Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal
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Transparency and Alignment: Challenges and Benefits in Switching to Standards-Based Grading
Get PDFThis collective self-study explores our switch from traditional grading practices to implementing standards-based grading in a large, lecture- and discussion-based course. Reflective findings from the instructional team, consisting of a lead faculty instructor and graduate student teaching assistants, include logistical challenges involved with making this change, namely questions around communicating grading progress to students and ensuring accurate capturing of student progress as aligning to standards-based grading rubrics. We also noted an increased perception of student autonomy and engagement with the course material. Recommendations for future study on this topic include the need for continued inclusion of graduate student teaching assistant perspectives when redeveloping course assessment structures
Transforming a Pharmacy Self-Care Course with Specifications Grading
Get PDFAlternative grading strategies, such as specifications grading, have been used to counteract deficiencies with traditional grading structures. Specifications grading encompasses learning-centered components and aspects of competency-based education by providing students with clear specifications for each assignment. This paper describes the redesign, implementation, and outcomes of a 6-week pharmacy self-care elective course incorporating specifications grading. A stepwise approach to redesigning the course is presented along with sample syllabus statements. A mixed methods approach was used to evaluate course outcomes, student survey responses, and instructor reflections. Twenty-two students were enrolled in the course with grades (17 As, 4 Bs, 1 C) comparable to previous course offerings which used a traditional grading approach. Virtual tokens were used to allow for flexibility with assignment submissions and resubmissions. Twenty-one students (95.4%) earned at least 1 token and 19 students (86.4%) used at least 1 token during the course. Students appreciated the ability to resubmit assignments and liked having control of their grade but disliked having to do more work to get a better grade, the stress of trying to earn tokens, and the anxiety of not knowing their course grade percentage. While a streamlined grading approach allowed the instructor to provide more feedback to students, keeping track of assignment resubmissions and tokens was challenging. Future course modifications to address these challenges and simplify the course requirements from both a student and faculty perspective are presented
Changing Perspectives on Disciplinary Work Through Guided Intentional Cross-Disciplinary Conversations
Get PDFEach discipline has a unique language, culture, and approach to teaching. As academics develop their disciplinary identity and learn the language and culture, they also develop assumptions about other fields, creating barriers to interdisciplinary work. Intentional conversations are one mechanism to break through these barriers, but this takes time, and time is another barrier to interdisciplinary work. In this study, we used a conversational model to facilitate intentional discussion about disciplinary boundaries. We partnered participants with someone from a different discipline and facilitated conversations around aspects of teaching to address assumptions and explore boundaries. We predicted that participants would gravitate towards talking about aspects of their disciplines that they perceived to be furthest apart, and though this turned out to be true, we found surprising crossover points between the disciplines. One finding is that the participants felt they were unique even within their field and explained how they did not fit the stereotype they assumed their partner had about their discipline. Second, participants shared similar concerns regarding the evolution of their discipline and the changing role of professors. And finally, participants discussed where on the spectrum their fields lay regarding the teaching of soft skills and found common ground and areas where they could learn from each other. Participants were surprised at these crossover points, finding more commonalities between disciplines than expected. Our findings suggest that intentional conversation can facilitate cross-disciplinary interactions and cross-pollination of ideas for the classroom
No Student Should Be an Island: A Peer-Approach to Decoding and Disrupting
No full textThis article describes a new student-based approach to Decoding and Disrupting. This approach consists of an educational programme that works with a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate students, so-called Culture Fellows. In the programme, the students learn about theories on disciplinary cultures and their practices, Decoding the Disciplines, and communication. The programme focuses on the implicitness of disciplinary practices and how to explore them, i.e., it seeks to address the importance of making disciplinary practices, norms, and values more accessible to students. Within the programme, the Culture Fellows use a student-based variant of the Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm that we call ‘Culture Quest’. The Culture Quest supplies students with the tools to question, explore, and decode their respective disciplines and practices. Disciplinary practices often remain implicit because lecturers, with their wealth of experience and expertise in their discipline, may be operationally blind and thus no longer aware of the fact that certain practices might need to be explained. This lack of explanation or explicitness can lead to students feeling bewildered, confused or puzzled. The Culture Fellows and in particular the Culture Quest can encourage dialogue about and exploration of disciplinary cultures and their practices and can thus allow students to grasp the implicit cultural norms and expectations within their respective disciplines more clearly. The Culture Fellows and the Culture Quest provide students – and maybe even lecturers – with opportunities to engage with and reflect on teaching and learning strategies and practices
The Application of Practice as Research Methodologies to Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning
Get PDFThe piece that follows is a reflection that engages existing research in the areas of Practice as Research (PaR) and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), with research and pedagogy in embodied cognition. It reflects the complexities of engaging in a process-driven model for an assignment that values the generative nature of failure. As an artist/researcher in the field of dance, I bring embodied knowing into spaces where the mind/body divide is still upheld and valued. Within PaR models, process has value beyond the output of the artifact, and failure is the doorway to potentiality as it is functionalized in a creative/dance process. It is a traceable attempt on my part to deliberately bring the messiness, community, rhizomic thinking, discovery, engagement, affect, “aha!” moments, and multiplicity into the classroom in the same way they accompany me in the dance studio and choreographic process. I believe it takes a deliberate act to take a reflective perspective to teaching and learning (SoTL) and creative research. This is my deliberate weav
Video-Making and Knowledge Production in the Classroom
Get PDFThis dialogue is co-written by the instructor and six students in an undergraduate course on global feminisms at the Pennsylvania State University. We focus on a course assignment where students made a short video to debunk widely held societal misconceptions about women’s roles and gendered expectations regarding health, development, and environmental change across multiple global locations. We reflect upon the process of knowledge production, video as a medium of knowledge dissemination, and student efforts to assess videos made by their peers. We consider strategies that worked and others that could be improved for designing a similar assignment. Through our collective dialogue, we suggest that videos provide a fruitful entry point for discussions about knowledge making how information and misinformation circulates in this medium, and topically, focusing on countering misinformation using scholarly sources. Further, the process of co-writing this piece offered additional opportunities for considering reflexive knowledge-making practices in the classroom, and the significance of instructor-student partnerships in designing more meaningful assignments
Reflections on SoTL as Professional Development for Mathematics Graduate Student Instructors
Get PDFIn this reflective essay, we––a faculty mentor and two graduate student instructors––consider the implementation and impact of participating in a SoTL course; this 6-week summer course was designed to empower graduate student instructors in the mathematical sciences to collect research data in their fall courses. We will explore our experiences implementing their data collection plans. The faculty member came to better appreciate the limitations of collecting data in one’s own classroom (versus a more broadly scoped research project) and learned how to promote study designs that would better support sufficient student participation for data analyses. For the graduate student instructors, we found that participating in a SoTL experience inspired both to be more reflective and scholarly teachers. With our essay, we aim to inspire and support other departments considering SoTL as a capstone experience in the teaching professional development of their graduate students
An Exploration of Self-Connection and Its Relation to Student Well-Being
Get PDFThis study uses a concurrent mixed-method design to examine the concept of self-connection among university students and the impact of self-connection on academic performance and well-being. Students in a large introductory psychology course completed a survey and responded to open-ended questions regarding their subjective experiences of self-connection or disconnection in the context of their academic pursuits. We found a strong positive association between self-connection and well-being, but no association between self-connection and self-reported GPA. A thematic analysis of students’ open-ended responses revealed five distinct, but interrelated themes: Community connection and support, genuine learning and discovery, performing better than expected, a sense of purpose and direction, and decoupling identity and performance. Taken together, these findings suggest that enhancing self-connection promotes student well-being. The implications for university support services are discussed
Bottlenecks in the Logic Classroom
No full textA “bottleneck” is a point in a course where many students get stuck, and have problems to progress further. I identify seven bottlenecks in the introductory symbolic logic classroom. Using the “Decoding the Disciplines” framework, I then propose lesson plans designed to overcome these bottlenecks
Cultivating Faculty Growth Through Reflection: A 360-Degree Model for Development
Get PDFReflection has long been recognized as a vital component of education, helping students make their learning visible and fostering a sense of agency. This article outlines a 360-degree model of reflection specifically designed for faculty development. The directional reflection—backward, inward, forward, and outward—encourages faculty to establish connections among their experiences and situations, helping them gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their roles within the academy. By engaging in this intentional reflective practice, faculty can cultivate a sense of purpose and autonomy, as well as the ability to transfer knowledge across various contexts and experiences. Drawing on research from writing studies, faculty development, and SoTL, the article argues that the 360-degree model offers a comprehensive framework for faculty to engage in ongoing reflective practice, ultimately leading to enhanced professional growth and improved educational outcomes