Developing higher-order thinking in the 100-level classroom

Kevin GouldSchool of Biological Sciences

Victoria University of Wellingtonkevin.gould@vuw.ac.nz

Match these famous faces to their professions:

Physicist

Botanist

Microbiologist

Chemist

1 2 3 4

BIOL 113 - BIOLOGY OF PLANTS

Pathways to Success

Two goals:

1) Improved performance & retention in Plant Science

2) Deeper learning, creative & critical thinking

Can 100-level students engage in high-order learning?

Krathwohl DR, Anderson LW (Eds), 2001. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Use of narrative to illustrate relevance of plants

- generates curiosity & desire to learn

1

2Replace prescriptive, menu-driven labs with

problem-solving exercises requiring teamwork

“Your task in this part of the lab is to design and conduct an experiment

of your choice to investigate adventitious rooting in hypocotyl cuttings of

Vigna radiata, the mung bean. Working as a team of five or six people,

you have been supplied with… …”

“In this part of the lab, you will assume the role of a team of

scientists working for an agrochemical company. The chemists have

handed to you a solution containing a newly synthesised compound

which has structural similarities to a plant hormone …Your goal is to

determine the possible biological activity of this new compound. “

3 Promote student engagement through interactive lectures

Design a plant “Draw or describe the features of a plant that is ideally suited for survival in the habitat assigned to you, and explain your choices…”

You are in Uluru National Park in Australia….

Use of ‘clickers’ to promote class discussion 4

Students learn and engage more fully when they are involved in some form of discussion, or peer learning

(Bruff, 2009)

When you eat a potato, you are eating a:

1. Root

2. Bulb

3. Seed

4. Stem

5. Bud

6. Flower

But not all clicker questions are created equal

http://clickerquestions.pbworks.com

Our clicker wiki project

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A+ A A- B+ B B- C+ C D E

Final Grade

% E

nro

lled

Stu

den

ts 2008

2009

Final grades for BIOL 113 before (2008) and after (2009) Pathways to Success

Using clickers in lectures helps you to pay

more attention than in other lectures

  N %

Strongly Agree 66 50

Agree 49 37

Neutral 16 12

Disagree 1 1

Strongly Disagree 0 0

Total 132 100

Seeing the correct answers to questions helps you to judge how well you understand the subject

  N %

Strongly Agree 86 65

Agree 45 34

Neutral 2 1

Disagree 0 0

Strongly Disagree 0 0

 Total 133 100

Overall, how useful do you think clickers are in lectures?

  N %

Very useful 68 51

Quite useful 62 46

Neutral 4 3

Not useful 0 0

Not at all useful 0 0

Total 134 100

“…I just want to say thanks for changing the course. I failed this paper last year, probably because I hated plants and found it really boring. When I'm not interested in something it's very hard for me to learn, and I was dreading having to do it again this year…

… But this year it's so much better. I actually enjoy coming to the lectures, and I feel like I've learnt more in the last few weeks than what I did during the whole semester last year…

… I've become really interested in plants and I finally understand your enthusiasm for botany (last year I just thought you were crazy)…

… BIOL113 has gone from being the course I hated the most last year to my favourite class this year…”