Resource Book
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Using This Resource
I. Preparing to Teach
Planning a course
--Defining Instructional Objectives
--Teaching and Learning Styles: The Academic Culture
--Choosing and Using Instructional Materials
--Writing a Syllabus
--Syllabus Checklist
--Using the Syllabus in Class
--Summary of Course Planning
Addressing Students' Needs
--Importance of Knowing Your Students
--Planning Considerations
--Getting to Know Your Students
--Students of Different Backgrounds
--Students with Disabilities
--Teaching Strategies: Non-Native Speakers of English
--Creating a Learning Environment
--Dealing with Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom
--Common Disruptive Student Behaviors and Possible Responses
--Dealing with Apathetic Students
--Cultural Differences for International Instructors
--Summary of Addressing Students’ Needs
Teaching Tips
--Organizing Class
--Ways to Be Accessible Outside the Classroom
--Six Common Non-Facilitating Teaching Behaviors
--Wireless in the Classroom: Advice for Faculty
--Summary of Teaching Tips
II. Teaching Methods
The First Day of Class
--When the Class Meets You
--When You Meet the Class
--Diversity the Instructor Brings to the Classroom
--Conversing with Students with Disabilities
--Moving Forward
--Summary of the First Day of Class
Lecturing
--Strategies for Effective Learning
--Advantages and Disadvantages of the Traditional Lecture Method
--Enhancing Learning in Large Classes
--Chalkboard Technique
--Writing Assignments in the Lecture
--Engaging Women in Math and Science Courses
--Formulating Effective Questions
--Summary of Lecturing
Discussion
--Brief Overview
--The “Nuts and Bolts” of Discussion
--Facilitating Discussion of Sensitive Issues
--Encouraging Student Contributions
--Alternative Instructional Methods
--Potential Problems in Discussions
--Summary of Discussion
Expanding Teaching Strategies
--Practical Examples
--Show and Tell
--Case Studies
--Teaching with Case Studies
--Guided Design Projects
--Brainstorming
Group Work
--General Information about Using Groups
--Group Work in an Introductory Science Laboratory
Science Labs
--The Role of the Lab Instructor
--What Do the Students Need to Know?
--The First Day
--Planning and Running a Laboratory
--Safety Procedures
--Summary of Science Labs
Teaching Outside the Classroom
--Tutoring
--Office Hours
--Teaching Students to Solve Problems
--Advising and Extracurricular Activities
--Summary of Teaching Outside the Classroom
Overcoming Misconceptions
--Societal Attitudes and Science Anxiety
--Misconceptions as Barriers to Understanding Science
--Common Difficulties and Misunderstandings
III. Teaching-as-Research
Assessing Student Performance
--Establishing Objectives for Assessment
--Assessment Primer
--Formulating Effective Methods of Assessment
--Helping Students Succeed on Assignments and Exams
--The Why and How of Tests
--Grading Lab Reports, Problem Sets, and Exam Questions
--Grading Checklist
--Grading Specific Activities
--Grading Writing
--Summary of Assessing Student Performance
How to Evaluate Your Own Teaching
--Evaluating Your Own Teaching
--A Note on Teaching-as-Research
IV. Appendices
Inspirational Essays
--Mathematics: The Universal Language of Science
--Transforming Quizzes into Teaching and Learning Tools
--Teaching My Students to Fish
--Chemistry: The Other Foreign Language
--Teaching to Different Modes of Learning
--Notes from a Career in Teaching
Additional Resources
Websites
Graduate Assistant Handbook Outline
--Department- and Institution-Specific Information
--18 Questions to Have Answered
The first step in creating a high-quality course is to clearly define your educational goals and objectives. Educational goals are broad, overarching themes that will guide your course. Objectives are concise, explicit statements that describe what exactly you expect students to learn and the skills you hope they will acquire during your course.
Writing your educational goals first will guide you in creating learning objectives. The goals of your course are determined largely by your subject matter, the level of difficulty of your course, and your personal interests. Decide what your goals are for your students. At what level do you expect students to learn and perform? What skills do you want students to take away from your course?
Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy may be used to match course activities to desired learning outcomes. Bloom’s taxonomy identifies three major categories of learning: cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Each category is listed on the following page, along with different levels of comprehension. Each level is increasingly more difficult and complex. Key terms that exemplify the level of understanding are also given.
Cognitive: development of intellectual skills, knowledge. |
|
1. Recall |
define, describe, identify, know, label, list, match, name, outline, recognize, reproduce, select, state |
2. Comprehension |
convert, defend, distinguish, estimate, explain, extend, generalize, give examples, infer, interpret, paraphrase, predict, rewrite, summarize, translate |
3. Application |
apply, change, compute, construct, demonstrate, discover, manipulate, modify, predict, relate, show, solve, use |
4. Analysis |
break down, compare, contrast, diagram, deconstruct, differentiate, identify, illustrate, infer, relate |
5. Synthesis |
categorize, combine, compose, create, devise, design, explain, generate, organize, rearrange, revise, summarize, write |
6. Evaluation |
appraise, compare, conclude, criticize, critique, defend, describe, discriminate, evaluate, explain, interpret, justify, relate, support |
Affective: feelings, emotions, values or attitude. |
|
1. Receiving or attention |
asks, chooses, describes, selects, replies |
2. Responding |
answers, assists, discusses, performs, practices, presents, reads, tells |
3. Valuing |
demonstrates, explains, follows, initiates, invites, justifies, proposes, reports, shares |
4. Organization |
break down, compare, contrast, diagram, deconstruct, differentiate, identify, illustrate, infer, relate |
5. Internalizing values |
acts, discriminates, influences, listens, modifies, performs, qualifies, questions, revises, serves, solves, verifies |
Psychomotor: manual or physical skills. |
|
1. Perception |
choose, describe, detect, differentiate, distinguish, identify, isolate, select |
2. Readiness to act |
begins, explains, moves, proceeds, reacts, shows, volunteer |
3. Guided response |
copy, trace, follow, react, reproduce |
4. Mechanism |
assemble, construct, dismantle, fix, manipulate, measure, mix, organize, sketch |
5. Adaptation |
alter, change, rearrange, reorganize, revises, vary |
6. Origination |
arrange, build, combine, compose, construct, create, initiate, make |
(Bloom, 1956)
Use these levels of comprehension and descriptive verbs to help guide you in writing course objectives. For example, if you are teaching an entry-level course, you may not emphasize more advanced cognitive skills such as synthesis or evaluation. If one of your goals is to teach students how to perform chemistry experiments, break this general aim down into its component parts for your objectives:
- to formulate a hypothesis,
- to design an experiment,
- to collect data,
- to analyze it,
- to draw conclusions, etc.
Then, break each of these into its component skills. The following is an example of course objectives and goals from an Inorganic Chemistry course:
Course Objectives: Inorganic Chemistry
This course will provide an audience of junior and senior students majoring in chemistry or the allied chemical sciences with a foundation in the theoretical principles and descriptive chemistry of the elements. The objective is to introduce the concepts of symmetry and their application to molecular orbital theory, and to use this theoretical framework to understand the chemistry of the elements, with a focus on the transition elements.
By the end of the course it is expected that every student will:
- Be able to determine the point-group symmetry of a molecule and use the point-group symmetry to deduce select spectroscopic properties.
- Be able to derive a molecular orbital diagram for a molecule in an ideal geometry and use the diagram to aid in prediction of chemical behavior.
- Have a basic knowledge of the descriptive chemistry of the element families and be familiar with literature sources that can provide further information.
- Be able to predict the chemical behavior of significant classes of inorganic molecules, including transition metal coordination compounds and organometallic compounds.
- Be able to propose several plausible reaction mechanisms for a given chemical transformation, derive rate laws for these mechanisms, and interpret experimental kinetic data to provide support for or evidence against a given mechanism.
- Be able to access the chemical literature to find specific chemical information.
Use these levels of comprehension and descriptive verbs to help guide you in writing course objectives. For example, if you are teaching an entry-level course, you may not emphasize more advanced cognitive skills such as synthesis or evaluation. If one of your goals is to teach students how to perform chemistry experiments, break this general aim down into its component parts for your objectives:
- to formulate a hypothesis,
- to design an experiment,
- to collect data,
- to analyze it,
- to draw conclusions, etc.
Then, break each of these into its component skills. The following is an example of course objectives and goals from an Inorganic Chemistry course:
Course Objectives: Inorganic Chemistry
This course will provide an audience of junior and senior students majoring in chemistry or the allied chemical sciences with a foundation in the theoretical principles and descriptive chemistry of the elements. The objective is to introduce the concepts of symmetry and their application to molecular orbital theory, and to use this theoretical framework to understand the chemistry of the elements, with a focus on the transition elements.
By the end of the course it is expected that every student will:
- Be able to determine the point-group symmetry of a molecule and use the point-group symmetry to deduce select spectroscopic properties.
- Be able to derive a molecular orbital diagram for a molecule in an ideal geometry and use the diagram to aid in prediction of chemical behavior.
- Have a basic knowledge of the descriptive chemistry of the element families and be familiar with literature sources that can provide further information.
- Be able to predict the chemical behavior of significant classes of inorganic molecules, including transition metal coordination compounds and organometallic compounds.
- Be able to propose several plausible reaction mechanisms for a given chemical transformation, derive rate laws for these mechanisms, and interpret experimental kinetic data to provide support for or evidence against a given mechanism.
- Be able to access the chemical literature to find specific chemical information
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0227592.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Copyright © 2006, The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System