A Life Sciences Journal Dissects an Education Research Study
To help biologists learn more about education research, the journal Life Sciences Education is offering annotated articles that comment on study design, interpretation, and presentation.
The Importance of Empathy in the Classroom
Teaching Physics with Love – To be successful, faculty members must go beyond teaching the material, writes Matthew J. Wright. We must care deeply about students and show it.
I frequently tell my students outright, “I love you.” Although every time I write it down on paper it doesn’t sound right, I’ve found that the more I outwardly care about my students, the more successful I am as an instructor. So I tell my class how much I love them — out loud and often. My students just smile back.
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An Analysis of College Teaching Practices
While decades of research on college teaching has investigated several forms of classroom practices, much of this research approaches teaching as falling into mutually exclusive paradigms (e.g., active learning vs. lecturing). This paper enters inside the college classroom using external raters to understand patterns of pedagogical practices embedded in heterogeneous groups of courses. The study used quantitative observation and draws on data from a multi-institutional study of 587 courses across nine institutions to understand the patterns of teaching practices within courses. Latent class analyses demonstrated that there were five patterns of seven course practices that cluster around active learning, lecturing, and cognitively responsive practices: Comprehensive, Traditional Lecture, Active Lecture, Integrative Discussion, and Active Only.
Why Flipped Learning is Still Going Strong 10 Years Later
Ten years ago two Colorado chemistry teachers unleashed a brash concept on a K-12 landscape where few questioned the age-old formula of lecture, homework, assess, repeat. It was the early days of YouTube (then two-years old), and it was getting cheap and easy to make and post videos, so the two teachers—Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams—proposed shifting lectures to videos students would watch at home, and asking students to come to class prepared to problem solve with their peers. It became know as the flipped classroom—a modern, video-based version of a model pioneered by a handful of higher ed professors during the 1990s.
Revamping the Chemistry Curriculum
Emory’s chemistry department is on its way to a new curriculum. Previously, students took two semesters of general chemistry and two semesters of organic chemistry as the basis for their major. Now, as part of a sweeping curriculum reform, those classes have been replaced with what the department hopes will be a more interdisciplinary and holistic approach.
STEM Majors, Art Thinkers – Issues of Duality, Rigor and Inclusion
According to a recent study of students who actively participate in dance curricula while pursing STEM degrees, pairing a Think+Do model in STEM with a Performance+Presentation in the arts bolstered students’ problem-solving skills.
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Designing Welcoming Classrooms
When instructors consider the diversity of learners when designing courses, all students benefit.
AAU Releases Five-Year Report on Undergraduate STEM Initiative – Progress Toward Achieving Systematic Change
The Association of American Universities (AAU) released a five-year status report highlighting institutional progress in improving the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning resulting from the Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative. The report provides detailed analysis of STEM educational reforms at eight seed-funded AAU STEM project sites. Also, the report identifies key factors necessary to achieve systemic improvements in STEM instruction and highlights numerous evidence-based educational reforms implemented at AAU universities.
How Student Learning is Affected By Small Group Dynamics
Active learning in college classes and participation in the workforce frequently hinge on small group work. However, group dynamics vary, ranging from equitable collaboration to dysfunctional groups dominated by one individual. To explore how group dynamics impact student learning, the authors asked students in a large-enrollment university biology class to self-report their experience during in-class group work.
What’s in a Name? The Importance of Perceiving that an Instructor Knows Their Names in a High-Enrollment Biology Classroom
Learning student names has been promoted as an inclusive classroom practice, but it is unknown whether students value having their names known by an instructor. The authors of this paper explored this question in the context of a high-enrollment active-learning undergraduate biology course.