Transcript Building Synergistic Relationships between Teaching and Research Randall Groth, Ph.D. Salisbury University Teaching and Learning Conference February 21, 2014

Building Synergistic Relationships
between Teaching and Research
Randall Groth, Ph.D.
Salisbury University Teaching and
Learning Conference
February 21, 2014
What this talk is not about (though
these are also all good things…)
• Doing research and then discussing it in class
lectures
• Reading research about a teaching strategy
and then applying it (though this could be a
fist step…)
• Having students do research (in-class or as a
special undergraduate research project)
Research apart from teaching
Teaching
Research
Research becomes another burdensome task or something you
have to “escape” from teaching to do.
Research as a part of teaching
Teaching
Research
Teaching and research help improve one another!
Products of the synergistic cycle:
• Evidence of effective teaching for personal
portfolio
• Evidence of scholarly activity for personal
portfolio
• Systematic reflection on teaching and learning
• Positive influence on SU curriculum
• Positive influence on SU student learning
• National and international influence on teaching
and learning in your field
Faculty
Scholarship
Research
Teaching
Some Preliminaries
• IRB approval
• Dig into related literature
– http://scholar.google.com
– http://www.eric.ed.gov
• Do what is best for the student first – the most
interesting studies emerge when this principle
is kept in the forefront
Idea 1: Task-Based Research
This is not
quite what I
mean by taskbased
research…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOw8aiyMUAU
…but it does
bring up a
foundational
element of
task-based
research: not
taking it for
granted that
students are
wellacquainted
with
fundamental
ideas in your
field – even if
their
academic
credentials
suggest it.
Intriguing tasks do not have to be complex, but should
probe students’ fundamental ideas deeply
This is what I
mean by
“task-based
research…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXaQu_qGeo
…although
respondents
in most
studies of
this nature
do not have
their
identities
associated
with their
responses
What makes something task-based
research rather than just JayWalking?
Bloom’s
Taxonomy
JayWalking questions
Tasks associated with higher levels in
Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Write a metaphor for the statistical idea of
sample. Explain how and why your metaphor
works. Explain how and why your metaphor does
not work (Groth & Bergner, 2005).
• How are the statistical concepts of mean,
median, and mode different? How are they
similar? (Groth & Bergner, 2006)
• Construct two different sets of data that have the
same mean. The data sets should have different
numbers of values. Compute the SAD and MAD
for each set of data. Show your work. Explain
what the SAD and MAD tell you about the sets of
data (Groth, in press)
Why is task-based research valuable to
teaching?
• Keeps you mindful of asking questions fitting
higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
• As formative assessment: It alerts you to
prevalent misconceptions that may need extra
attention as you teach.
• As summative assessment: Used as pre- and postassessments, tasks provide a degree of feedback
about how much students have learned during a
course.
• As a formative and summative assessment for the
broader universe of instructors also teaching your
discipline under similar circumstances.
Guiding question for task design
• What broad concepts in your discipline are as
fundamental as the earth/sun relationship, yet
may be problematic for students?
• This is not an easy question – many times
students cover up misconceptions with
procedural knowledge or by mimicking the
instructor (recall training cited by students in
“Private Universe” clip).
5-minute brainstorming
session - Talk with those
around you: What is an
intriguing task from your
discipline that might serve
as the foundation for taskbased research?
I will check in after a few
minutes to see if anyone is
ready to share.
A tool for
qualitative
analysis of task
responses: The
SOLO
Taxonomy
(Biggs & Collis,
1982, 1991)
Even with a welldefined structure,
multiple coders help
More tools for qualitative analysis
Idea 2: Use online conversations as a
means to gather research data
“Listen in” (with students’ permission)
to MyClasses conversations about…
•
•
•
•
•
•
Required class readings
One another’s work
A complex task
A case analysis
Professional standards
Research pertinent to their field of study
Sample complex task to spark rich
conversation and debate
This task was actually widely used in individual
task-based research and it proved to be a great
item for collective conversation.
How do you write up this research?
1. Engage in
teaching cycle
2. Produce a narrative describing
all elements of the cycle
3. Draw implications for
the broader field
Where can you publish research like
this?
• Play with keyword searches related to your
research on the following websites:
– http://scholar.google.com
– http://www.eric.ed.gov
• Note titles of journals you find
• Google the websites of the journals
• Read sample articles from the journals and
guidelines on style, length, etc.
• Pick one journal and submit! Don’t be
discouraged by rejections!
Evidence
of
effective
teaching
Research
Teaching
SU Faculty Handbook Excerpt
Seems
like a
fairly
typical
handbook
statement
Have tenure track faculty in the U.S.
done a good job providing “evidence
of effective teaching?”
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/22/michigan-letscommunity-colleges-issue-four-year-degrees-amid-controversy
Conjecture: To provide policy makers
and the general public convincing
evidence of “exceptional teaching” we
need to show more directly how our
teaching impacts student learning
Bull's-eye:
Assessment
of student
leaning
Peer evaluations
Course syllabi
Qualitative tasks
Quantitative
measures of
learning
Student
evaluations
SU Math 150 Development Example
• Statistics course for teachers developed
collaboratively with mathematics and education
departments.
• Students’ learning assessed with a pre/postdesign: Statistical Knowledge for Teaching Test
• If feasible, establish comparison groups for firmer
evidence of causation.
• Results provide evidence of teaching
effectiveness directly linked to student learning
Locating Quantitative Instruments
Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) with Tests
in Print (TIP)
• MMY & TIP are produced by the Buros Institute
of Mental Measurements at the University of
Nebraska. Mental Measurements Yearbook
provides users with a comprehensive guide to
over 2,000 contemporary testing instruments.
Designed for an audience ranging from novice
test consumers to experienced ...
Curriculum
Design
Research
Teaching
Moving from Current Curriculum
Committee Conversations to “Dream
World” Conversations
Current Conversations
•
•
•
•
Is the right box checked on the form?
Is the activity code correct?
Are all of the signatures there?
Does the syllabus have a WAC and Fire Safety
statement?
• Are the forms on the right color paper?
• Is this proposal going to make anyone angry?
Dream-World (i.e., research-driven)
Conversations
• Has this new course been piloted?
• If so, what were its effects on student learning of
the targeted content? (syllabi do not tell us this)
• If not, what theory of learning or related research
would lead us to believe the course would be
valuable? (so innovative ideas are not choked off)
• How will the course be assessed for the purpose
of continuous improvement? (not just assessment
for the sake of assessment).
Current SU Curriculum Committee Structure
Is it possible to have
research-based
conversations within
this structure????
Current SU Curriculum Committee Structure
This is not what
most new faculty
think they are
getting
themselves into
when they set out
to improve college
courses and
teaching!
Dream-World Curriculum Committee
Structure
• Core group of faculty collaboratively design and
assess course (courses might be called
“experimental sections,” possibly for several
semesters).
• Core group summarizes assessment results.
• Assessment summary is sent out for peer review
to a qualified group of internal (and external?)
faculty.
• Faculty reviewing the course make suggestions
for improvement and issue a decision.
• Clerical work (e.g., fire safety statement, “box
checking”) is handled in an appropriate office.
Advantages of Dream-World Structure
• Faculty are allowed to do what they do best:
teach and make judgments about the best
methods for teaching students (as opposed to
editing fire safety statements and checking for
the right color paper).
• Evidence of effective teaching is gathered
through direct assessment of courses designed.
• Collaboration on course design and assessment
naturally encourages collaborative scholarship.
Living the dream even if not fully realized:
Lesson Study
(Hurd & Licciardo-Musso,
2005)
Starting with Lesson Study – Advice
from an SU peer institution
Connecting research and teaching has
the power to improve student learning
at SU and beyond
Related studies
Groth, R.E., & Bergner, J.A. (2005). Preservice elementary school teachers'
metaphors for the concept of statistical sample. Statistics Education Research
Journal, 4 (2), 27-42.
Groth, R.E. & Bergner, J.A. (2006). Preservice elementary teachers' conceptual and
procedural knowledge of mean, median, and mode. Mathematical Thinking and
Learning, 8, 37-63.
Groth, R.E. (2008). Assessing teachers' discourse about the Pre-k-12 Guidelines for
Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE). Statistics Education
Research Journal, 7(1), 16-39.
Groth, R.E., Spickler, D.E., Bergner, J.A., & Bardzell, M.J. (2009). A qualitative
approach to assessing technological pedagogical content knowledge.
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9 (4), Available:
http://www.citejournal.org/vol9/iss4/mathematics/article1.cfm
Groth, R.E. (in press). Prospective teachers' procedural and conceptual knowledge
of mean absolute deviation. Investigations in Mathematics Learning