Assessment and Active Learning Strategies for Introductory Geology Courses

Educational research findings suggest that instructors can foster the growth of thinking skills and promote science literacy by incorporating active learning strategies into the classroom. This paper describes a variety of such strategies that may be adopted in introductory geology courses to encourage the development of higher-order thinking skills, and provides directions for implementing these techniques in the classroom. It discusses six hierarchical levels of student learning and links them to examples of appropriate assessment tools that were used successfully in several sections of a general education Earth Science course taught by two instructors at the University of Akron. These teaching strategies have been evaluated qualitatively using peer reviews, student written evaluations and semistructured student interviews; and quantitatively by measuring improvements in student retention, exam scores, and scores on a logical thinking assessment instrument. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Evidence-Based Dialogue Maps as a research tool to evaluate the quality of school pupils’ scientific argumentation

This pilot study focuses on the potential of Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping as a participatory action research tool to investigate young teenagers’ scientific argumentation. Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping is a technique for representing graphically an argumentative dialogue through Questions, Ideas, Pros, Cons and Data. Our research objective is to better understand the usage of Compendium, a Dialogue Mapping software tool, as both (1) a learning strategy to scaffold school pupils’ argumentation and (2) as a method to investigate the quality of their argumentative essays. The participants were a science teacher-researcher, a knowledge mapping researcher and 20 pupils, 12-13 years old, in a summer science course for “gifted and talented” children in the UK. This study draws on multiple data sources: discussion forum, science teacher-researcher’s and pupils’ Dialogue Maps, pupil essays, and reflective comments about the uses of mapping for writing. Through qualitative analysis of two case studies, we examine the role of Evidence-based Dialogue Maps as a mediating tool in scientific reasoning: as conceptual bridges for linking and making knowledge intelligible; as support for the linearisation task of generating a coherent document outline; as a reflective aid to rethinking reasoning in response to teacher feedback; and as a visual language for making arguments tangible via cartographic conventions

Educational Research Abstracts

Editors\u27 Note: As noted in previous issues of the Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations, the purpose of this Educational Research Abstract section is to present current published research on issues relevant to math and science teaching at both the K-12 and college levels. Because educational research articles are published in so many different academic journals, it is a rare public school teacher or college professor who reads all the recent published reports on a particular instructional technique or curricular advancement. Indeed, the uniqueness of various pedagogical strategies has been tacitly acknowledged by the creation of individual journals dedicated to teaching in a specific discipline. Yet many of the insights gained in teaching certain physics concepts, biological principles, or computer science algorithms can have generalizability and value for those teaching in other fields or with different types of students. In this review, the focus is on action research. Abstracts are presented according to a question examined in the published articles. Hopefully, such a format will trigger your interest in how you might undertake an action research study in your own teaching situation. The abstracts presented here are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather a representative sampling of recent journal articles. Please feel free to identify other useful research articles on a particular theme or to suggest future teaching or learning themes to be examined. Please send your comments and ideas via e-mail to [email protected] or by regular mail to The College of William and Mary, P. O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23185-8795

Context-aware Assessment Using QR-codes

In this paper we present the implementation of a general mechanism to deliver tests based on mobile devices and matrix codes. The system is an extension of Siette, and has not been specifically developed for any subject matter. To evaluate the performance of the system and show some of its capabilities, we have developed a test for a second-year college course on Botany at the School of Forestry Engineering. Students were equipped with iPads and took an outdoor test on plant species identification. All students were able to take and complete the test in a reasonable time. Opinions expressed anonymously by the students in a survey about the usability of the system and the usefulness of the test were very favorable. We think that the application presented in this paper can broaden the applicability of automatic assessment techniques.The presentation of this work has been co-founded by the Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Scaffolding School Pupils’ Scientific Argumentation with Evidence-Based Dialogue Maps

This chapter reports pilot work investigating the potential of Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping to scaffold young teenagers’ scientific argumentation. Our research objective is to better understand pupils’ usage of dialogue maps created in Compendium to write scientific ex-planations. The participants were 20 pupils, 12-13 years old, in a summer science course for “gifted and talented” children in the UK. Through qualitative analysis of three case studies, we investigate the value of dialogue mapping as a mediating tool in the scientific reasoning process during a set of learning activities. These activities were published in an online learning envi-ronment to foster collaborative learning. Pupils mapped their discussions in pairs, shared maps via the online forum and in plenary discussions, and wrote essays based on their dialogue maps. This study draws on these multiple data sources: pupils’ maps in Compendium, writings in science and reflective comments about the uses of mapping for writing. Our analysis highlights the diversity of ways, both successful and unsuccessful, in which dialogue mapping was used by these young teenagers