Document available in PDF format: Cell
Biology for Life - Philosophy
Resource
Four: Class Assessment of Group Work Presentation
Resource four is a worksheet for the class to score
and rank all group presentations other than their
own. Instructors can then review the completed sheets,
remove the names from the sheets and give them to
the individual groups so that they may review multiple
critiques of their presentations. Alternatively, the
instructor can summarize the most frequent positive
and negative responses and give these to the individual
groups. In my experience, students are harsh critics.
By pointing out shortcomings in the work of others
they learn how to improve their own future work
Resource
Five: Peer Assessment of Writing
Resource Five is a peer assessment of student writing,
or a peer review worksheet. The peer critique or assessment
saves the instructor a great deal of work because
the first draft of the written work will have been
critiqued by at least one other member of the class
before being given to the instructor. Students tend
to take their work more seriously if they know that
their peers will view it. I have found peer critiques
to be extremely effective, honest and supportive,
because the students are part of a collective struggle
and have built a community around the experience.
Depending on the course, you may choose to grade the
peer critiques so that students view this assignment
as contributing to their own self-awareness of the
writing process.
Resource
Six: Self Assessment of Writing
Resource six is a self-reflective guide to writing.
By having students describe in their own words their
intent, approach, and process for a written piece
of work, they gain insight to their own methodology.
Instructors also benefit from the student self reflection,
since patterns or themes of struggle may surface when
viewing all student responses. It is important to
address these collective frustrations and offer more
direction if needed. Even if these these questions
are not addressed during class, however, students
might still benefit greatly from considering this
resource on their own.
Resource
Seven: Worksheet for Reading Primary Literature
Resource seven is a worksheet designed to guide students
through a reading of primary literature. If this worksheet
is used repeatedly in a course, students will become
aware of behaviors that help them understand the material
(analysis of figures and tables, defining new terms,
summation of important points, outlining the article)
and behaviors that inhibit their understanding of
material (skipping unknown terms, overlooking figures
and tables, skimming paragraphs, concentrating on
details without seeing the overall picture). Again,
students might find this resource helpful, even it
it is not discussed during class.
Resource
Eight: A Collection of Grading Rubrics
Working with nontraditional curricula can be particularly
challenging when it comes to evaluation of student
work. Both students and instructors benefit when objective
standards of evaluation are set out clearly from the
beginning of an activity. I include in this resource
a collection of grading rubrics that serve as models
of evaluation standards appropriate for some of the
nontraditional learning activities employed in CBL.
These rubrics are based on personal and collective
educational experience. In particular, these strategies
of evaluation have been developed extensively by the
College Level One Team of the National Institute for
Science Education (www.flaguide.org)
and by Elaine Seymour in her related project of developing
Student Assessments of Learning Gains (http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/salgains/instructor/default.asp).
Parting Thought
The activities and resources presented in each module
are a starting point and instructors should tailor
the modules to suit their specific goals, learning
styles, and teaching styles. Since class time and
size vary and present constraints upon teaching activities,
alternative suggestions for implementation are also
included in the Teaching Notes to each activity.
By incorporating Cell Biology for Life with traditional methods of teaching, students will remain curious and develop the skills necessary to become life long learners of biology and become more contributive members of society.
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