Mary Pat Wendeorth

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Taking the mystery out of learning for your
students

• Mary Pat Wendeorth

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How People Learn
National Research Council 1999
Three major findings
1. Address students preconceptions
2. Build BOTH a deep foundation of factual
knowledge AND strong conceptual framework.
3. Enhance students ability to monitor their
learning
(metacognition)
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Four teaching strategies

• Blooms Taxonomy
• General Models
• Summary sheets
• Learning paragraphs

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Colleagues query(Scott Freeman)
Does the MCAT hinder efforts to introduce
critical thinking into Introductory Biology
courses?

• Team of 3 faculty (Alison Crowe, Clarissa
  Dirks, MP Wenderoth)
• Design a rubric based on Blooms Taxonomy
• Rank 700 exam questions

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Exam questions
MCAT GRE Biology 1st year Medical
School Undergraduate Introductory Biology
courses High school AP Biology courses
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Blooms Taxonomy of Cognitive Domains
Evaluation- critique Synthesis - create Analysis-
compare and contrast Application--
solve Comprehension-- define Knowledge-- facts
Bloom, B.S., Krathwohl, D.R., and Masia, B.B.
(1956)
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Previous work
Using Blooms to assess questions in Biology
Allen, D., Tanner, K. (2002). Approaches to
cell biology teaching questions about questions.
Cell Biol. Educ. 1, 63-67.
Ebert-May, D., Batzli, J., Lim, H. (2003).
Disciplinary research strategies for assessment
of learning. BioScience 53,1221-1228.
Bissell, A.N., and Lemons, P.P. (2006). A new
method for assessing critical thinking in the
classroom. BioScience 56, 66-72.
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Developed a rubric based on Blooms
Scored 50 questions
Need a more Biology specific tool!
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Take one conceptCreate questions at each level
of Blooms
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Physiology cardiac output
Knowledge Which two variables determine cardiac
output for an animal?
Comprehension Define cardiac output and why it is
significant.
Application Lance Armstrong has a normal resting
cardiac output of 6 L /min yet his resting heart
rate is only 40 beats/min. What is his stroke
volume?
Analysis Compared to a normal resting male of the
same height and weight, Lance Armstrongs stroke
volume is greatly increased. Provide a
physiological explanation for a large stroke
volume.
Synthesis Create a summary sheet that is a
pictorial depiction/ flow diagram of how changes
in cardiac output influence mean arterial blood
pressure.
Evaluation If an enlarged heart was observed on a
CT scan of patient, how would you determine if
this enlarged heart was pathological or not?
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Science-specific skills

• Calculations
• Concept maps
• Diagnoses
• Graphing
• Hardy-Weinberg analysis
• Molecular techniques (reading gels,
  microarrays)
• Phylogenetic trees
• Punnett Squares/ Pedigree Analysis

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Science-specific skills
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Blooming Biology Tool
Crowe, Dirks Wenderoth 2008. CBE- Life Science
Education 7368.
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Science-specific skills
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Using these rubric
-we rated 650 exam questions
-agreement of at least two of the three raters
over 91 of the time
Interesting side-effect of developing these
rubrics!
We each started changing the way we taught.
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Post Exam
But I studied so hard!
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Introduce Blooms Taxonomy on first day of class!
10 min of classHomework Blooms mnemonic
Purpose All questions are not created equal!
Help students monitor their learning.
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Second class
Discuss mnemonicBloom the question
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Bloom last years exam
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Exam 1
Avg 70
Grade Distribution
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Exam Key
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Post exam1

• Continued to
• Bloom class questions
• Bloom old exam questions

Exam 2 (two weeks later)
No change in Blooms distribution
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New Strategy post-exam 2

• Students enter scores for each exam question
  on-line (Web Q)

2. I calculate students Bloom score
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3. Students access their Bloom scores via on-line
grade reporting tool (Dave Hurley)
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Now student knows their weak areas- what do they
do?
Blooms-based Learning Activities for Students
BLASt
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BLASt
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BLASt
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Exam 3
Only one week after BLASt introduced
No change in Blooms distribution
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Whats next?

• Introduce Blooms on first day
• Bloom in-class questions
• Bloom old exams
• Individual students Bloom score reported
• BLASt made available from day one

New Assessment Changes in student studying
processes (Biggs, SPQ) Changes in student
metacognition
(Schraw Dennison, MAI)
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Students comments
I think Bloom gives students an increased
insight into the different types of learning and
application of knowledge that students do for a
class, it makes explicit something that is maybe
only understood at a subconscious level. I think
it gives students more tools and increases the
control they have when they are studying.
I remember initially thinking, Why are we
wasting valuable class time on Bloom's taxonomy?
I felt that Bloom's taxonomy was a burden, but I
now use Bloom's taxonomy unconsciously to attack
many problems. It is a method used to help
organize my thoughts before I act.
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Results from MCAT study
Zheng et al. (2008). Science 319, 414-415
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General Models in Physiology
Modell 2000. Advan Physiol Educ 23101-107
A set of common principles that apply to a
variety of physiological systems.

• Mass and Heat flow ( gradient/resistance)
• Conservation of Mass (mass balance)
• Control systems
• Elastic Properties of tissues

Purpose Provide a conceptual framework
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• Mass and Heat flow (Flux gradient/resistance)

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Teaching strategy for General Models (GM)

• Introduce GMs on first day

• Assign General Model (GM) paper to read

• Homework every day examples
• Mass and Heat flow
• Mass Balance
• Control systems

• Use GMs in class each day

• Require identification of GM on exams (no prompts)

Kate Henson FIPSE grant- BYU
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Did use of General Models help?

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Can students transfer use of GM to a novel system?
Results 87 identified appropriate gradient 62
identified correct GM Flux 28 identified the
source of resistance
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Total number of GM exam points by total number of
correct GM identified
R20.36 Plt0.001
Total Exam GM Points Earned by Number of Correct
GM
Total Exam GM Points Earned by Number of Correct
GM
Total Exam GM Points Earned by Number of Correct
GM
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Use of General Models in physiology

• Students who used the GM correctly, expressed a
  more sophisticated understanding of concepts on
  exams and earned more points

• Students incorporated the general models into
  their mental models and applied them to a
  novel situation (respiratory pre-test)

• Incorporating GMs into physiology instruction
  improves student performance on exams.

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Summary Sheets

• Annotated graphs
• Flow diagrams
• Rough sketches
• Due each Monday

• Purpose Help students
• build a conceptual framework
• make and see connections

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Summary Sheets
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Summary Sheets
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Learning Paragraphs
Low-risk writing assignment Connect class to
their life
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Learning Paragraphs

• Topics
• Write one or two paragraphs about connections you
  have made between material learned in class (Biol
  350 or other science courses) and your life
  outside class. You could also write about what
  you are learning about learning physiology
• What similarities are you finding between the
  GI and Respiratory systems?
• How has reflecting on your learning each week
  influenced your learning in Biol 350?

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Learning Paragraphs

• Due every Friday
• Respond to question posted on Web-Q

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Learning Paragraphs
Final Question How has reflecting on your
learning each week influenced your learning in
Biol 350?

• Results
• 85 noted a positive influence on learning
• Got them to stop for a moment in their busy
  worlds.

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Learning Paragraphs

• What I learned
• Connections students were making to everyday
  life
• Issues students had learning class material
• Students lack time and motivation to reflect on
  their learning
• Students appreciate the opportunity to stop and
  think about their learning.

• What I learned
• Types of connections students were making to
  everyday life- I could use in class to increase
  relevance
• Issues students had learning class material-
  formative assessment for me
• Students lack time and motivation to reflect on
  their learning-weekly writings facilitate this
  reflective time
• Students appreciate the opportunity to stop and
  think about their learning.

• What I learned
• Types of connections students were making to
  everyday life- I could use in class to increase
  relevance
• Issues students had learning class material-
  formative assessment for me
• Students lack time and motivation to reflect on
  their learning-weekly writings facilitate this
  reflective time
• Students appreciate the opportunity to stop and
  think about their learning.

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Learning Paragraphs
Student comment
Some weeks no matter how much I thought I was
paying attention in class it would be Thursday
night and Id be thinking Huh? What did I learn
this week? Oh yeah. which got me to examine
what was going on in class and the learning
process before the weekend completely wiped
everything away.
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Four teaching strategies

• Blooms Taxonomy- monitor their learning
• General Models- provide a conceptual framework
• Summary sheets- provide a conceptual framework
• Learning paragraphs-monitor their learning

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Future work

• Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ)
• Monitor changes in deep vs. surface study habits
• Metacognitive Awareness Index (MAI)
• Monitor changes in metacognition
• Blooms
• Bloomerator (Dave Hurley)
• Bloom workshops for students (Alison Crowe)
• Meta-analysis of articles on active learning in
  STEM disciplines (Scott Freeman)

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To achieve these ambitious goals, we will need
much more emphasis on both science education and
the science of education. Science Jan 2, 2009
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First science education research article
published in Science.
Science 323122, 2009
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UW Biology Education Research Group
Pursuing the science of education and Bringing
evidence-based teaching to the classroom
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Thank you Harold Modell- mentor Scott
Freeman Clarissa Dirks Alison Crowe Kate
Henson Jerry Baldasty - Teaching
Academy John Bell Bill Bradshaw- BYU (FIPSE
grant) The students
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