the college classroom fa15 meeting 7: teaching-as-research

The College Classroom Session 7:

Teaching as Research

November 10 and 12, 2015

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Reviewing ed research –boring!

Give some hypothetical case studies where something could/does harm

the students and have students identify and problem solve

2

Scholarly

Teaching

Evaluate document observations summarize evaluation

Deliver deliver learning experiences * assess

learning outcomes * conduct observations

Design formulate big questions * identify learning

outcomes * plan assessment * design learning experiences

Adapted from Gabriele Wienhausen

Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

3

Scholarly

Teaching

Study identify key issues * analyze and synthesize

results * put results in context * solicit peer review * publish, present, disseminate






Scholarship

of

Teaching

and

Learning

(SoTL)



4

Scholarly

Teaching

Study identify key issues * analyze and synthesize

results * put results in context * solicit peer review * publish, present, disseminate






Scholarship

of

Teaching

and

Learning

(SoTL)



Teaching as Research (TAR)

Teaching as research

collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu 5

At the core of improving teaching and learning is the need

to accurately determine what students have learned as a result of

teaching practices. This is a research problem, to which instructors

can effectively apply their research skills and ways of knowing. In

so doing, instructors themselves become the agents for change in

teaching and learning.

Teaching-as-Research involves the deliberate, systematic,

and reflective use of research methods to develop and implement

teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and

outcomes of students and teachers.

CIRTL Network [1]

Note: CIRTL’s description of TAR describes STEM instructors teaching STEM

courses. I removed “STEM” because the description can be applied to all disciplines.

Categories of Educational Research[2]

Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu 6

Theoretical research

Action or practitioner research

Evaluative Experimental

'Cause and effect' research

Case study

Systematic review Exploratory

Comparative

Grounded theory

Ethnography

The Effect of Interactive Instruction[3]


1 2

3 4

The Effect of Interactive Instruction[3]


Students in 52 classes took astronomy-based concept

inventory (Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory)

pre- and post-

Course instructors (self) reported % time lecturing

and % time when students were active

Researchers computed normalized learning gain

Researchers looked for correlations

𝑛 =post test % − (pretest %)

100 − (pretest %)

(Action or practitioner research)

What is the value of course-specific learning goals?[4]


3 classes (A = computer literacy Fa07, B = computer

literacy Sp08, C = microbiology Sp08)

Last week of course (Wk 13): students asked to

complete up to five copies of, “For me, the use of

learning goals in this course is . . .”

Comments put into categories using content-analysis

based coding

A B C total

Comments 225 252 120 597

Students 59 76 51 186

(Evaluative)

What is the value of course-specific learning goals?[4]


Research informs the

instructors about

how students are

responding

what’s working (or not)

what to use again (or

not)

Helps instructors become

better educators.

Active learning increases student performance

in science, engineering and mathematics[5]


Meta-analysis of 225 research studies that explored the

impact of active learning:

Active learning engages students in the process of learning

through activities and/or discussions in class, as opposed to

passively listening to an expert. It emphasizes higher-order

thinking and often involves group work.

(Freeman et al., pp 8413-8414)

(Systematic review)


Active learning increases student performance

in science, engineering and mathematics[5]

established active learning

has positive impact on

learning

advances field of education

research: no need to

continue to replicate study

(in STEM)

What can you study?


Students’ knowledge and skills

what are students able to do now that they couldn’t do

before taking the course?

are students thinking more like experts? (e.g. what questions do they ask in lab/discussion?)

Students’ attitudes

what are they initially? (e.g., what are students’ views on academic integrity?)

how did they change after you did X? (e.g., what do students think about learning goals?)

Discussion


Do you think carrying out these studies impacted students

in a negative way? Which one(s) and why/how?

A) Prather et al. (2009) – active learning in astronomy

B) Taylor and Simon (2009) – learning goals

C) Freeman et al. (2014) – active learning

D) No harm to students

Give some hypothetical case studies where something could/does harm the students

If you suspect your research could involve 1. or 2.,

you might need to apply for IRB approval or an

exemption from IRB review.

Humans are involved in TAR


Mission of the Institutional Review Board (IRB):

1. Protection of human subjects from physical harm.

2. Protection of your students’ privacy and students’ success.

UCSD IRB grants exemptions to…


(1) Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational

settings, involving normal educational practices, such as (i) research on

regular and special education instructional strategies, or (ii) research on

the effectiveness of or the comparison among instructional techniques,

curricula, or classroom management methods. [6]

Things a scholarly, reflective instructor

might and should do anyway.

Your turn


Imagine you’re going to

teach one section of a course

in your discipline. You’re

want to do research on it.

What do you want to

learn?

Why is that important

enough to do?

(10 minutes)

Common education research tools

Quantitative Qualitative


What is happening? Why is it happening?

Multiple choice tests (pre- and post-testing?)

Attitude surveys (Likert SD, D, N, A, SA scale)

mini-writing (muddiest point, think-pair-share, etc.)

document students’

answers on a worksheets responses to a question

opinions/views peer instruction votes questions

Can You Solve This?


Play along with the Derek’s puzzle.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKA4w2O61Xo

Beware of confirmation bias: the

tendency to search for, interpret,

or recall information in a way that

confirms one's beliefs or

hypotheses.[8]

(Watch it again – this time look for for “A-ha!” moments

from an educator’s point-of-view. How can you tell that a

breakthrough occurred?)

Your turn


How are you going to

investigate your issue?

What do you anticipate

will happen?

What will you do with

that result?

(10 minutes)

Share your TAR projects


One-by-one at your table, please take ~5 minutes each to

describe your TAR project to your colleagues and get (and

give) feedback.

2016 Summer Graduate

Teaching Scholars (SGTSs)


You’ll have an opportunity to design, execute, and analyze a teaching-as-research project in your course.

Teaching for the first time can be extremely busy so the Center for Engaged Teaching will support you via

Education Research coordinator to help you make it happen in your class with your students, your context

small stipend to reward extra effort

guidance on how to expand study to the level you could present at your discipline’s annual meeting

2015 Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars

References


1. Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (2010) Teaching as Research.

www.cirtl.net/CoreIdeas/teaching_as_research

2. Lambert, M. (2012). A Beginner's Guide to Doing Your Education Research Project. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Publications Inc. via Tomorrow’s Professor cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1233

3. Prather, E.E, Rudolph, A.L., Brissenden, G., & Schlingman, W.M. (2009). A national study assessing the teaching and

learning of introductory astronomy. Part I. The effect of interactive instruction. Am. J. Phys. 77, 4, 320-330.

4. Simon, B., & Taylor, J. (2009). What is the Value of Course-Specific Learning Goals? J. College Science Teaching, 39, 2,

52-57.

5. Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L. McDonough, M., Smith, M., Okoroafor, N., Jordt,. H. & Wenderoth, M.P. (2014) Active

learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS 111, 23, 8410–8415.

6. Exemption from IRB Review, UCSD Human Research Protections Program, retrieved from

irb.ucsd.edu/Exempt_forms.shtml 24/2/ 2014.

7. Adams, W.K., Perkins, K.K., Podolefsky, N.S., Dubson, M., Finkelstein, N.D., & Wieman, C.E. (2006) A new

instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science

Survey (CLASS). Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010101.

8. Confirmation bias (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias