully crafted questions that will provide you insight as to the current thinking of the participants. Where are they coming from??
3. Mixing groups and getting the members of the workshop to know each other without formal introductions (formal introductions can take place later)
4. Loosening up the crowd.
5. Model totally cool 2 x 3 post-its (that my students here call post-its on steroids) and Mr. Sketch scented markers (or as I say, smelly markers – non-toxic).

The questions you select for this activity should be related to the goals of the workshop and should probe the prior knowledge of the participants. If you leave the butcher paper on the walls during the workshop, you can always refer to various beliefs, ideas the participants originally contributed.

Questions that help me see beliefs, attitudes, understandings about teaching and learning:
What is the role of the teacher in a course?
What is the role of the student in a course?
What kinds of evidence will we accept that our students have learned?
What are the indicators of an "active learning" classroom? Course?
How would you implement inquiry-based learning in your course?

 Formal and Informal Cooperative Learning

Think-Pair-Share

Q - What other types of cooperative learning can we model in our workshop?
A formal cooperative learning strategy that is used to engage all participants in dialogue. Student/faculty are in pairs. Instructions are provided before you begin the activity. First, a question is asked. Then each person thinks for about 60 seconds about a response to the question. Upon a pre-designated signal, person A explains her answer uninterrupted for 30 seconds to person B. Then person A and B switch roles. Finally, each pair should come to consensus about the response either member of the pair could provide to the entire group when called upon.

(from Spencer Kagan, 1991. Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA: Resources for Teachers)

Turn to Your Neighbor

Q - What other types of cooperative learning can we model in our workshop?
An informal cooperative learning activity used in response to any question or problem you want student to consider. Importantly, BEFORE students turn and talk to their neighbor, they need time to individually think about a response to the question or problem. Remember to bite your tongue for 60 seconds more or less – I know you can do it. More kinds of informal cooperative learning are discussed in Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1998).

When the size of the cooperative team is two – the groups are called DYADS. The big difference between a cooperative dyad and one-on-one discussion is based on the theory of cooperative learning:

Individual accountability and group responsibility. Each member of the dyad is responsible for the learning and well as the reporting out!

 Jigsaw
Q - What other types of cooperative learning can we model in our workshop?

Jigsaw is a formal cooperative learning activity during which the work of the group is divided into separate parts that are completed by different members who then teach their group (Johnson, Johnson, Smith 1998). The concept is that each member of the group becomes an expert about a particular part of an activity, and teaches the other members (e.g., we reviewed four different papers in Florida, each group member becoming an expert about one).

I recommend 4 students per group. Number members of home group 1, 2, 3, and 4. All the number 1s from each home group gather together to read a paper, part of a paper, address a question, learn a field technique (e.g., line transect). The number 2s do the same with another part of the problem, 3s and 4s the same. After learning the technique, discussing the paper, or whatever, each person returns to their home group and shares their newly gained expertise with the others – jigsaw has helped to cover more material, increase learning.

Report Back Activity

Q – How do I insure that each individual in the group is accountable and that the groups are on task?
A key consideration for any cooperative learning activity is the requirement for groups to be accountable. Reporting back is one way to accomplish this. Before breaking into the cooperative group interaction, students should understand that any member of the group could be called upon to report out, therefore, each person is responsible for completing and understanding the task at hand and to help others in the group gain understanding. You can sample groups for reporting-out or if the class is small, and time allows, all groups can report out.

Forms of Assessment

Peer review of (writing, presentation)

Q – What are ways to incorporate peer reviewing in our class, workshop?
Peer review is a powerful and useful technique to increase the quality of students’ performance, but it takes time to help students learn to be good peer reviewers. A key to their success is developing and learning to recognize the criteria you will accept that students are completing assignment at the level you expect. Therefore, I recommend you get students involved in developing the rubric before they begin to use the rubric as a tool for peer reviewing. For example, if you use a scientific poster as a form of assessment of students’ investigation, invite the students to develop (in cooperative groups) the criteria for an excellent poster. What should be on the poster? How should it look? The quality of the peer review can also be evaluated as another assessment tool. The analogy I encourage you to consider is the type of peer review you do for various journals. Then translate that to the kinds of assessments you are conducting with your students.

Alternative Forms of Assessment

Q – What are alternatives to testing as a form of assessment?
Assessment is the evidence we gather that provides us information about student learning. Before we engage in assessment, we must clearly define our goals and the evidence that we (and our peers) will accept that our students have achieved those goals. So if we believe learning about biology is effective in field settings, what type of feedback do students need about their learning and what type of feedback do we need about our teaching?

My latest line is "assessment is learning." As you already know, I find little value in the use of norm-referenced, standardized exams in science! To assess my students’ abilities to explain, solve problems, interconnect concepts, and synthesize, use multiple forms of extended responses – either in writing or orally.

Refer to Dan Udovik’s Workshop Biology notebook you received in Oregon. His team offers many type of assessment.

Another good source is Classroom Assessment Techniques by T. Angelo and P. Cross. 1993. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. 

The SMET Assessment paper sent at the end of last year also has further examples of assessment.

Formative and Summative Evaluation

Use during workshop or during class

Qs – What is the difference between formative and summative evaluation and when should we use them?

Formative Evaluations are conducted to provide you information during your workshop (or during a class) about how things are going. Jan and I have asked you for pluses and what you would change during our workshop. Your formative feedback influenced the decisions we made to improve the workshop. Keep in mind, if you ask for formative feedback, you must respond to the group in terms of what you can/will do to improve, and what is not possible. For example, I wanted Hilary to turn down the humidity at Archbold during our workshop – not possible!!

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