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marian gibney
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f e l l o w s marian gibney's final report |
Maricopa Institute for Learning Fellowship
1999-2000
End-of-Term Report
Marian Gibney
The project began as a fairly straightforward investigation into the question of "how students learn?" After reading several articles on the concept of the scholarship of teaching and learning, which is the cornerstone of the Carnegie Teaching Academy, it became clear to me that the question of how students learn must be an outgrowth of an analysis of the question, "how do I teach?"
With this in mind, I began to look seriously at my teaching. This included analysis of what do I want students to know, how will I present the material, and how will I assess the outcomes. The underlying philosophy of this analysis came from the work of Shulman (1998) that describes five elements of teaching as vision, design, interactions, outcomes, and analysis. With these five elements as the framework, I undertook a thorough investigation of the teaching and learning that takes place in Introduction to Psychology (PSY101).
There were two goals for this project. The first was to develop a teaching portfolio that would help me clarify what I wanted to accomplish as a teacher in the PSY101 course. The second, was to develop a course portfolio that would contain not only the philosophical underpinnings of my course, but an organized set of contents, activities, and assessments that would help implement my goals in a way that is organized and could be documented and reviewed.
My personal goals for this project were to become more aware of what I wanted to accomplish as a teacher, to interact with other people who were undergoing similar investigations, and ultimately, to improve my teaching.
The project progressed along the five dimensions of teaching: vision, design, interactions, outcomes, and analysis.
Vision
The first dimension, vision, was the start of the investigations. This entailed reading of many articles, books, and reviews about teaching in general and psychology in particular. It also involved discussions with my colleagues, both in the MIL program and in the psychology department.
With this background, I then completed the Teaching Goals Inventory (Angelo & Cross, 1993). This is a self-scoring instrument that helps teachers to clarify as well as quantify the goals they had for their classes. A summary of the cluster scores is included as Appendix A. As a result of the integration of reading and reflection, discussions with colleagues, and this instrument, three themes emerged as my goals for PSY101. These were, in order of importance:
- Content-discipline specific knowledge and skills
- Application-the ability to generalize specific concepts to similar situation (a part of critical thinking)
- Personal Development-the use of the course information to improve the self.
Design
These themes were used as the basis for the next step-design. How could a course be designed that would address these goals in the manner and degree that I wanted? My first step was a very brief survey of students to determine what types of things they believed enhanced their learning experiences. The pilot study included 30 PSY101 students. I shared the brief results with my department and we decided to conduct a similar study among all PSY101 students and classes. This study was completed in Spring 2000 and while the analysis is not complete, a short report was prepared. It is included in this document as Appendix B.
Based on my personal goals, preliminary survey results, and discussions with other instructors, I began to design the course. I found activities that I believed reflected each of my three areas of importance. Many of these activities are commonly used, but I began to look at each as having a particular purpose, thus paving the way for an assessment strategy. For example, lectures, demonstrations, and some videos reflect the goal of content. Measurement of this goal consisted of quizzes and other similar assignments. Some group and Internet activities address the goal of application. Evaluation of student worksheets and essays begin to measure the attainment of this goal. Finally the goal of personal development was addressed through projects such as self-tests and projects related to behavior change. This goal is a bit more difficult to measure and the outcomes are reflected in course evaluation comments suggesting that students found the course useful in their every day lives.
Interaction
The third step of the project was interaction. This involved implementing the designed activities. Since this project was on-going, many of the activities, though implemented, were not studied in an organized fashion. In addition, discussions with psychology department colleagues were held to get their opinions regarding the actual activities, the appropriateness for each goal and potential problems that might arise. There are many activities available to help reflect each of the goals, but only trial and error will determine whether these activities suit the particular class. The spring semester was one of trial and error-although not too much error. The activities that students believed could be better were the group activities. They liked them but suggested that they did not have enough time to work on them.
Outcomes
The fourth step, outcomes, reflects the evaluation or assessment phase of the project. Actually I believe there are two parts to this step. The first is the assessment of student achievement. Did the students learn what I thought they would? The second is the assessment or evaluation of this project as a whole. Was the undertaking of such a self-analysis worthwhile?
The assessment of student academic achievement for this project is the step that will continue past the end of the project. While some instruments have been developed to assess the content portion of the course as well as the application portion, work still needs to be continued on the assessment of student perception of personal development. It is also important to continue to develop assessment materials that look at the measurement of learning for specific assignments. Overall, the students in PSY101 completed the course. There was a retention rate of approximately 95%. This is slightly higher than the department average. The grade distribution was not different from the distribution of grades from the fall semester; with similar proportions of A's, B's, C's, etc.
In the course evaluation, students rated the course as "excellent" with respect to usefulness in their program. They rated the materials, lectures, professor, grading as either "very good" or "excellent." The one area suggested for improvement was the group activities. They wanted more of them and more time.
With respect to the evaluation of this project as a whole, I have only personal reflection and opinion on which to base my conclusions. I felt that this was one of the best experiences that I could have in my teaching career. As an experienced teacher, I needed the time and intellectual stimulation to explore what I had been doing, and where I wanted to go. I did not need lots of "how-to" information because I could get that on my own. After more than 20 years of teaching, I needed time to reflect on myself as a teacher, my students as learners, and how and why things could change for the better. As a result of this project I will have a more structured and organized PSY101 course. The goals will be better defined, hence more amenable to assessment. I will continue to refine this course, even after the project is complete. I will continue to develop activities and associated assessment measures that accurately reflect the goals for the course. Finally, I will take this framework and apply it to other courses that I teach, in particular Developmental Psychology (PSY240) and PSY101-Internet version.
Analysis
The final phase of this project is analysis. What remains to be done? What do I do next? As mentioned above, development of more activities and assessment measures remains a priority. The actual implementation of this strategy in a complete class will occur in fall 2000. By that time, I will have the opportunity to evaluate the outcome of the three goals in a more organized fashion. I anticipate further discussions with MIL fellows and psychology department members. Once I have had the opportunity to use this strategy for an entire course and look at the assessments and evaluations, I will begin the process of revising-keeping what works, changing what does not work. I am also looking forward to the opportunity to share the activities of this project with other colleagues. Perhaps the actually class activities will not be of much use, but a discussion of the process by which a teacher goes about structuring goals, activities, and assessments is in keeping with the tenets of the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Personal and Professional Reflection on the MIL Experience
As mentioned above, this has been one of the most successful and enjoyable projects I have ever completed. The two main aspects of this project as I saw them were my project and my interaction with colleagues.
My project was successful in that I was able to accomplish most of what I started to do. In addition, as occurs in some of the best learning experiences, I learned things that I didn't think I would. I had time to engage in introspection and analysis. My project resulted in a way of thinking for me. It enabled me to develop a conceptual framework on with to base my thoughts about teaching. I was also able to develop a more concrete framework that will guide my PSY101 course.
The second aspect of the project was my interaction with colleagues from other campuses and other disciplines. This enabled me to get a broader look at teaching in general and to gain a renewed appreciation for the diversity of ideas and beliefs that embodies real learning. The opportunities for dialogue and fellowship were wonderful and will lead to lasting personal and professional relationships.
In summary, this project has resulted in my professional development as a teacher, through my conceptual framework. It has resulted in personal development with a renewed sense of purpose and joy in teaching. It has resulted in many new professional and personal relationships adding to the richness of my teaching and learning experience. It has also resulted in a better PSY101 course for students at Phoenix College.
Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Shulman, L. (1998). Course anatomy: The dissection and analysis of knowledge through teaching. In P. Hutchings (Ed.), The course portfolio: How faculty can examine their teaching to advance practice and improve student learning. Washington, D.C.: American Association for Higher Education.
Summary of Cluster Scores for Teaching Goals Inventory
| Cluster name | Score |
|---|---|
| Discipline-specific knowledge and skills | 3.75 |
| Higher-order thinking skills | 2.88 |
| Personal development | 2.67 |
| Liberal arts and academic values | 2.50 |
| Work and career preparation | 2.25 |
| Basic academic success skills | 2.22 |
Higher scores indicated greater emphasis for teaching goals.
STUDENT LEARNING SURVEY -PRELIMINARY RESULTS
The "Student Learning Survey" was administered to all students in the psychology department. The goal of the survey was to begin to examine what students considered to be their learning successes and desirable learning activities. Approximately 500 students responded to they survey.
The survey consisted of three open-ended questions designed to ask about student learning from different perspectives. The first question, I learn best when I. . . was designed to get students to think about any kind of learning and not just school or book learning. The second question, I learn best when the teacher. . was designed to give information about what types of teaching strategies or teacher behaviors were helping students. The third question, I would learn better if. . . was designed to look at what things, both on the part of the student and on the part of the instructor could be used to enhance the teaching and learning situation.
A preliminary review of the answers led to some generalizations. For the first question, students responded with answers in several general categories. They can be thought of as physical conditions including enough sleep and comfortable surroundings. Another category can be summarized as self-behaviors such as studying more, being interested in the subject, being prepared for class. A final category can be looked at as teacher-behaviors such as giving hands-on practice, having good lectures, giving good examples.
The answers to the second question seemed to be an expansion of the teacher-behavior category of the first. An overall look at this section indicates that students say that they learn best when instructors are organized. Students also reported that they like a variety of activities in their classes.
The answers to the third question seem to expand on the student-behavior section of the first. Students tended to answer this question from a personal point of view. They talked about studying more and working fewer hours outside of school as two main categories of how they could improve learning.
These results are preliminary and further research needs to be completed to quantify the responses to each of the questions. Further research will also be able to use some of the categories to explore student learning in greater depth.
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f e l l o w s marian gibney's final report |
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