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Designing Effective Science Courses

This article explores the process of designing effective science courses by preparing a syllabus. It covers topics such as considering the audience, defining instructional objectives and skills, evaluating content options and readings, determining class format, and developing assessments. The goal is to help educators create a syllabus that effectively conveys the course design and meets student expectations.

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Designing Effective Science Courses

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  1. Designing Effective Science Courses Preparing a Syllabus “Once you have a sound course design, your syllabus almost writes itself.” -Teaching at its Best L. Nilson, 1998

  2. Content-Centered What Will I Cover? Learning-Centered What Will They Learn?

  3. The General Design Consider your audience Define instructional objectives & skills Evaluate content options and appropriate readings Determine class format Develop assessments and FINALLY the Syllabus!

  4. Consider your audience! ? What preparation will most students bring? Do prerequisites guarantee this? Attitudes? Required course? Elective? What are the student expectations? Are these appropriate? Can they be incorporated into your teaching plan? Student long-range goals? Can flexibility be built in to accommodate this?

  5. Define instructional objectives First define your “ultimate” end-of-course objectives Then work backwards…what will students have to be able to do before they can accomplish each “ultimate” objective? Continue working backwards to the most basic performances they must master to achieve the above

  6. Instructional Objectives (for a specific group of students) Skills (what these students will be able to do to demonstrate attainment of learning goal) Content Class Format Assessment Format Syllabus Does your syllabus share with your students the thinking process that you followed to design this course?

  7. Content Skills Objectives Designing Courses “Backwards”

  8. Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge Define instructional objectives Evaluation Bloom’s Taxonomy Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)

  9. Learning how to learn Motivation Human Dimension Integration Foundational Knowledge Application Define instructional objectives Fink’s Taxonomy To Improve the Academy (2001)

  10. Define Instructional Objectives “Students will learn to appreciate their natural surroundings and will know that underlying geologic structures control the landforms we see”

  11. Define Instructional Objectives Many Fewer Interpretations Interpretations To know To write To understand To recite To really understand To identify To appreciate To sort To fully appreciate To solve To grasp significance of To construct To enjoy To build To believe To compare To have faith in To contrast from Mager (1975) in Diamond (1998)

  12. Translate fuzzy language to skills! “After working with slide images and through field experiences, students will be able to locate and identify faults, fractures and folds present in an unfamiliar landscape.”

  13. Instructional Objectives (for a specific group of students) Skills (what these students will be able to do to demonstrate attainment of learning goal) Content Class Format Assessment Format Syllabus Does your syllabus share with your students the thinking process that you followed to design this course?

  14. Evaluate content options Rank the topics (rank highly your “essentials” AND those that meet student needs or expectations) Slash, burn & distill (this always hurts, but designing courses backwards will help establish priorities) Compare to your “full array” of content options is something missing that you value? Are you missing a major learning goal?

  15. Evaluate readings Consider the level(and financial resources!)of your students What is the purpose of the reading? How will it support the course? How often will students use this resource? Read a variety of texts ...unless you wrote the text, you won’t find exactly what you need… BUT... Is a course reader better? ...can better suit to your needs...but takes a huge effort to integrate well...

  16. Determine the class format Lecture based? Discussion based? Need labs or experiential components? How and when will student inquiry take place?

  17. Develop an assessment plan For Them When will students get feedback about their learning? What have your students learned? Have they acquired the skills you value? Let the course objectives shine through your assessment… end-of-course objectives should map out your projects, homework, exams, etc.

  18. Develop an assessment plan For You Options for getting feedback… (CATs) Classroom Assessment Techniques Mid-term formative evaluations Professional feedback… classroom consultations, videos, etc.

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