Maryellen Weimer's Blog, page 4

Students and Reading: Another Good Idea

The quest to get students doing assigned reading and engaging with that material is one of those ongoing challenges faced by university and college teachers today. Simply assigning the reading, telling students to do it and making threats about what will happen if they don't is rarely enough to get most of today's students interacting with their texts. It almost always takes something more, and if you regularly read this blog you know that we're always looking for good ideas—especially those that not only get students doing the reading but those that help to develop their reading skills in the process. And, I've found another promising approach. I'll be highlighting this strategy in much greater detail in an upcoming issue of the newsletter, but here's a preview.

Terry Tomasek, an assistant professor of teacher education, uses reading prompts to promote active engagement with assigned reading. She has developed prompts that promote critical thinking skills. The prompts are organized into six categories (the categories aren't linear or hierarchical) and are written in first person to promote active and personal engagement. The categories and a sample prompt from each are listed below.

Identification of a problem or issue "For whom is this topic important and why?"

Making connections

"What do I already know about this topic? Where and how did I acquire this knowledge? What might be the limitations of my thinking related to this topic?"

Interpretation of evidence

"What inferences can I make from the evidence given in the reading selection?"

Challenging assumptions

"If the opportunity arose, what questions would I pose to the author?"

Making application

"Look towards where I want to be in two years, what suggestions from the reading make the most sense to me?"

Taking a different point of view

"What would I point out as important about this topics to others who either question or disagree with my point of view?"

In the article Tomasek lists many additional prompts. She also describes how she assigns them and what she does with the responses students prepare. I'll share some of those details in my Teaching Professor article, but it's such a sensible idea, adaptable to and with all kinds of content that I thought it merited blog coverage now.

Reference: Tomasek, T. (2009). Critical reading: Using reading prompts to promote active engagement with text. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21 (1), 127-132.

REMINDER: This is the week to prepare/finalize your Teaching Professor Conference program proposals. They are October 22. See www.teachingprofessor.com for guidelines and submission details.

Testing Knowledge–An Interesting Alternative

Sometimes we do get stuck in ruts—we use the same kinds of test questions: multiple-choice, short answer, maybe a few fill-in-the-blank, some matching and an occasional longer essay question. We forget there are other options. Here's an example, initially proposed in 1990.

Students are given a prompt (a short sentence or phrase, maybe even a formula) and then asked to write down as many distinct, correct and relevant facts about the prompt as they can. They receive credit for facts that are correct, distinct and relevant. It might be a good idea to do introduce this question format in class so students understand what they are supposed to do and see an example of what does and doesn't count.

A group of chemistry profs who have written an article about using this strategy recommend that you brainstorm a set of facts that would be considered correct. You can then use them to develop a grading rubric—identifying the number of facts a student might need to list to receive full or partial credit. Once you use a prompt, the student responses will help you enlarge the list of possibilities. These profs also recommend that you post the grading rubric or share it in class so students can see which facts counted and so you can illustrate why others were not distinct or relevant. Of course, this is an open-ended assessment techniques so the rubric will include those facts listed by the majority of students, but not an exhaustive list of possibilities.

These profs report their experiences using this assessment strategy on homework assignments and on in-class exams. There's no reason they couldn't be used on quizzes, in small groups and as a way to summarize at the end of class or review at the beginning of the next class.

The strategy has the advantage of allowing students to show their complete (or incomplete) knowledge of some important course content. Exam questions, like multiple-choice, "provide only a partial picture of a student's knowledge in a course … a student may know relevant information that was not included on the exam." (p. 49) The prompts also make very clear misconceptions students are holding as well as inappropriate conceptual connections that they may be making.

It's a straightforward approach, simple to implement and not one that requires extra time to grade. If you decide to give it a try, we welcome you to share your experience in a response to this blog entry.

Reference: Lewis, S. E., Shaw, J. L. and Freeman, K. A. (2010). Creative exercises in general chemistry: A student-centered assessment. Journal of College Science Teaching, 40 (1), 48-53.

Neutralizing Attitudes

Sounds like a bit of jargon, doesn't it? It probably qualifies as such but what the term refers to is of interest. Researchers in the 50s who were trying to explain criminal behavior coined the phrase which describes "justifications for deviance that are seen as valid by the delinquent but not by the legal system or society as large." (These researchers, Sykes and Matza, are quoted on p. 295 in the article referenced below). If deviant actions can be justifiable then the offender avoids moral culpability.

In our teaching and learning world, neutralizing attitudes have been studied as students use them to justify cheating. Research has documented that students with these neutralizing attitudes are more likely to cheat. And, if they've justified their cheating actions once, these attitudes grow stronger.

Blaming others and attributing problems to external sources are prime examples of neutralizing attitudes that enable cheating. "I don't have time to study because I have to work full time to pay for college." "Cheating doesn't hurt anybody else." " You can't get into med school without really high grades." "This teacher is a jerk and doesn't care if I learn the material or not."

Neutralizing attitudes cause students to cheat both directly and indirectly. The indirect influence becomes part of a constellation of factors that involve things like seeing other students cheat, whether the student is extrinsically motivated (cares more about grades than learning), and ineffective instruction along with a performance-oriented teaching style.

But as this research documents, when cheating is rampant, as it is at so many places, students no longer need neutralizing attitudes. "Neutralizing is only necessary for behaviors that violate one's ethics. If cheating behavior is seen as normal, there is no violation of ethics and thus no need for neutralization." (p. 310) If new students see other students cheating with impunity, there are few reasons not to follow suit.

Another point of interest raised by these researchers: the decision to cheat is not singular. Deciding to give another student information that will help that student with an exam is not the same as deciding to take an illicit copy of an exam, and deciding to cheat publicly on an in-class exam is not the same as deciding in the privacy of your room to pad the bibliography of a term paper. What motivates these decisions may be quite different.

Reference: Rettinger, D. A. and Kramer, Y. (2009). Situational and personal causes of student cheating. Research in Higher Education, 50 (3), 293-313.

Simulations Deliver Real Benefits

Simulations can be powerful active learning experiences. In the social sciences and humanities they can provide a kind of "lab-like" experience, often not a part of these courses. Finding good simulation exercises is a challenge in some fields and integrating them into the content and objectives of the course requires careful planning and execution. However, this extra work is justified given what a good simulation can accomplish in class. Check out these benefits listed in an excellent article on simulations (reference below).

"Simulations offer students the opportunity to manipulate content knowledge in an active context that engages a variety of learning styles and offers the opportunity to experience the subject matter in a dynamic way." (pp. 447-448) They allow students to experience issues in a more personal and dynamic way.
Simulations are also very good at making clear the complexities involved in issues. They move students away from thinking that issues can be resolved definitively and that problems always have right and wrong answers.
Simulations put students in roles they otherwise read or hear about. In a real time situation, students are forced to make decisions and they see much more directly the consequences of what they propose. A good robust debrief discussion at the end of a simulation activity can help students analyze their tactics. This enhances the learning potential of these experiences.
Simulations effectively move students beyond grade issues. Simulations motivate students to get involved and do well because the simulation feels like a "real" world situation and because they are interacting directly and substantive with their peers. These experiences give students a taste of how professionals confront and resolve problems.
Simulations offer students with certain learning styles a chance to do well. Some students "learn best when they can see processes in motion, or when they have the opportunity to apply knowledge while they are learning. Students who may sometimes appear to check out, or who are underperformers, often connect better with the applied nature of a simulation exercise, and very often the leadership and coordination roles of simulation teams are assumed by students who may not have distinguished themselves in traditional classroom formats."

Reference: Wedig, T. (2010). Getting the most from classroom simulations: Strategies for maximizing learning outcomes. PS, Political Science and Politics, July, 547-555.

Sacrifices to Attend College

I'm cleaning out my Dad's apartment and found a letter from the President of Washington State University addressed to my Grandfather. The letter tells him that his daughter Barbara (my much loved aunt) has made the All-College Honor Roll for the sixth time and that no student does this without being "thoughtful" and "earnest minded."

But it was the second paragraph of the letter that really caught my attention. "Many parents of our students have made either small or large sacrifices in order that their children might secure a college education. The faculty of this institution is doing its utmost to enourage all students to restrict their expenditures and devote their best energies to their studies. Also, our students are urged to leave sufficient time for wholesome recreations in order that they may keep in good physical and mental condition."

The letter is dated July 20, 1932. It's good to remember that during that time of economic hardship as well as the one today, sacrifices are being made so that students can attend colleges and universities. Some of this advice is dated—most college teachers today don't get after their students about spending too much money, although maybe we should. But the admonition that students devote best energies to studying is just as timely as is the urging to engage in "wholesome" recreational activites.

We do have a tendency to think that all the educational, social and political issues that confront us as teachers are unique. Most of them are not, but are realities that have been faced by other teachers who struggled, succeeded and failed as we do.

I found another letter from my Grandfather to my Father—it's about how Grandma's mental and physical health are declining. This is the first time he has had to write because she cannot. The language in the letter is descriptive but between the lines is all the anguish that comes when care giving responsibilities grow large.

We need to be reminded that we share many human endeavors with those in previous generations. We aren't the first to expend efforts to educate sometimes difficult and reluctant students. In fact some of us were once those very students who needed to be encouraged to devote more time to study and less to a whole range of activities that were definitely not "wholesome."

Study Time and Study Habits

How often has this happened? After a test has been returned, a disappointed, sometimes distressed, student approaches after class, and says something like, "I can't believe it! I studied 10 hours for this test and I still did poorly." Most of us respond with some version of "but it's not the quantity of time spent studying, it's the quality of that study time." And this pretty obvious insight has been confirmed by some recent research.

What makes the research in the article referenced below n...

Finding the Motivation to Fix a Course

"Our course restructuring was motivated by several perceived deficiencies common to traditional lecture-based introductory courses. The most pronounced concern, shared by multiple faculty involved in the course, was poor student attitudes. Both numeric and written responses on course evaluations indicated that students were not satisfied with the course and did not recognize the importance of the course content to their education as biologists. For example, students often commented on course ...

Curricular Design Problems

Dan Klionsky makes some excellent points in a letter to the editor published in Cell Biology Education. He's objecting to how departments design curricula. He's writing about biology, but what concerns him doesn't just happen in biology.

"Curricular development … no longer involves rational and integrated course design. New courses are added based on faculty members' expertise rather than students' needs… .And typically, no one has a clue as to what is taught in other courses in the...

Advice for New and Not so New College Teachers

When you're a new college teacher, good advice can be so helpful. Studies are important—good practice rests on what has been verified about teaching and learning, but early on, it's those practical bits of wisdom that help a beginner get a handle on the details that matter most. The other thing about advice for new teachers is that it contains important reminders to those who've been teaching for a while. I've found an example that illustrates. Edward Burmila suggests "Seven Things to Know...

Less Stress at the Semester's End

There is no question that many students experience pretty serious burnout by the end of the semester. It's easy for us to recognize it because we experience it ourselves. Even so, I have to admit I was surprised by the findings of a survey of one cohort of business majors.

A faculty researcher surveyed students with a modified version of a widely used measure of emotional exhaustion. He administered it during the last week of the semester to 196 business majors enrolled in three introductory a...