Kyriaki Chatzikyriakidou Teaching and Learning Portfolio

This portfolio submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Delta Certificate in Research, Teaching, and Learning.

Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning University of Wisconsin-Madison

August 31, 2015

The Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning is affiliated with the Center of the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning Network (CIRTL— Grant No. DUE-1231286). CIRTL is a National Science Foundation sponsored initiative committed to developing and supporting a learning community of STEM faculty, staff, post-docs, and graduate students who are dedicated to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse student audiences. The Delta Program is supported by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Provost’s Office and Graduate School. Additional support is provided by the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation. For more information, please call us at 608-261-1180 or visit http://www.delta.wisc.edu.

Delta Pillars

The Delta Program is founded on three interrelated core ideas: the Teaching-as-Research

approach is explored via Learning Community opportunities that are based on Learning-through-

Diversity. These ideas (pillars) are the foundation of the Center for the Integration of Research,

Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), and national project and network of which Delta is a founding

member.

Teaching-as-Research

By applying research methods—idea, experiment, observation, analysis, improvement—to the

challenge of teaching, the Delta Program:

Brings the skills of research faculty to the ongoing investigation of student learning

Promotes innovation in teaching and measurement of student learning

Advances the role of instructors in the ongoing improvement of teaching practices

Learning Communities

Through collaborative activities and programs, the Delta Program creates a community of

graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty that will:

Support and validate growth in teaching and learning

Create a foundation for institutional change

Learning-through-Diversity

Recognizing the common challenges in teaching and learning and the strength in bringing

together diverse views, the Delta Program is:

Interdisciplinary—serving all science, engineering, and mathematics departments

Cross-generational—bringing together graduate students, postdocs, and both new and

experienced faculty

Comprehensive—providing knowledge, practice, and community

Responsive—reflecting the broad range of responsibilities that face today's faculty

Inclusive—welcoming for a multifaceted and diverse group of people

Table of Contents

Teaching Philosophy ....................................................................................................................... 1

Mentoring Philosophy .................................................................................................................. 2

1st Teaching Artifact ....................................................................................................................... 3

Reflection .................................................................................................................................... 9

2nd Teaching Artifact ................................................................................................................... 10

Reflection ................................................................................................................................. 17

Teaching as research (TAS) internship project ...................................................................... 18

Reflection ................................................................................................................................. 31

APPENDIX I ................................................................................................................................. 32

APPENDIX II ................................................................................................................................ 35

CIRTL LO matrix tables ................................................................................................................ 37

Teaching Philosophy

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Teaching Philosophy Kyriaki Chatzikyriakidou

Teaching embodies excellence in communication

One way to spread ideas is the process of teaching, either students in a University or the public

in our society. Teaching embodies excellence in communication. It enfolds discussion by the use

of linguistic and practical skills and the result of it: understanding. Understanding brings easiness

in our lives and magnifies the interest that might exist for specific concepts. With the passing of

time, this interest is transformed into mature knowledge and communication is advanced into

teaching.

Student-centered teaching approaches

Today, there is evidence that active learning and student-centered teaching approaches should

be used in the classroom. For instance, in Microbiology, the most challenging part is the “unseen

world” of microorganisms that students need to see in order to completely perceive and the use

of microscopes, is a great way to succeed this. It has always been of my interest to be able to

imagine what the words on a book’s page try to help us comprehend. From a holistic point of

view, the combination of lecture and student interaction or theory and practice, usually at a

cellular level will excite students and offer them the opportunity to actively participate in class

activities, while exploring their own potential as future scientists.

Knowledge is to be shared

The cognitive path of knowledge building in an individual can be seen as a system of smaller

developmental paths that sometimes, somewhere will merge and start over creating new paths.

This happens for both the students and the teachers. However, it is the teacher’s responsibility

to assess students’ progress of learning and also constantly examine whether the learning

outcomes successfully meet with the learning goals and there is alignment of the teaching plan.

Majoring in Biological Sciences throughout my undergraduate as well as graduate studies, I have

realized the importance of teaching in this particular scientific field. My inclination towards

microbiology and specifically food-borne pathogenic microorganisms has always supported and

will keep supporting my desire to spread this type of knowledge. Every student is a unique and

complex learner, so I would like to introduce students into Biology/Microbiology courses by

using both individual and group projects, so I can cover as many of their learning needs as

possible. My teaching assistant experience in UW–Madison covers a broad spectrum of classes-

from large lab sections to small discussion-based courses, which I mostly had the chance to lead

solo, as the only instructor present in classroom. Furthermore, my experience as a teaching

fellow of the UW-HHMI program, introduced me into scientific teaching methods as well as

educational research background information and questions that need to be investigated and

which I am currently taking this information a step further in my career, with a M.Sc. degree in

Curriculum and Instruction.

Mentoring Philosophy

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Mentoring Philosophy Kyriaki Chatzikyriakidou

Unique mentoring relationships

The relationship between a mentor and a mentee can be seen as similar to the one

between a parent and a child. Mentor is a persona that offers advice, encourage the mentee to

pursue his/her dreams and most importantly to construct a career pathway that the mentee

would like to follow. In order for the mentor to be able to offer the above-mentioned support,

he/she needs to have acquired some previous skills as well as experience. Although the mentor

has to be an expert in these characteristics, at the same time he/she will continue learning new

mentoring approaches along with the mentee throughout each and every mentoring

relationship. In my opinion, mentoring also needs patience exercised from both sides, the

mentor and the mentee, and at the same time persistence in finding what the mentee’s subject

of true interest is, while keeping in mind that the mentor will guide this individual’s personal

quest.

As a graduate student who mentored younger undergraduates in UW-Madison, it was

enlightening for me to recognize and comprehend these aspects of mentoring. Coming from a

different cultural and background training, than my mentees in UW-Madison, was my initial

incentive to try to build successful mentoring relationships. Addressing diversity in

communication patterns or learning styles, is something that cannot be successfully met without

realizing that we all carry a unique background which shapes our learning, thinking as well as

communicating processes. In my opinion, these differences should be taken as opportunities for

further personal development and academic growth of the mentee, rather than as a hindrance. I

believe, this is the first step that needs to be established between a mentor and a mentee, prior

to any type of scientific training, either theoretical or practical.

You learn something the best, when you teach it

As a post-doc fellow, I had the opportunity to facilitate discussions around these aspects

of mentoring with a group of undergraduates, majoring in biological disciplines, where they

were taught how to be peer-mentors in a biology course, while co-facilitating with the main

instructor. As the saying goes -You learn something the best, when you teach it-, it very well

applies to me during my interaction with the students in this course, called “Entering

Mentoring”, when my ideas regarding mentoring were further advanced and my interest in

supervising and mentoring students was solidified.

I would like to draw on my previous experiences and continue learning the art of

successful mentoring, not only as an instructor, but also as a person in any biology-related

environment that I may have the chance to participate in.

Everyone needs to be taught or at least be aspired by someone who is in the same

career pathway that they wish to follow. We all need a mentor in our lives, not only for our

careers but also for development of our own ideas, opinions and beliefs.

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1ST TEACHING ARTIFACT

This artifact was developed as part of my scientific teaching training, through the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Teaching Fellows program at University of

Wisconsin–Madison in 2011-2012.

The training program incorporated two main elements:

a) Development of a teaching unit during Fall semester – in my case for the course

“Critical Analyses in Microbiology” (Micro 305). In brief, in this course students

read a research paper every week and discuss its hypothesis and results. The

course aims to develop students’ critical thinking in microbiology research. This

unit’s research paper was “Bacterial charity work leads to population-wide

resistance. Lee H., Molla M., Cantor C. and Collins J. 2010. Nature vol. 467 pp. 82-

85.”

b) Incorporation of this teaching unit in course’s syllabus and facilitation of teaching

the complete syllabus during Spring semester.

The artifact, presented here, is related to (part a) the development of the teaching unit.

The main elements of scientific teaching were incorporated into this teaching unit and

the process is shown in steps.

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Antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations

as a result of their social behavior

(Syllabus title: “Bacterial antibiotic resistance and their social behavior”)

Outline

- A 10-minute presentation on antibiotic resistance and introduction to the assigned paper

- 30 minutes of interactive activities – group work and answering homework questions

- Spend the last 10 minutes or less discussing about diseases caused by antibiotic resistant

cells and ways to cure them

Introduction

This teachable unit will educate students about antibiotic resistance in bacterial

populations for a total teaching time of 50 minutes. The level of this class is

undergraduate/graduate, taking into consideration that the majority of the students are

expected to be undergraduate students, majoring in Microbiology or related Sciences.

The design of this teachable unit uses the backward design, where learning goals and

outcomes are first selected and then student assessment is aligned to these learning goals

through the design of the activities.

Learning goals and outcomes

The learning goals described below were formed based on two fundamental questions:

1) how do the learning goals represent the nature of Science and concepts related to

antibiotic resistance?

2) what will students know, understand, and be able to do at the end of the unit?

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Table 5.1 / Do the learning goals represent the nature of Science and concepts related to

antibiotic resistance?

Learning goals related to aspects of Science

Learning Goals

Knowledge

Students will read a primary literature paper and

understand the main conclusions.

Students will know the relationship between

bacterial social behavior and bacterial antibiotic

resistance in the context of the assigned reading.

Skills

Students will understand how to identify hypotheses,

experiments and conclusions from the paper.

Students will learn to design specific experiments in

order to test or answer specific scientific questions.

Behavior(s)

Students will think of bacterial antibiotic resistance,

as a result of bacterial social behavior and

communicate their ideas and opinions.

Attitudes

Students will appreciate the relevance of scientific

discovery in today’s society throughout history.

Students will be motivated to conduct research on

antibiotic resistance and contribute to the scientific

efforts that deal with this issue in bacterial

population studies.

Table 5.2 / What will students know, and be able to do at the end of the unit?

Learning goals for scientific process (experimentation)

Characteristics of learning goals

Primary conceptual goal Students will be able to understand the experimental designs and analyze the data that answered the hypotheses of the assigned reading.

Secondary conceptual goal Students will understand the correlation between bacterial social behavior and antibiotic resistance.

Specific topics Students will learn that indole is the main compound during the cell to cell communication in Escherichia coli populations in the presence of antibiotics.

The learning goals of this teachable unit will be completed during a 50-minute class and

at the same time the learning outcomes will be observed and recorded through participation in

the activities. The work flow of this class is shown below:

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30 minutes in class activity (and homework)

10 minute presentation 10 minutes discussion

Table 5.3 / Specific characteristics of work flow steps.

Duration Identity Description

10 minutes Presentation

Introducing students to the topic of the day and showing the main ideas of the assigned reading.

10 minutes In-class activity (and homework)

Group work on assigned questions.

20 - 25 minutes Discussion with instructor.

5 -10 minutes

Discussion

Possible ways to cure diseases caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Each activity is built on all the previous ones. In order for students to fully comprehend

antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations, activities and assessments have been designed

throughout all Bloom’s taxonomy levels. Table 5.4 describes each of these levels.

Assessment and evaluation

The assessment and evaluation are responsible for providing both student and

instructor the information, whether or not students learned to think critically and gauge their

own learning. The assessment part was developed based on table 5.4, which provides a

comparison between learning goals and outcomes of this teachable unit.

At the end of every class, the assignments will be collected by the instructor, corrected,

and returned back to students during the next class. In this way an individual feedback will be

provided and each student will be able to monitor his/her own progress. The instructor will

collect data about student’s progress in order to verify that the primary learning goal, meaning

the ability of students to read and analyze research papers, is met. (This instructor took this

Phase 2 P3 P1

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decision for education research reasons and it is not necessary to be done by the rest of the

instructors of this course).

Table 5.4 / Learning goals, outcomes and assessment of learning.

Level of Bloom’s

Taxonomy Learning goal Learning outcome Assessment

Knowledge

Students will know that bacterial antibiotic resistance can be improved by population dynamics.

Students will be able to state that highly resistant cells can protect low resistant cells of the same population under antibiotic stress.

Homework/In class activity

prepare individually and brainstorm in

class

Comprehension

Students will understand the relationship between highly resistant and less resistant mutants.

Students will be able to state that the production of indole by highly resistant cells enhances survival of low resistant cells under antibiotic stress.

Homework prepare individually and brainstorm in

class

Application

Students will understand the existence of molecular mechanisms that induce antibiotic resistance.

Students will be able to state that indole induces physiological mechanisms, such as export of antibiotic and oxidative-stress mechanism.

Homework prepare individually and brainstorm in

class

Analysis Students will be able to analyze data.

Students will be able to analyze the data in figures 1 and 2 of the homework.

Homework group work and brainstorm and

brainstorm in class

Synthesis Students will be able to think about the design of an experiment.

Students will be able to design a similar to the assigned reading experiment.

In class activity group work in class

Evaluation

Students will understand the importance of bacterial social behavior to the cure of diseases that are caused by antibiotic resistant bacterial cells.

Students will be able to design an experiment based on the idea that deficient to specific genes cells can be used against resistant to antibiotics bacteria, in order to cure such diseases.

In class activity group work and 1-

minute presentation

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Activities

The activities can be categorized into two groups: homework questions and mini-

lectures given by the instructor. The questions will include low order and high order critical

thinking skills, which will be first, completed by students as homework and then discussed in

class. Discussion will be composed of small group brainstorming as well as whole class

discussion. Question 4 will also include a 1-minute presentation of groups of students and a

mini-talk by the instructor.

Further information is provided in APPENDIX I.

Scientific teaching

Alignment

Alignment between learning goals and outcomes is mediated by the feedback provided to

students, as part of the assessment section of this teaching unit.

Active learning

During the duration of the semester, students will have the chance to talk with each

other or even speak in front of class and share their opinion. Every behavior is welcomed, as

long as is not offensive or unfair to the rest of the class.

Bacterial social behavior is an impactful scientific topic, as it affects our own health. It

can provide students the opportunity to think about future research on this research field.

During the group work, students will have the opportunity to collaborate with others and form

their ideas. The instructor is advised to elaborate on information that could arouse students’

curiosity.

Diversity and collaboration

UW-Madison classes are usually made of an heterogeneous mix of cultures and nationalities.

One way to ensure equality in a class like this one, is to shuffle students every week, so no

particular sitting patterns get strictly established. In this way, every student will have the chance

to talk to the majority, if not all, of the students. (other ideas from future instructors are

welcomed, as long as they serve the purpose of engaging students with fair and transparent

intentions). Classes are made not only to educate people, but also to cultivate our behavior

towards others. Diversity comes as a gift for international colleges, like UW – Madison, and for

this reason, instructors should take advantage of this and use it to broaden their student’s

cultural and subsequently learning horizons.

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Reflection “Critical Analyses in Microbiology” (Micro 305) is a discussion-based course aiming to help

students develop their critical thinking skills by reading various research papers. Each week

students complete homework questions and participate in various in-class activities, along with

discussing the homework questions.

As a participant in the HHMI Teaching Fellows program in UW-Madison, I had to design a

teaching unit for Micro 305, following the scientific teaching framework (Scientific Teaching, Jo

Handelsman et al.). The main axis of this framework is the alignment of learning goals with

learning outcomes and assessing whether this alignment was successful. The development of

this teaching unit, took place during Fall semester of year 2011, while being instructed about

scientific teaching and presenting our work for in-class peer-review. In addition, all teaching

fellows of Micro 305 were coordinated by Professor Yu, who was the main instructor of this

course.

The learning outcomes were designed based on the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy on cognitive

skills and I purposefully chose the low-order levels for designing homework questions, assuming

that students will be able to answer them on their own. On the other hand, analysis and

evaluation levels (high-order cognition) were used for designing the in-class activities, which are

harder for students to think on their own, but with interaction and discussion with peers, they

can have better chances on answering them. Furthermore, the class size of my section was

relatively small (<10 students) and this gave me plenty of time to interact with every student.

Although, the design of a complete teaching unit was challenging at first, this was a great first

teaching experience for me and an opportunity to acquire an immense amount of knowledge

regarding scientific teaching. The goals-outcomes alignment is vital part of teaching, as it

provides the instructor with a clear teaching plan, adaptable to modifications that may be

needed due to class pace. Critical thinking is a very important skill in any scientific field, thus

students need to acquire it as early as possible in their undergraduate studies training. Critical

Analyses in Microbiology is a course made to serve this purpose and I am glad I had the chance

to be the instructor for an academic semester.

Designing and teaching this unit and course overall, created the interest in conducting a small

education research study, presented next, as the second teaching artifact of this portfolio.

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2ND TEACHING ARTIFACT

This artifact is a small-scale, self-designed education research project.

The research was conducted during the teaching class of “Critical Analyses in

Microbiology” and it was an optional part of my scientific teaching project during the

HHMI Teaching Fellows program at University of Wisconsin – Madison.

The results of this study were presented (poster presentation) during the Teaching &

Learning Symposium at UW-Madison.

2nd Artifact

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Applying Bloom’s taxonomy theory to advance critical thinking of

undergraduate biology students

K. Chatzikyriakidou

Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching, Institute for Biology Education, 2012.

Abstract It is known that introductory Microbiology classes enhance the development of low-order

cognitive skills, however, development of high order cognitive skills is considered challenging

due to limited time and wide variety of material to be covered. “Critical analyses in

Microbiology” is a discussion-based course, offering students the opportunity to critically

analyze microbiology research data. The aim of this study was to investigate whether student’s

ability to critically think of experimental data could improve when students individually

categorize homework questions into the six Bloom’s cognitive levels. As far as the applicability

of these activities, they were both successfully completed without consuming a lot of class time

and without interrupting the general teaching plan. Although no pertinent trend was found in

the data collected, results showed that students were better able to recognize low-order

cognitive levels questions than high-order levels ones, which seemed to align with the results of

the short-time assessment activity as well. Further research is needed to conclude these results

in similar introductory Microbiology courses with higher numbers of participants and repeats of

this methodology.

Introduction In 1950’s the American educator Benjamin Bloom developed a classification of human

cognitive levels, known as Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain (2). The levels increase in

complexity and critical thinking is accomplished when a student is able to think at cognitive

levels 3 to 6 (application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation). Through application of previous

knowledge to new context, analysis and synthesis of ideas when problem-solving and evaluation

of the newly formed knowledge, students are able to think critically of scientific information, not

only in biology major, but in any scientific discipline. Today Bloom’s taxonomy is used by biology

instructors during syllabus writing and course learning goals development (1,3,4). Although

students have access to a course’s syllabus and learning goals, it can not be taken for granted

that students recognize which cognitive level they have mastered at the beginning of a course

and what is the ultimate goal after completing a course. In literature, there is no information on

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the application of Bloom’s taxonomy in a student-centered instructional approach, where

students could potentially rank themselves on Bloom’s taxonomy and self-evaluate their

learning experience.

Majority of undergraduate biology courses are taught in traditional ways with lectures

and exam questions mainly focusing on remembering and understanding of scientific facts, thus

low-order cognitive skills. In University of Wisconsin – Madison, the course “Critical analyses in

Microbiology” has been developed to address this issue, as it has the aim to advance student

cognition to these high-order cognitive skills through discussions on research papers with their

peers. Since the learning environment was set for advancement of student cognitive skills, this

research study was designed to examine whether student’s ability to critically think of

experimental data could improve when students individually categorize homework questions

into the six Bloom’s cognitive levels.

Methodology

Course description

“Critical Analyses in Microbiology” is a discussion-based course aiming to develop

critical thinking skills of undergraduate biology students. It consists of 15 teachable units, each

one taught each week, following an increasing level of difficulty in analyzing research data. The

teaching units were built by participants of Teaching Fellows program following the scientific

teaching framework (5,6). Students read different research papers and answer various

questions, regarding the hypotheses and findings of the research study, either as homework or

as in-class activities.

Bloom’s taxonomy activity

The researcher provided students with two identical Bloom’s taxonomy forms to fill,

along with a brief description of the Bloom’s taxonomy and a handout, constructed by the

researcher. Each form had a table made of five columns in total, each one representing the

course week and specific homework questions of each week’s material. Each line of the table

represented one of the six Bloom’s taxonomy levels. For practical reasons, one form included all

the even course week numbers and the other included all the odd course week numbers, so that

the researcher could keep one of the forms, while students could keep the other one. The

homework questions were chosen based on the Bloom’s taxonomy level that the researcher

thought they belong to. Each week, students were asked to choose for each question listed on

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the table, what Bloom’s taxonomy level they thought the question belonged to, allowing them

to choose more than one levels per question if they thought so. This process was repeated for

nine weeks and students had a week to complete and return the form.

Short-time in-class written assessment

The activity consisted of two unannounced mini-tests at two time intervals; one during

the first quarter and one during the third quarter of the course. Each test was an excerpt of a

scientific paper, including an experimental aim, a brief experimental design and the key findings

of the experiment. The excerpt was chosen from a scientific paper that students had to read as

part of their homework. This assessment happened in two different orders: one excerpt was

introduced to the class as homework and then as a short-time written test (during third

quarter), while the other excerpt was first seen in-class as part of the short-time written test

and then as a homework (during first quarter). The students were asked to read this excerpt and

then briefly (1-2 sentences) answer two questions. The first question “What did the authors

want to study?” (why? question) addressed the aim/hypothesis of the experiment, while the

second question “What did the authors find at the end?“ (what? question) addressed the

findings. The time for the in-class activity was limited to 5 minutes. Both homework and in-class

responses were graded on a pass/fail basis.

Results and Discussion The main goal of this study was to test whether students get better at understanding

what the hypothesis of an experiment is as well as analyzing research data. As the instructor and

researcher of this class and study, I wanted to let students know what “high-order cognitive

skills” means, while trying to advance their critical thinking in microbiology research. Designing a

Bloom’s taxonomy activity, as described above, was a simple way to introduce students to this

cognition theory. With the short-time in-class written assessment, I tested students’ ability to

analyze a research paper, with or without having a memory of it.

Results from the Bloom’s taxonomy activity showed that students were able to

successfully categorize most of the low-order cognitive level questions of their homework,

during the 9-week period, with minor fluctuations from the correct answers, ranging from 1 to 3

responses (Figure 1). However, the responses for the high-order cognitive level questions varied

throughout the course and a high number of low-order cognitive level categorization was

received as well, ranging from 1 to 6 responses (Figure 2). Although feedback was purposefully

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restricted, it is possible that students’ responses could have been more aligned to the correct

answers if more explanation was given regarding Bloom’s taxonomy levels throughout the

course.

An improvement in successfully categorizing the high-order cognitive level questions

was seen in the fifth week (week 7 in graph) of the study, but there was no persistent trend. An

explanation of this observation could be the fact that in order for someone to answer a question

that belongs to the levels of application, evaluation, synthesis or analysis, low-order cognitive

skills are also required - remembering and understanding facts. As a result, the students were

probably not able to identify these high-order cognitive level parts in these questions. In other

words, it is valid to say that students were not able or unsure how to categorize these high-

order cognitive level parts of these questions, beyond the low-order cognitive level ones with

which they were familiar.

Figure 1. Successful (color) and unsuccessful (grey shade) student responses for each

low-order cognitive level question per course week.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10 week 11

Re

cord

ed

re

spo

nse

s

Questions of low-order cognitive skills

knowledge

comprehension

application

analysis

synthesis

evaluation

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Figure 2. Successful (color) and unsuccessful (grey shade) student responses for each

high-order cognitive level question per course week.

The results of short-time in-class assessment (Table 1) following the order of in-class

and then homework showed that students’ ability to recognize the aim of an experiment during

the in-class activity was not as strong as when they had time to read the whole paper as

homework. This is probably due to limited time given for the in-class activity. However, it could

also imply that students’ critical thinking, considered as high-order cognitive skills, were not as

developed as the low-order ones, aligning with the results of the Bloom’s taxonomy activity.

Please note that I am making the assumption that identifying the hypothesis of a research

experiment involves high-order cognitive thinking compared to reporting results, which usually

requires only comprehension, a low-order cognitive level. In the reversed order, when students

had already seen the questions as homework, they did not answer the “what?” question as

clearly as they had previously done. An explanation for this outcome could be the content of the

excerpt chosen and also the fact that the students probably remembered the overall study’s aim

since they had spent a class discussing about this paper, but could not clearly retrieve

information on the findings of this study by looking at the excerpt.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10 week 11

Re

cord

ed r

esp

on

ses

Questions of high-order cognitive skills

knowledge

comprehension

application

analysis

synthesis

evaluation

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Table 1. Results of short-time in-class written assessment

In conclusion, a progress towards high-order cognitive skills was obvious in this class.

Incorporating short-time activities into undergraduate biology courses, such as the ones

presented here, can have a positive effect on students’ high-order cognitive skills development

and also inform the instructor about the course itself, regarding learning goals and outcomes.

References

1. Bissell, A. and P. Lemons. 2006. A New Method for Assessing Critical Thinking in the Classroom. BioScience, 56:66-72.

2. Bloom, S. and D. Krathwohl. 1956. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain. New York: Longmans.

3. Crowe A., Dirks C., and Wenderoth M. 2008. Biology in bloom: Implementing Bloom’s taxonomy to enhance student learning in biology. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 7:368-381.

4. DeHaan R. 2009. Teaching creativity and inventive problem solving in science. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 8:172-181.

5. Handelsman J., Miller S., Pfund C. 2007. Scientific Teaching. W.H. Freeman, New York.

6. Miller S., Pfund C., Pribbenow C., and Handelsman J. 2008. Scientific teaching in practice. Science, 322:1329-1330.

Acknowledgments

The researcher would like to thank HHMI Teaching Fellowship 2011-2012, for offering a teaching

fellowship and an opportunity for Education Research.

Order Activity/Question *why? *what?

1 In-class 4/9 9/9

2 Homework 8/9 9/9

Order Activity/Question *why? *what?

2 In-class 8/8 4/8

1 Homework 7/8 7/8

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Reflection

“Critical Analyses in Microbiology” is a discussion-based course aiming to help students develop

their critical thinking skills by reading different research papers each week and answering

questions, either as homework or as in-class activities. The study, presented above, was

conducted during my first teaching experience in an undergraduate Microbiology course (300-

level) and it was an optional part of my scientific teaching training during the Teaching Fellows

program at UW – Madison.

The main aspect of this research study was to examine the critical thinking development of

students as they get informed about Bloom’s taxonomy cognition theory. Designing a Bloom’s

taxonomy activity, as described above, was a simple way to introduce students to this

information. With the short-time in-class written assessment, I aimed testing students’ ability to

analyze a piece of a research paper that may or may not have previously seen as their

homework assignment.

In brief, I concluded that undergraduate students are able to comprehend and remember

information, but they have difficulty in recognizing and engaging in high-order cognitive

thinking, especially under time pressure. Critical thinking can only be developed with practice

and classes such as “Critical Analyses in Microbiology” are great learning environment for

undergraduate students to succeed this. There are a few limitations in the study design that do

not allow solid conclusions to be drawn at this point. For example, the sample size of this study

was rather small (n=8), thus further research is needed to verify these findings. Furthermore,

providing more feedback to students throughout the course could have yielded more positive

results. If I taught the same course again, I would give students more information on Bloom’s

taxonomy, as well as providing them with examples of homework questions belonging to each

Bloom’s category. I would also test more research papers, during the short-time in-class

assessment, in order to cancel out the effect of content in excerpt that can be a limiting factor in

this study. Finally, I would like to look at these results as an internal evaluation of the courses

that aim to promote students’ critical thinking. Activities similar to the ones presented can be

used as an assessment tool and verify the learning objectives of a course.

This was my first experience in conducting and presenting a biology education research study

and it helped me discover my personal interests in this area, which subsequently lead to a post-

doc position in biology education in WISCIENCE in 2015. Classes that focus on critical thinking

are necessary in any STEM discipline, as this is the major characteristic of scientific thinking.

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TEACHING AS RESEARCH

INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT

Teaching as research can be summarized as a circular process in this order: 1. Plan

teaching 2. Conduct this plan and collect data 3. Analyze the data-Draw conclusions, 4.

Make changes-Plan new teaching. When teaching as research is transparent to students,

it can be an alternate way for students to comprehend the scientific way of thinking that

need to have as future scientists or, otherwise stated, advance their high-order

cognitive skills.

This report has been produced as the core project of my Delta internship, fulfilling the

requirements towards a Delta Certificate in Teaching and Learning.

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Advancing the 4C's (Critical thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity)

through social bookmarking and collaborative discussions in an undergraduate physics class.

Kyriaki Chatzikyriakidou, Ph.D., Duncan Carlsmith, Ph.D.

University of Wisconsin – Madison

Abstract

Social bookmarking technology is gathering interest in education especially in the recent

years and knowledge-related social network platforms are being built for use in education. The

aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a) using Diigo, for online posts and discussions

about physics research papers, as well as b) group discussions in collaborative learning

classrooms (CLC), on students’ learning in an undergraduate physics class, as described by the

4C’s (critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity) provided by the National

Education Association. Each week, students bookmarked a physics research paper, related to

the topic being taught in theory class and the following week, they commented on 5 research

papers, posted by their peers, followed by grading. Students’ preferences about Diigo and CLC

participation were investigate through pre- and post-surveys, covering all the areas of interest

of this study: critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity. In-person interviews,

with a selected research paper, were conducted with low- and high- Diigo activity students, in

order to evaluate any imporvement in their critical thinking. Students stated that their

collaboration and communication skills, as well as creativity improved mainly due to their

participation in the weekly CLC discussions, compared to online Diigo discussions. Posting

participation in Diigo platform was higher than commenting participation throughout the 6

weeks of this study and although participation was sometimes limited to 50% of the

participants, high grades were recorded for both posts and comments. In-person interviews

showed that in general, high-activity Diigo students were more confident about reading the

research paper and identifying the main results. Regarding their personal opinion about Diigo,

all students admitted that it was a time commitment, however, the high-Diigo activity students,

perceived this in a positive manner, compared to the low-activity ones. Due to the small sample

size of this study, further research is needed to validate whether there is significant effect of

online discussions on students’ critical thinking skills, as well as effect of active learning

strategies, on students collaboration, communication and creativity skills.

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Introduction

The National Education Association (NEA) encourages educators to adapt their teaching

methods so as the ground for development of four main categories of skills (4 C’s) is offered to every

student they instruct: critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity for entrepreneurship

success (10). According to this report, these are the skills that the 21st century workforce should be

equipped with, in order for us to observe success in any discipline. These skills can be developed when

instruction takes place in interactive environments. Cooperative learning experiences can be

constructed in classroom if the five elements: positive interdependence, promoted face-to-face

interaction, individual accountability, social skills and group processing, are met as described by

Johnson, Johnson and Smith (6).

Almost a decade ago, Hopson et al. published a study, supporting the use of technology in

classroom in order to improve high-order thinking skills of fifth- and sixth-grade students. Minimal but

positive effect of technology, as meant by using a computer in classroom for learning, on student

acquisition of high-order thinking skills was found, through assessment with a Likert-type questionnaire,

designed for eight psychological dispositions (5). More recently, a cooperative environment with

interactive lectures was designed to teach quantum physics in an undergraduate physics class. Authors

suggested that significant gains in students’ achievements (expressed as exam grades) were observed, in

comparison to traditional teaching of the same class (11). In another study, pre-instructional cognitive

profile of undergraduate students in an introductory physics course was not found important for

learning gain, but for final performance of the same students (1).

Social bookmarking technology is gathering interest in education especially in the recent years

and knowledge-related social network platforms are being built for use in education. An example of this

technology is Diigo (Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff), a bookmarking social

network, with the aim of aiding participants to organize information, join groups of individuals with the

same scholarly interests and discuss the information posted. Farwell and Waters stressed the issue of

higher education costs and the increasing enrollment of students to online classes since 2008. At the

same time, authors interviewed students of a social media class that were using social bookmarking

activities and concluded that the use of this technology has positive effect on student’s learning (3). On

a different scientific field, under similar considerations, wiki pages, blogs and podcasts are already used

as Web tools for collaborative clinical practice and education. Positive results, related to enhancement

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of learning and learner’s engagement and collaboration have been found, although more feedback from

current users is needed (7).

A recent study, found the use of Diigo highly correlated to advancement of students’ critical

thinking, as it is designed to support reading-to-argue skills (8). The aim of this study was to evaluate the

effect of using Diigo, for online posts and discussions about physics research papers, as well as group

discussions in collaborative learning classrooms (CLC), on students’ learning in an undergraduate physics

class, as described by the 4C’s (critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity).

Approach

Physics course and classroom environment

Physics 241 surveys modern physics. It covers the special and general theories of relativity,

quantum mechanics, atomic physics, molecular physics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics,

astrophysics, cosmology, and biophysics. Students attended a lecture class three times a week and there

was an additional weekly discussion, which focused on student small group problem solving and various

training activities, taking place in a collaborative learning classroom (CLC).

A CLC classroom is specially designed for interactive group work and is equipped with high-tech

devices that students can use during their discussions. Each CLC has six pods, that each can facilitate

approximately 8 students with an individual screen monitor, where students can project their work. The

instructor has the ability to project one pod’s screen to every pod’s screen and in the same way, the

white-board projector can be projected to each pod’s screen. All discussion of this class, happened in

the same room and an image of it, is shown below.

Image 1. Collaborative Learning Classroom

(CLC) where weekly discussions took place.

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In – class student training

Use of software LaTex

Students were introduced to LaTex, a software package that is designed for creating and

writing formulas in a text document. Students were firstly asked to read about LaTex on their

own, through related webpages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX and http://www.latex-

project.org) and during the following weekly discussion, they created personal accounts at

writelatex.com. The instructor talked about the basics of this software package and students

experienced their first writing with LaTex with a short assignment given by the instructor. After

this training, all subsequent homework of this class was completed using LaTex and submitted

electronically.

Use of library physics database

Campus Library User Education (CLUE) is a multimedia tutorial for college-level research

tools and strategies, offered by the UW-Madison Libraries. In this class, students were firstly

asked to watch online two tutorials (http://clue.library.wisc.edu/index.html and

http://www.vtstutorials.co.uk/he/tutorial/physics) and then received a 20min. introduction to

library research from a librarian affiliated with the physics department. Afterwards, they

received further guidelines from the instructor on how to perform a search on physics news and

journal articles.

Social community

Posting and commenting research papers with Diigo platform

Diigo (diigo.com) is a social bookmarking tool, specifically designed for knowledge management.

Students were asked to sign up into Physics 241 Diigo group (created by the instructor) and

participate in the Diigo activity. Rubrics on bookmarking and commenting physics research

papers were constructed and given to students at the beginning of the class (Appendix II). Each

week, students bookmarked a physics research paper, related to the topic being taught in

theory class that same week. The following week, students had to comment on 5 research

papers, posted by their peers. This rotation of bookmarking and commenting (Figure 1) was

continued throughout the semester and students received a grade for each of these activities.

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Figure 1. Social bookmarking activity scheme

Assessement

Pre- and post-surveys

Students (n=30) who consented to participate in this study (IRB approved), were asked to fill in a

pre-survey and a post-survey. Pre- and post-surveys were composed of both multiple choice and

scale questions, covering all the areas of interest of this study: critical thinking, collaboration,

communication and creativity. The questions were designed based on the guide book

“Preparing 21st century students for a global society – An educator’s guide to the “Four Cs”

published by the National Education Association. Additionally, there were a few personal career

and development questions, such as interest in following a career in physics or interest in

reading physics research papers at spare time, prior or after taking this course. These surveys

were designed in order to evaluate the effect of using Diigo and participating in the CLC

discussions, on student’s learning, while taking into consideration students’ preferences. Control

groups, i.e. students not participating in these activities, were not applicable in this class, thus

the start and end time of the class were used to evaluate the differences before and after the

Diigo activity, with idnetical questions been asked in both, pre- and post- surveys.

In-person interviews

In order to evaluate the improvement in critical thinking of the students, in-person interviews

were conducted at the end of the semester in the same CLC classroom that discussions had

taken place. The students were given time to read part (pre-selected) of a physics research

Students bookmark

physics research papers

Students discuss on the content

of the previously bookmarked

papers

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paper, previously posted and commented by students on Diigo, and were subsequently asked to

elaborate on whether the hypothesis of the study was proven or not and explain why. The

research paper was written on new star formation in Maggelanic Clouds (2) and was chosen due

to its short length and low level of difficulty (content-free of mathematical formulas).

Interviewed students were chosen based on their participation in Diigo activities, selecting both

high- and low-activity pasticipants.

Results and Discussion

Overall, the participants of this class seemed to experience this learning environment

for first time. None of the students, responding to the survey, stated that they had prior

experience in using Diigo, and only 22% (n=9) had previously been in a collaborative learning

classroom (CLC). Although, posting and commenting physics research articles using Diigo, was

part of their course grade, it was small enough to have minimal effect on their final grade and

the incentive to do this extra work was clearly self-motivation and personal interest in learning

more about the course material.

Figure 1. Percentage of students reading the corresponding number of journal or news articles,

before, during or after the Physics 241 course (n=9).

The “parallel” question on number of physics news and journal articles in relation to

time (before, during and after) showed that students read many more articles during class,

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0 1 2 3 4 5 8 10

journal articlesbefore

journal articlesduring

journal articlesafter

news articlesbefore

news articlesduring

news articlesafter

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compared to the beginning. In particular, before the course, all survey respondents indicated

that were reading none or one journal article, a behavior that shifted to at least one article

during the course. Also, the majority indicated that they will keep reading after class, with a

preference to physics news articles. The preference for news articles versus research articles,

could probably be explained by the more jargon-free language used for news articles and also

the more directly defined impact of research findings. To the question whether students

critically assess the information in the news articles, 75% and 78% replied either always, or

sometimes, in pre- and post- survey respectively. On the other hand, only 55% did the same for

journal articles prior taking this course, a number that switched to 75% at the end of the course.

This increase in evaluating the research findings presented in journal articles, at the end of the

course, may be correlated to the experience students gained in critically assessing the

information in the research articles they read during their participation to the Diigo activity. We

have to note here that students were instructed to read news articles from validated websites,

aiming researchers and the source of the news article was monitored by the instructor, while

participating in the Diigo online community.

In the pre-survey, students were asked four simple questions each for every one of the

four C’s – critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity and whether the Diigo

activity or the CLC discussions were more effective for them to develop these skills (Figure 2).

CLC discussions were chosen for all questions against Diigo activity. Although the pre-survey

took place at a time when students were using Diigo and CLC classroom for almost a month, this

result is probably attributed to the fact that physical interactions among students are better

perceived than the online ones, regarding the development of these skills.

In the post-survey, similar questions but more elaborated, were asked, regarding the

four (C’s) different skills that we hoped students will advance throughout these activities

(Figures 3 & 4).

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Figure 2. Mean value for each question posed for both Diigo platform and collaborative learning

classroom (CLC) (these questions were used in the pre-survey).

Figure 3. Mean value for each question posed for both Diigo platform and collaborative learning

classroom (CLC) (these questions were used in the post-survey).

0 1 2 3 4 5

provides a collaborative learning environment

encourages critical thinking regarding physicsresearch

encourages innovative thinking and ideas

helps develop communication skills (clarity inspeech when elaborating your concepts)

Diigo CLC

0 1 2 3 4 5

Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral,written, and nonverbal communication skills in a variety

of forms and contexts.

Listen effectively to decipher meaning, includingknowledge, values, attitudes, and intentions.

Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. toinform, instruct, motivate, and persuade).

Use multiple media and technologies, and know how toassess impact and their effectiveness a priori.

Communicate effectively in diverse environments(including multilingual and multicultural).

Diigo CLC

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Figure 4. Mean value for each question posed for both Diigo platform and collaborative learning

classroom (CLC) (these questions were used in the post-survey).

Students stated that their collaboration and communication skills, as well as creativity

improved mainly due to their participation in the weekly CLC discussions. Although

improvement of skills was indicated, when using the Diigo platform, average values of

preference were lower than those for the CLC discussions. We have to note here, that the

sample size of respondents is quite small to draw any solid conclusions, however there is a

preference for CLC discussions participation over Diigo activity participation, from the beginning

until the end of this Physics 241 class, regarding communication, collaboration and creative

thinking skills improvement. Regarding critical thinking, students were asked at the end of class

whether they believed CLC discussions or Diigo activity was more important for advancement of

their ability to assess and analyze information in research articles. In this question, CLC and Diigo

were found almost equal with mean preference values of 3.13 and 3.00, respectively.

In Diigo, posting participation was higher than commenting participation throughout the

6 weeks of this study. In total, 234 research papers and over 600 comments were posted on the

class Diigo community. Although no coding analysis was completed on the content of comments

posted, according to the five categories of types of interaction (self-reflection,

elaboration/clarification, alternative complementary proposal, internalization/appropriation,

conflict/disagreement and support) that Gao published in a similar study (4), majority of

0 20 40 60 80 100

Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful inmaking necessary compromises to accomplish a

common goal.

Demonstrate ability to work effectively andrespectfully with diverse teams.

Assume shared responsibility for collaborativework, and value the individual contributions made

by each team member.

Develop, implement, and communicate new ideasto others effectively

Be open and responsive to new and diverseperspectives; incorporate group input and feedback

into the work

Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in workand understand the real world limits to adopting

new ideas

Diigo CLC

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comments belonged to the self-reflection and elaboration categories. This is not surprising,

since students were asked to summarize the findings of the paper they were posting, in order to

offer basis for further online discussions. High grades for both posts and comments were

recorded, although participation was sometimes limited to 50% of the class. This may be

partially attributed to the high load of journal articles reading that needed to be done, prior to

posting and commenting activities.

Figure 5. Average grades and number of participants in Diigo posts and comments for each

week of class.

In-person interviews were conducted with high- and low-Diigo activity students, in order

to investigate the effect of this platform on the critical thinking of students, when they read a

physics research paper. Although the chosen paper was easy to read and the findings were

straightforward, its hypothesis was not clearly stated. Three low-activity and two high-activity

students were interviewed voluntarily. Activity (participation) in commenting was used as the

main factor to choose students, rather than posting activity, as critical thinking was more

necessary for writing a comment, than picking a paper to post. To the question whether they

remember this paper form the previous Diigo post, only one high-activity student stated “yes”.

Regarding the proof of the paper’s hypothesis, all students admitted that the hypothesis was

either not proven, or was partially proven but more information was needed in order to securely

state that it is proven. The low-activity students had a similar approach toward the paper

analysis, with more information seeking before they answered the interview questions and

3.38 3.43 3.50 3.59 3.36 3.50

2.96 3.08 3.45

3.81 3.28

3.59

23.00

19.00

20.00 13.00 16.00

11.00

28.00

23.00

24.00

16.00

22.00

16.00

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1 2 3 4 5 6week of instruction

Posts grades

Commentsgrades

Postingparticipants

Commentingparticipants

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giving incomplete descriptions of results. Another similar behavior observed in these students

was the fact that, they admitted they do not fully understand the paper or they thought they do

not have an advanced level of understanding physics research papers yet. On the other hand,

the high-activity students stated they do not know all about the methods used in this paper

(something that was not necessary), however the frequency of the phrase “I don’t know” was

much higher in the low-activity students interviews, compared to the high-activity ones. This

attitude of the low-activity students may be linked to a low confidence level in reading and

analyzing physics research papers, since these students had demonstrated minimal or no

commenting participation in Diigo.

The second part of the interview was a discussion about the Diigo and what students

thought about it. Although only two high-activity students were interviewed, they both

appreciated this activity and stated they learned a lot along with their physics course. Low-

activity students emphasized the time needed to complete these activities and stated this as the

primary reason for not participating. They were also aware of the fact that their grade will not

change significantly if they do not participate. High-activity students also admitted that it was a

commitment, however, it was worth the time and benefits earned. This difference in students’

explanations about Diigo, could be originated from self-motivation levels and personal interest

in learning. As a supporting mark to this argument, the average final course grade of the high-

activity (75.5%) students was ~10% higher than the grade of the low-activity (64.5%) ones.

However, no correlation was found between student’s grade and participation in posting or

commenting physics research papers. Similar results on behavior towards active reading

through Diigo were found by Lu and Deng, between two secondary school classes; a low- and a

high-performance one. The authors found a correlation between the number of notes the high-

performance students posted and their perception of this as important for their learning (9).

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References

1. Cappizo, M., S. Nuzzo & M. Zarcone. 2006. The impact of the pre-instructional cognitive

profile on learning gain and final exam of physics courses: A case study. European

Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 31, p.:717-727.

2. Casetti-Dinescu, D. I., C. Moni Bidin, T. M. Girard, Rène A. Mèndez, K. Vieira, V. I.

Korchagin & William F. van Altena. Recent star formation in leading arm of the

Magellanic stream. Unpublished. Available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.0517v1

3. Farwell, T. & R. Waters. 2010. Exploring the use of social bookmarking technology in

education: An analysis of students’ experiences using a course-specific Delicious.com

account. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 6, p.:398-408.

4. Gao, F. 2013. A case study of using a social annotation tool to support collaboratively

learning. Internet and Higher Education, Vol. 17, p.:76-83.

5. Hopson, M., R. Simms & G. Knezek. 2001. Using a technology-enriched environment to

improve higher-order thinking skills. Journal of Research on Technology in Education,

Vol. 34, p.:109-119.

6. Jones, K. & J. Jones. 2008. Making cooperative learning work in the college classroom:

An application of the “Five Pillars” of cooperative learning to post-secondary instruction.

The journal of effective teaching Vol. 8, .p:61-76.

7. Kamel Boulos, M. N., I. Maramba & S. Wheeler. 2006. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: A new

generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education.

BMC Medical Education, Vol. 6 (41).

8. Lu, J. & L. Deng. 2013. Examining students’ use of online annotation tools in support of

argumentative reading. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 29, p.:161-

171.

9. Lu, J. & L. Deng. 2012. Reading actively online: an exploratory investigation of online

annotation tools for inquiry learning. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Vol.

38, p.:1-16.

10. National Education Association. 2012. Preparing 21st century students for a global

society – An educator’s guide to the “Four Cs”.

Available at http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf

11. Puente, S. & H. Swagten. 2012. Designing learning environments to teach interactive

Quantum Physics. European Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 37, p.:448-457.

Reflective statement on TAS project

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“How has your internship experience influenced your understanding of teaching-as-research, learning-through-diversity and learning communities? Teaching-as-Research

Teaching as research prepares the educator to scrutinize the teaching plan, while

considering learning goals and how students will achieve these goals throughout the class. It

could be summarized as: 1. Plan teaching 2. Conduct this plan and collect data 3. Analyze the

data-Draw conclusions, 4. Make changes-Plan new teaching. In Physics 241, the class which I

conducted my DELTA internship at, the primary teaching plan was modified by the main

instructor to contain innovative teaching elements, such as online bookmarking activities and

weekly discussions in a well-equipped with technology devices classroom. The purpose of

adding these new elements to the course was to expose students to an environment that could

advance their collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills. The primary investigator

and I planned out the research question we wanted to investigate with the primary hypothesis

that participation in the online bookmarking activity will advance students’ critical thinking.

Learning-through-Diversity As an international student, I wholeheartedly believe that learning can be enhanced

through diversity and this can entail different nationalities, educational backgrounds and

personal beliefs and opinions. Although majority of the Physics 241 class was US citizens, they

were exposed to different learning styles and ways of thinking among their peers, especially

those who regularly participated in the weekly discussions. Students had to work as groups

around a pod exchanging ideas or problem-solving regarding physics homework questions. In

the future, as a potential instructor, I would like to include the element of diversity in a course,

for example, by inviting international guest speakers who could ignite learning through a

different than mine perspective and foster the broadening of students’ horizons.

Learning Communities Science can be seen as an interdisciplinary and dynamic form of existence, and an

individual can be seen as exactly the same. However, for changes and improvement to happen,

interactions are needed and these interactions are best achieved inside communities. All DELTA

classes are structured with learning communities and I personally had many ideas formed during

our meetings, that otherwise wouldn’t have. In Physics 241, communities were formed every

week during the group discussions, as well as online communities (Diigo), via online discussions

on physics research papers. Students participated in both activities and I witnessed the fact that

these communities were contributory to students’ learning. Literature also supports the fact

that group discussions and interactive activities with peers are impactful teaching approaches

for an individual’s learning development path and I also wish to put an effort in implementing

them in classes that I may be the instructor of.

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APPENDIX I Instructional materials for teaching unit Bacterial “Social” Behavior Homework

(week 5 in Micro 305)

Assigned reading

Bacterial charity work leads to population-wide resistance. Lee H., Molla M., Cantor C. and

Collins J. 2010. Nature vol. 467 pp. 82-85.

Homework questions

One week before this class, students will be asked to read the paper and answer the following

questions:

Homework begins by asking students a low order cognitive level (Bloom’s taxonomy) question:

The authors of this paper proceeded on their research based on their findings of previous trials.

There is a series of 6-7 individual experiments (trials) that the authors completed for two

different antibiotics.

Provide the hypothesis and the main result for each of these experiments (pp. 82-83).

Figure Hypothesis Main result

1a

2a

2b

2d

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The next step is to move on towards high order cognitive levels (Bloom’s taxonomy) questions:

After an in-class discussion of question 1, students will work as groups and then as a class to

answer additional homework questions related to the assigned reading and specifically the

figures of the paper. Students are required to complete these questions before class, in order to

help their understanding and interpretation of experimental data. Questions are provided

below:

2) Study figure 1 of the paper. This figure presents the results of the first in series

experiment that the authors conducted. Describe in few sentences what was found and

is presented in 1b?

3) a) In figure 2b, describe the behavior of c10,6 and c10,12.

b) Why the mutant strain c10,12∆tnaA grows more under antibiotic stress, if it is unable to

produce indole (figure 2d)?

4) Discuss in groups of 3-4 students the implication of these findings on the treatment of a

disease when antibiotics are provided to the patient. Discuss specifically if the disease

will be curable when HRI and LRI strains are present at the infected area of the patient.

What experiments would you design in order to test your hypothesis?

You will be given 1 minute at the end to present your idea.

5) Study figure 1 of the paper. This figure presents the results of the first in the series of

experiments that the authors conducted. Describe in two sentences what was found

and presented in 1b?

6) a) In figure 2b, describe the behavior of c10,6 and c10,12.

c) Why does the mutant strain c10,12∆tnaA grow more under antibiotic stress, if it is

unable to produce indole (figure 2d)?

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In class activity

We know that bacteria work together by using a well-studied communication system called

Quorum Sensing (QS). During infection, bacteria talk to each other using QS to coordinate the

release of toxins.

Last year researchers from University of Nottingham presented at the Society for General

Microbiology's autumn meeting the use of bacteria defective in QS that can benefit from 'opting

out' of toxin production by Staphylococcus aureus during infection of waxworms. As a result the

overall severity of infection is reduced as fewer toxins are produced.

Discuss in groups of 3-4 students how the reduction of severity is mediated in this infection.

What experiment(s) would you design in order to test your hypothesis? What are the

implications of these findings on the treatment of a disease when antibiotics are provided to the

patient?

You will be given 1 minute at the end to present your idea.

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APPENDIX II

Rubric for Social Bookmarking Activity

4 3 2 1

Adds URL to a social bookmarking site

Posted beyond the required number of bookmarks to the class Diigo site.

Posted required number of bookmarks to the class Diigo site.

Posted fewer than the required number of bookmarks to the class Diigo site.

Did not post bookmarks to the class Diigo site.

Notes

Detailed student comments added to all of the notes/description of each bookmarked site. Comments are appropriate and useful.

Comments added to all of the notes/description of each bookmarked site. Comments are appropriate and useful.

Comments added to the notes/description of most bookmarked site. Comments are appropriate and useful.

No notes added to bookmarked sites. Comments are not appropriate or useful.

Tags

Appropriate keyword Tags are used for all bookmarked sites. No duplication of tags (eg. cat and cats are used as tags for websites about cats). Identifying Tag was added to all sites posted by an individual. (i.e initials, screenname)

Appropriate keyword Tags are used for all bookmarked sites but some duplication of tags (eg. singular and plural form of tags.) Identifying Tag was added to all sites posted by an individual. (i.e initials, screenname)

Appropriate keyword tags are used on most of the bookmarked sites. Identifying Tag was added to most of the sites posted by an individual. (i.e initials, screenname)

No tags. Identifying tags only.

Journal Article

Identified high-quality, relevant, and appropriate resources that support a course, subject, or unit of study in the curriculum for students’ use and/or teacher use.

Identified resources are mostly high quality, relevant, and appropriate and support a course, subject, or unit of study in the curriculum for students’ use and/or teacher use.

Identified resources are not all relevant and appropriate to support a course, subject, or unit of study in the curriculum for students’ use.

Identified resources are lacking in quality, relevance, or appropriateness to support a course, subject, or unit of study in the curriculum for students’ use.

Validity All sites Bookmarked were checked for validity.

All sites Bookmarked were checked for validity.

Most sites bookmarked were valid.

Websites were not checked for validity.

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Rubric for comment post on Diigo

4 3 2 1

Relevance Comment includes link to related article graded on quality and relevance.

Comment does not include link to related article graded on quality and relevance.

Overall structure

Comment is of appropriate length – one paragraph summarizing briefly each of the main findings of the study.

Comment is of appropriate length – one paragraph summarizing the main findings of the study.

Comment is not of appropriate length or missing main findings of study.

Comment is too short to elaborate on any findings of the study.

Language/ tone

Appropriate tone/formal language is used.

Informal language, like peer-to-peer conversation, is used.

Critical thinking

Identified hypothesis of the study and understanding of findings, regarding support or rejection of hypothesis, are stated. Reader briefly explains why.

Identified hypothesis of the study and understanding of findings, regarding support or rejection of hypothesis, are stated.

Identified hypothesis of the study is stated however understanding of findings, regarding support or rejection of hypothesis is not.

No identified hypothesis is given.

Conclusion sentence

Reader’s personal opinion is clear and based on current scientific knowledge.

Reader’s personal opinion is not clear or based on current scientific knowledge.

Reader’s opinion is poor and not scientific.

Reader’s opinion is not related to main findings of the study.

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Associate Level

Teaching –As-Research

Associates can do the following:

How this outcome was met :

Know that a body of literature and knowledge exists concerning high-impact, evidence-based teaching practices.

Through Delta classes and HHMI Teaching Fellowship training.

Define and recognize the value of the Teaching-as-Research process, and how it can be used for ongoing enhancement of learning.

By completing my internship project’s proposal as well as final reflection on this project.

Know how to access the literature and existing knowledge about teaching, learning and assessment, in a discipline or broadly.

Through literature research for my internship project, as well as through the second artifact of this portfolio.

Describe and recognize the value of realistic well-defined, achievable, measurable and student-centered learning goals.

Addressed at a large extent during the HHMI Teaching Fellows program and described in the first artifact.

Describe several assessment techniques and recognize the value of their alignment with particular types of learning goals.

Relevant knowledge gained by attending DBER online courses.

Describe and recognize the value of evidence-based effective instructional practices and materials.

Relevant knowledge gained by attending DBER online courses

Describe a “full-inquiry” cycle

Demonstrated through my teaching-as-research (internship) project.

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Learning Communities

Associates can do the following:

How this outcome was met :

Know that a body of literature and knowledge exists associated with learning communities and their impact on undergraduate learning.

Through my internship project, while addressing one of the DELTA pillars: learning communities.

Define the characteristics of undergraduate learning communities (LCs).

Knowledge gained through teaching undergraduate courses at UW-Madison.

Describe the impact of LCs on student learning. Throughout my internship project, which partially examined learning communities in a classroom.

Describe and recognize the value of LC strategies that promote positive interdependence between learners so as to accomplish learning goals.

Explained in the internship project’s reflection.

Describe and recognize the value and issues of establishing LCs comprising a diverse group of learners.

Explained in the internship project’s reflection.

Describe techniques for creating a LC within a learning environment. Through teaching a discussion-based class during my Teaching Fellowship program.

Recognize the value of and participate in local professionally-focused learning communities associated with teaching and learning.

One of them was our DELTA internship group, another one was presenting a poster of my internship project to the Teaching & Learning symposium. Also, facilitating the local (Madison) community discussions of the MOOC course “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching”.

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Learning through Diversity

Associates can do the following:

How this outcome was met:

Know that a body of literature and knowledge exists associated with diversity and its impact on accomplishing learning goals.

Through my post-doc position on Biology Education Research with discussions on diversity in a college classroom.

Define and recognize the scope of diversity in learning environments, of both students and instructor.

Through the internship project’s reflection discussing this DELTA pillar.

Recognize the impact of diversity on student learning, in particular how diversity can enhance learning, and that inequities can also negatively impact learning if not addressed.

Through personal reading on this topic and discussions in our DELTA internship class.

Describe how an instructor’s beliefs and biases can influence student learning.

Through personal reading on this topic and discussions in our DELTA internship class.

Recognize the value of drawing on diversity in the development of their teaching plans (including content, teaching practices and assessments) to foster learning.

Discussed during the Teaching Fellows program, our DELTA internship class, as well as other DELTA classes.

Describe several learning-through-diversity (LtD) techniques and strategies (e.g. creating a welcoming environment, learning communities).

Discussed with my internship project advisor as part of my research project.

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Practitioner Level

Teaching –As-Research

Practitioners can do the following:

How this outcome was met in the Delta Certificate:

Develop a deeper understanding of the knowledge concerning high-impact, evidence-based teaching practices.

Through attending the MOOC “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching” in 2014.

Develop a Teaching-as-Research plan for a limited teaching and learning project.

Necessary part of DELTA internship project.

Execute a Teaching-as-Research plan for a limited teaching and learning project.

Necessary part of DELTA internship project.

Show the integrated use of Teaching-as-Research, Learning Community and Learning-through-Diversity to accomplish learning goals.

Explained in my internship project’s reflection.

Learning Communities

Practitioners can do the following:

How this outcome was met in the Delta Certificate:

Develop a deeper understanding of the knowledge concerning LCs and their impact on undergraduate student learning.

By attending the collaborative classroom teaching sessions of Physics 241 during my internship project.

Integrate one or more LC strategies into a teaching plan so as to accomplish learning goals and learning-through-diversity

Through planning to teach a discussion-based course (Micro 305) during the Teaching Fellows program.

Implement one or more LC strategies for students in a teaching experience.

While teaching the course Micro 305 during the Teaching Fellows program.

Contribute to local professionally-focused learning communities associated with teaching and learning.

Facilitating the local community discussions of the MOOC “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching”.

Show the integrated use of Teaching-as-Research, Learning Community and Learning-through-Diversity to accomplish learning goals.

Explained in my internship project’s reflection.

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Learning through Diversity Practitioners can do the following:

How this outcome was met in the Delta Certificate:

Develop a deeper knowledge of the body of literature concerning diversity and its impact on accomplishing learning goals.

Through personal reading on this topic and discussions in our DELTA internship class.

Examine own beliefs and biases, including how they may influence their students’ learning.

Through discussions during my training in the Teaching Fellows program.

Determine the diverse backgrounds among a group of students, and consider the opportunities and challenges of the findings on each student’s learning.

While teaching Micro 305, presented in this portfolio, as well as other courses, such as Micro 304 class and Food Micro 324.

Create a teaching plan that incorporates content and teaching practices responsive to the students’ backgrounds.

By making modifications to a particular teaching plan, so it serves students’ needs.

Integrate one or more LtD techniques and strategies in a teaching plan so as to use students’ diversity to enhance the learning of all.

Through planning a teaching unit for Micro 305, during the Teaching Fellows program.

Implement one or more LtD strategies in a teaching experience. Through teaching Micro 305, a discussion-based course, during the Teaching Fellows program.

Show the integrated use of Teaching-as-Research, Learning Community and Learning-through-Diversity to accomplish learning goals.

Explained in my internship project’s reflection.