HR: 0800h
AN: ED41A-0242    [Abstracts]
TI: Instructional Practices in Introductory Geoscience Courses: Results of a National Faculty Survey
AU: * Macdonald, R
EM: rhmacd@wm.edu
AF: College of William and Mary, Department of Geology, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187 United States
AU: Manduca, C A
EM: cmanduca@carleton.edu
AF: Carleton College, Science Education Resource Center, Northfield, MN 55057 United States
AU: Mogk, D W
EM: mogk@montana.edu
AF: Montana State University, Department of Earth Sciences, Bozeman, MT 59717 United States
AU: Tewksbury, B J
EM: btewksbu@hamilton.edu
AF: Hamilton College, Department of Geology, Clinton, NY 13323 United States
AB: The NAGT professional development program "On the Cutting Edge" recently surveyed 7000 geoscience faculty in the United States to develop a snapshot of current instructional practices in undergraduate geoscience courses, faculty strategies for learning new content and new teaching approaches, and faculty involvement in the geoscience education community. Over 2200 faculty responded to the survey which was conducted by the American Institute of Physics. Results for introductory courses (814 responses) indicate that lecture is the most common teaching strategy used in courses of all sizes. Many faculty incorporate some interactive activities in their courses. Most commonly, they use questioning, demonstrations, discussions, and in-class exercises. Less common, but not rare, are small group discussion or think-pair-share and classroom debates or role-playing. Activities involving problem solving, using quantitative skills, working with data and primarily literature, and structured collaboration are incorporated by many faculty in introductory courses, suggesting efforts to teach the process of science. Activities in which students address a problem of national or local interest, analyze their own data, or address problems of their own design are less common but not rare. Field experiences are common but not ubiquitous for students in introductory courses. A wide variety of assessment strategies are used in introductory courses of all sizes, including exams, quizzes, problem sets, papers, oral presentations, and portfolios. While papers are used for assessment more extensively in small classes, a significant number of faculty use papers in large classes (greater than 81 students). A majority of faculty use rubrics in grading. Faculty report that in the past two years, approximately one-third have made changes in the content of their introductory courses while just under half have changed the teaching methods they use. While faculty learn about both new content and teaching methods from a wide variety of sources, they rely more heavily on discussions with their colleagues for information about teaching methods. This description of current teaching practices provides a benchmark against which we can monitor how instruction in introductory courses responds to increased understanding of student learning as well as to broad sharing of expertise among geoscience faculty through professional meetings, publications, workshops, and new on-line resources.
UR: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting