Transcript Example of Scientific Teaching

Connecting Learning Goals with Assessment
Designing your classes for
meaningful learning
Learning Objectives for this session
You will be able to . . .
• Distinguish between summative and formative
assessment and connect the two
• Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to evaluate assessments
• Use the principles of backward design to align
learning outcomes with formative and
summative assessments
Summative Assessments
Typical examples: exam, final project, paper
Summative Assessments
Other kinds:
• Conceptual assessments (pre-post)
Genetics Concept Assessment
Biology Concept Inventory
Concept Inventory of Natural Selection
Host Pathogen Concept Inventory
Diagnostic Question Clusters (Energy and Matter)
Introductory Molecular and Cell Biology Assessment
others!
Look on the Wiki for a link to a pdf summary of known biology concept
assessments!
• Attitude Assessments (pre-post)
Views about Science Survey (VASS):
http://www.flaguide.org/tools/attitude/views_about_sciences.php
Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS)
http://www.colorado.edu/sei/class/CLASS-Bio.html
How can these be used?
•
•
Diagnostic tool: what do students
struggle with even after instruction
(compare performance on individual
items pre to post)
Overall “gain”: compare post to pre
averages, gives a sense of how much
conceptual understanding students
have gained
Planning and implementing
thoughtful assessment:
Assessments communicate your
intent
THE MONTILLATION AND USES OF TRAXOLINE
It is very important to learn
about traxoline. Traxoline is a
new form of zionter. It is
montilled in Ceristanna. The
Ceristannians found that they
could gristerlate large amounts of
fervon and then bracter it to
quasel traxoline. This new, more
efficient bracterillation process
has the potential to make
traxoline one of the most useful
products within the molecular
family of lukizes snezlaus.
1.
2.
3.
4.
QUIZ:
What is traxoline?
Where is it montilled?
How is traxoline quaseled?
Why is traxoline important?
• An exam communicates what the instructor cares about
• If you test them on fact-based knowledge, then that
is what they will study!
If a camera crew making a documentary on
student misconceptions were to question your
students at the end of your course or the
end of your degree program, what would you
be most embarrassed to find out that they
didn’t know?
(Shout out your ideas)
Some of your objectives may be contentindependent!
(see Vision and Change)
Backward Design:
Outcomes drive Assessment and
Instruction
What should
students know or
be able to do
by the end of
your course?
Learning
Objectives
• You are here
How will you
know if they
get there?
Assessments
“summative”
What will you
do to get
them there?
Learning
Activities
“formative”
Know your objective: Bloom’s taxonomy can help
Higher cognitive orders
(HOCS)
Lower cognitive orders
(LOCS)
Bloom’s Taxonomy, 1956
Benjamin S. Bloom Taxonomy of educational objectives. Published by Allyn
and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 1984 by Pearson Education.
Practice using Bloom’s:
Choose one of the following proteins and
summarize its role in nuclear transport:
Importin, Ran, or Ran-GAP.
level?
a. Knowledge (1)
b. Comprehension (2)
c. Analysis (3)
d. Application (4)
e. Evaluation/Synthesis (5)
Crowe et al. 2008
If you were to temporarily block the function
of Ran-GAP in a cell, what effect would this
have on a protein containing a nuclear
localization signal? (NLS)?
level?
a. Knowledge (1)
b. Comprehension (2)
c. Analysis (3)
d. Application (4)
e. Evaluation/Synthesis (5)
Crowe et al. 2008: see supplementary material for more examples:
http://www.lifescied.org/cgi/content/full/7/4/368/DC1
Now, with your own material:
Use the handout to help
• Share an exam question with your neighbor
– Evaluate it’s level using Bloom’s taxonomy
– How did you determine its level?
– What action verbs were used in the question?
• Align the exam question with the expected learning
objective/outcome
– Did you use similar action verbs in the stated objective?
Backward Design – an example:
Learning goals:
• Understand the process of science
• Have a working knowledge of the process of evolution
Measurable
Objective/
Outcome
Interpret
graphs
Apply Darwin’s
postulates to
new scenarios
Summative
Assessment
(Exams)
Formative
Assessment
(Instruction)
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT (exam question):
Researcher Candace Galen observed that bees are the
main pollinator of skypilot flowers. She hypothesized that
larger flowers get more bee visits. For each graph below
(A and B), state which of Darwin’s postulates are being
tested in the experiment. Explain your reasoning. There
may be more than one answer for each graph.
A.
B.
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT/INSTRUCTION:
Based on your understanding of natural selection and
traits that vary along a continuum, explain the changes
that occurred in the tree and dinosaur populations over
time.
Create a graph of the offspring’s height vs mother’s height
of three subsequent generations.
These represent the
average for an entire
population
(AAAS 1999)
Backward Design – an example:
Learning goals:
• Understand the process of science
• Have a working knowledge of the process of evolution
Measurable
Outcomes
Interpret
graphs
Apply Darwin’s
postulates to
new scenarios
Summative
Assessment
(Exams)
Interpret which
of Darwin’s
postulates are
represented in
the graphs,
and explain
Formative
Assessment
(Instruction)
Create a graph
that depicts
one element of
natural
selection
Reflection
• Did you change your mind about the role
of assessments? If so, how?
• What did you learn or experience in the
role of student?
• What feedback did the assessments
offer the students?