Rewards & Challenges of Faculty Collaboration in Interdisciplinary PBL

Richard Donham

Steve Fifield

University of Delaware

Science SemesterScience Semester

CourseCharacteristics

CourseCharacteristics

StudentPerspective

StudentPerspective

Faculty Reflections

Faculty Reflections

Science for Preservice Teachers (typical)

Science is taught through a series of temporally disconnected and conceptually nonintegrated courses.

Science and science curriculum (methods) courses also are disconnected, or at least not jointly coordinated.

Goals Of Undergraduate Science Education

For Preservice Teachers

Goals Of Undergraduate Science Education

For Preservice Teachers

MultidisciplinaryMultidisciplinary

Connected to Real WorldConnected to Real World

Develop Learning SkillsDevelop Learning Skills

Focused on “Big Ideas”Focused on “Big Ideas”

The Science Semester15 Credits

The Science Semester15 Credits

Earth, Life, Physical ScienceEarth, Life, Physical ScienceScience by Total ImmersionScience by Total Immersion

Science Curriculum Course Science Curriculum Course

Real-World ProblemsReal-World Problems

Not four courses taught sequentially

Instructional Team

Taught by faculty from School of Education, Biology, Geology and Physics and Astronomy

Faculty committed to collaboration, including co-teaching each problem.

Programmatic evaluation

Students Learn About Earth, Life and Physical Science

Through PBL problems

Students Learn About Earth, Life and Physical Science

Through PBL problems

Students Think About the Issues And Challenges

of Teaching Science

Students Think About the Issues And Challenges

of Teaching Science

Instructional Strategies

Course Characteristics: PBL Problems

1. What is Energy?

2. Kids, Chemicals & Cancer

3. How Do I Know if My Students Got It?

4. Limulus polyphemus! Science Semester Investigates Delaware’s Marine Animal.

•Expectations on student responsibility for learning increases through units.

•Although each problem has a disciplinary focus, each instructor has responsibilities to each problem

Course Planning and Research

Weekly planning meetings of instructors Small groups of student volunteers were

interviewed (taped and transcribed) during semester by non-instructional researcher (Fifield)

End of year semistructured interviews (taped and transcribed) of instructors as a group by Fifield.

Class/Student Characteristics

Sophomore elementary education majors All student work was done in semi-permanent

groups, but there was both individual and group assessment.

Successful students, but not science majors 90%+ women, about 60 students per class

Faculty Reflections on Student Transitions during semester

“....in the first investigation they’re looking for …what do I need to do to get an ‘A’…

slowly through “energy” they struggle with that, then, during ‘Kids’ you can see their

science content begin to develop a bit… at the end, my sense is that they understand

evidence and inference.”

Instructors reflecting on student understanding of conceptual strands that run through the problems

Question: From a big picture perspective, how did the investigations work?

“There wasn’t really anything else in the

whole nature of science area…the

most important piece of nature of science is

evidence and inference”

Faculty Reflections on Student Transitions during semester

“I don’t have a good feeling for what they know…in traditional earth science, you know they have 50

minutes of clouds and 50 minute of that…whereas with our approach

we’ve given them some skills…they still will forget stuff…(but) they have the skills to really think about these

topics and ways to look at them when they get to their science teaching.”

Faculty Reflections

…I didn’t see that they missed some of the big ideas of

anything…really the learning (of teaching) actually starts in the classroom, when they… figure

out how to define their approaches, but the big idea of

the importance of student’s ideas and planning and…. So, I

am happy with what they learned.”

Education faculty thinking about student understanding of the problems of teaching science

Faculty reflections

“they matured considerably…they are more modest in their approach to learning and

teaching, not resentful, and that maturation is higher than I would see in a regular methods course, where they think they know how to

teach already…”

Education faculty comparing SS students with her other sections of methods course

Faculty reflections on student’s thinking

“on their course evaluations, they rated their science learning comfort higher

than their science teaching comfort. They all pointed to their need to teach more, so, it does not come from the lack of

knowing how to do things as much as a lack of experience at having done them.”

Education faculty reflections-increased amount of student microteaching of science in course

Faculty Reflections: Observing another instructor

“the whole classroom changed that day…it was beautiful to see how much good will that simple

change bought from the students…

the difference that made was the good will it brought towards trying to put them through more difficult

things.”

Instructor reflecting on student attitudes

•Context: Providing detailed list of expectations and dates of deliverables

•Resulted in embedded policy of being explicit about “deliverables” well in advance of their due date.

Faculty Reflections About The Course & Students

“it made a huge difference going last because all the things we

introduced could be brought into play…I just read the last two writing assignments and its really improved

from what they did at the beginning…”

Instructor reflecting on student writing abilities

Resulted in increased student writing, with emphasis on preliminary drafts and peer feedback.

Faculty Reflection on course goals & content

“we could really… think about what is the beginning level of skill

in writing or oral communication… and is it a goal

to improve that skill in the course, and how do we do that in a step

wise way….

“The more we can have them serve as editors….it actually improved the way

they wrote….”

Student Attitudes

“they learn something in methods about inquiry ...they begin to see the value for children, but they see no value for themselves…in course evaluations, asked to evaluate our effectiveness,

they use traditional criteria…’how well did we lecture’…’how well did we answer questions’…some even said, ‘they shouldn’t just teach by

lectures, they should try other methods of teaching.’”

Instructor reflecting on student interviews. Students are struggling with what effective teaching looks like.

Student Attitudes

“they know what teachers are supposed to do, and you’re not doing it, initially that angers them…they figure ’ok, we need to know about this, cause this is

what we’re going to do to children’, but it’s still frustrating to them, sort of, ‘I

don’t need this!’ ”

Reflections on Student Interviews by Fifield

Student Attitudes

“Student frustration can be a good thing when connected to a learning challenge, … spend your frustration dollars wisely, frustration connected

with what they perceive as inadequate planning , or not communicating with the people you’re teaching with, that

drives them crazy.”

Reflections on Student Interviews by Fifield

Faculty Reflections

“…there is a need, in life, to go into the small little details of a particular content, and I don’t want students to be afraid of that. I want them to go….there’s nothing wrong with chasing down a detail at all…they take those details and make sense out of them in this bigger framework…”

Instructor reflecting on course content and expectations

Instructor’s retrospective view of Science Semester

Faculty are just OK with content, but want to challenge students with expectations that are higher on the Perry scale-drive them to do more analysis, synthesis, evaluation.

Often students pass through doubt, anger, frustration, as well as appreciation.

Students may say they accept the need for science to be taught with inquiry, but think that they are an exception

Instructor’s retrospective view of Science Semester

For faculty one of the main rewards has been collaboration with each other.

Learning content in depth is a life skill that goes toward building attitudes toward a discipline.

Science Semester for faculty

Teaching as Research Opportunity

Teaching as Learning

Teaching as Collaboration