Classroom Research: Implementing the Scholarship of Teaching by K. Patricia Cross and Mimi Harris St

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Classroom Research Implementing the Scholarship
of Teachingby K. Patricia Cross and Mimi Harris
Steadman

• Reviewed by
• Susan Rogers
• Lecturer, English and Foreign Languages Department

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Bibliographic Citation

• Publisher
• San Francisco Jossey-Bass, 1996
• ISBN
• 0-7879-0288-8
• A COLT Class Project
• WebCT 800
• August, 2002

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Introduction to Authors

• K. Patricia Cross
• David Pierpoint Gardner Professor of Higher
  Education at the University of California,
  Berkeley. Author of eight books and over one
  hundred and fifty articles and chapters.
  Co-Author (with T.A.Angelo) of Classroom
  Assessment Techniques A Handbook for
  Faculty,1988.
• Mimi Harris Steadman is a research specialist at
  the National Center for Research in Vocational
  Education at the University of California,
  Berkeley.

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Organization of Contents

• Classroom Research Implementing the Scholarship
  of Teaching, is divided into two major parts.
• The first part of the book concerns the extended
  definition of the terms Scholarship of Teaching,
  Classroom Assessment, and Classroom Research.

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• The second part of the book is devoted to four
  Case Studies, demonstrating how one would conduct
  a Scholarship of Teaching project. The case
  studies include
• Case study written by Jerry Evensky, Associate
  Professor of Economics at Syracuse University.
• Leslie is a student in an economics class, who is
  considering dropping the class as she does not
  understand the material.

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• The next case is written by Priscilla Laws,
  professor of physics at Dickinson college.
• In a physics laboratory, a required course for
  premeds, this study concerns the lack of interest
  in physics exhibited by the premed students.

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• The third case study is presented by Pat
  Hutchings, director of the Teaching Initiative at
  the American Association for Higher Education.
  The setting for this case is a history classroom
  at a city college, wherein
• Teachers record what they are trying to
  accomplish in the classroom, and
• Observations are recorded of students reactions
  to the teachers efforts

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• The last case study was written by the authors as
  a learning challenge to the readers of this book.
  The reader is asked to identify the learning
  issues in the case, and to integrate their
  experiences as teachers and readers to become
  active participants in the activities suggested
  in this book.

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My Goals

• For the purposes of this book review, I will
  focus on the first part of Cross and Steadmans
  book, and outline the definitions of the terms
  Scholarship of Teaching, Classroom Assessment,
  Classroom Research. I leave the case studies for
  another time, another presentation!

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What is Scholarship of Teaching?

• According to the Carnegie report, Scholarship
  Reconsidered (Boyer, 1990),
• Good Teachers
• stimulate active learning
• Encourage students to be critical, creative
  thinkers
• Are also learners
• Will be pushed in creative new directions through
  reading, classroom discussion and questions posed
  by students

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Cross and Steadman advocate the use of the term
Classroom Research

• Teachers implement the Scholarship of Teaching
  when they
• Use their classrooms as laboratories for the
  study of teaching and learning
• Observing students in the act of learning
• Discussing observations and data with colleagues
• Reading what is already known about learning

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Characteristics of Classroom Research

• Learner-Centered
• Learner responses to teaching
• Teaching becomes more effective
• Students assess and improve their learning

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• Teacher-Directed
• Teachers as active investigators
• Engaged in studies of learning in their discipline

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• Collaborative
• Active engagement of students and teachers
• Students are partners in the research
• Students share in analysis and interpretation of
  results
• Discussion and collaboration with teaching
  colleagues

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• Context-Specific
• Research conducted for a specific classroom
• Research conducted for a particular discipline
• Technical research skills not required

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• Scholarly
• Builds upon current knowledge base of research on
  teaching and learning
• Requires
• Identification of a researchable question
• Appropriate research design
• Considerations of the implication of the research
  for practice

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• Practical and Relevant
• Questions teacher faces in teaching the class
• Research deepens personal understandings
• Contribution to the knowledge and practice of the
  teacher

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• Continual
• Classroom Research is ongoing
• New projects continually emerge from past
  investigations
• Process of continual evaluation and modification
• Process rather than product

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Classroom Research can be a useful adjunct to

• The application of educational research to
  practice
• Faculty development
• Assessment of student learning
• The Carnegie proposals to broaden the definition
  of scholarship

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In what ways ? Classroom Research

• Assists teachers to
• Assess quality of learning in the classroom
• Provide assessment to students as well as teacher
• To conduct investigations into the nature of
  learning
• Aids in research and development
• Recognizing and improving teaching and learning
  campus-wide

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Relationship of Classroom Assessment to Classroom
Research

• Classroom Assessment
• Limited scope
• Addresses what questions
• What did students learn from the discussion?
• Classroom Research
• Concerned with why questions
• Why did students respond as they did?

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Relationship of Classroom Research to Traditional
Educational Research

• Share common goals
• Improving education through the systematic study
  of teaching and learning
• Diverges in dependence of scientific method as
  the only or most valid approach to knowledge
• Experience and insights of teachers are just as
  important as the scientific objectivity of
  external researchers seeking generalized
  knowledge about learning

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• The classroom researcher
• Desires relevance over rigor
• Uses
• Careful observation
• Interviews with students
• Understanding of classroom environment
• Qualitative, quantitative, or performance
  measures
• Invents own methods of data collection

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Applying Classroom Research to the Seven
Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate
Education (Chickering and Gamson,1991)

• Good Practice Encourages Student-Faculty Contact
• Teachers learn how to teach effectively when they
• Learn to know students
• Monitor student progress in learning

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• Good Practice Encourages Cooperation Among
  Students-- and Colleagues
• Classroom Research is a highly social activity
• Faculty share experiences
• Faculty learn from one another

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• Good Practice Encourages Active Learning
• Classroom Research requires active involvement in
  learning about teaching
• Teachers
• Raise own questions about their teaching
• Devise appropriate ways to investigate those
  questions
• Self-initiated inquiry most effective for
  learning

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• Good Practice Gives Prompt Feedback
• Major function of Classroom Research
• Feedback about students learning
• Monitors student learning throughout entire
  session
• Allows students and teachers to take
  self-corrective action throughout class session

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• Good Practice Communicates High Expectations
• Assumption is made that both students and
  teachers
• Take the business of education seriously
• Want performance feedback
• Will work on improvement

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• Good Practice Respects Diverse Talents and Ways
  of Learning -- and Teaching
• Assessment and research methods are highly
  diverse and flexible
• Teachers can use CATs (Angelo and Cross, 1993)
• Teachers can devise own methods of assessment

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In Conclusion

• A wonderful opportunity awaits us as we struggle
  to develop our own online classes
• We should embrace the opportunity to become
  classroom researchers
• The research we do within our online classrooms
  can (and should) be published

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When planning a classroom research project, Cross
and Steadman suggest the following

• Formulate a question about the learning of
  students in your class that is important to you
  in your teaching
• Keep your question simple, realistic, and focused
  on your own experience. Follow your hunches
  predict what might happen
• Inform yourself about what is known about the
  learning issue you have selected. Read with
  focus-not necessarily exhaustively. Form a study
  group to share the load

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• Reformulate your question into a researchable
  question. What do you want to know?
• Work with other faculty to discuss, design,
  cooperate on, and interpret your Classroom
  Research projects
• Think through how students will benefit how they
  can be included in the research what issues are
  too sensitive for the student-teacher relationship

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• Decide how you will investigate your question.
  (Avoid the temptation to use an instrument
  because it is there or to collect data that have
  no clear purpose.)
• Conduct a pilot study, with yourself and
  colleagues as respondents
• Estimate the time needed for student response and
  for analysis of the data

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• Even if you have no plans to publish, write up
  your results to clarify for yourself what you
  have learned - about doing research, about
  learning, about your teaching.(226)

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On That Note

• Carol Holder has established an office of
  Scholarship of Teaching Projects for CLASS on our
  campus
• Even though Carol will be spending 2002-03 as
  Director of Faculty Development for CSU Channel
  Islands, she has graciously allowed us access to
  her web-site, which contains innumerable items of
  interest to those interested in conducting
  classroom research
• www.csupomona.edu/cholder/links.html
• www.csupomona.edu/cholder/pubguides.html