HR: 0800h
AN: ED41A-0243    [Abstracts]
TI: {\it On the Cutting Edge} Workshop on Effective and Innovative Course Design: A Model for Designing Rigorous Introductory Courses
AU: * Tewksbury, B J
EM: btewksbu@hamilton.edu
AF: Hamilton College, Dept. of Geology 198 College Hill Rd., Clinton, NY 13323 United States
AU: Macdonald, R H
EM: rhmacd@wm.edu
AF: College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795 United States
AB: As part of a professional development program for faculty in the geosciences, the NSF-funded program {\it On the Cutting Edge} (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/) has developed and offered workshops for geoscience faculty that guide participants through a stimulating process designed to help faculty members articulate goals and design effective and innovative courses that both meet those goals and assess outcomes. Of approximately 150 faculty members who have participated in the workshops, more than 120 have designed introductory courses in topics ranging from physical geology to Earth systems to historical geology to oceanography. The method of course design taught through these workshops leads to the development of rigorous, student-centered introductory courses. Our method of course design begins, not with a list of content items, but with setting goals by answering the question, "What do I want my students to be able to do on their own when they are done with my class?", rather than the question, "What do I want my students to know in this subject?" Focusing on what faculty members want {\it students} to be able to do, rather than on what topics should be covered by the faculty member, promotes designing courses in which students are actively engaged in {\it doing} geoscience. This course design method emphasizes setting goals for students involving higher order thinking skills (e.g., analysis, synthesis, design, formulation, prediction, interpretation, evaluation), rather than lower order thinking skills (e.g., identification, description, recognition, classification). For example, the goal of having students be able to evaluate the geologic hazards in an unfamiliar region involves higher order thinking skills and engages the student in deeper analysis than simply asking students to recall and describe examples of geologic hazards covered in class. This goal also has imbedded in it many lower order thinking skills tasks (e.g., identification, description). Rigor comes in having the {\it students} involved in doing significant and meaningful geologic tasks. Long-term value comes from improving students' abilities for future challenges, rather focusing on having students pass the final exam. Goals for courses of many different types can be found in the {\it Cutting Edge} goals/syllabus database at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/browse.html. The workshop also introduces participants to a wide range of teaching and assessment tools so that faculty members will leave the workshop with a larger toolbox of techniques to choose from when deciding how to give students practice during the semester in tasks relevant to the goals of the course and how to evaluate students' progress toward the goals. Most of the techniques emphasize student engagement, which promotes development of more rigorous courses. Over 100 institutions now have introductory geoscience courses designed by faculty members who have participated in our course design workshops. Participants have stated repeatedly in evaluations that the workshop transformed their views of the course design process and that they will carry the focus on goals, student engagement, and rigor into designing other courses and assessing curricula in their departments. {\it On the Cutting Edge} is in the process of developing a web-based course design workshop so that faculty who cannot attend our face-to-face workshops can go through our course design process.
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: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting