Diane Ebert-May

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Assessment - What Evidence do You Accept?

• Diane Ebert-May
• Lyman Briggs School
• Department of Plant Biology
• Michigan State University

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Our Team at MSU

• Doug Luckie - Physiology
• Janet Batzli - Plant Biology
• Scott Harrison - Microbiology
• Tammy Long - Ecology
• Heejun Lim - Chemistry Education
• Duncan Sibley - Geology
• Joyce Parker - Biochemistry

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Consensogram Directions

• 1. Take one color-coded post-it for each
  question, write the question in the corner.
• 2. Write a number between 0-100 on each
• post-it in increments of 10.
• 3. Do not share responses

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Consensogram Questions

• Please respond on a scale of 0 -100 in increments
  of 10
• To what degree is your course based on active,
  inquiry-based learning?
• To what degree are your course learning
  objectives, instructional design and assessment
  aligned?
• How important is it to use multiple kinds of data
  to assess your students?
• How often do I use data to make instructional
  decisions?
• In my department, teaching is as important as
  research for graduate students (100 agree - 0
  disagree).
• In my department, effective teaching is rewarded.
  (100 agree - 0 disagree)

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Goals for Today

• As a result of your participation in this
  workshop, you will...
• Participate in analysis of learning
  constructive, inquiry, discovery, active,
  problem-based, cooperative, outcomes based,
  project-based.
• Examine course goals and predicted learning
  outcomes.
• Use data to identify student understanding and
  misconceptions.
• Use assessment techniques

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True or False?

• Faculty really are very interested in assessing
  their students learning better, but just dont
  know how to?

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True or False?

• Lack of meaningful assessment in undergraduate
  education occurs because faculty are satisfied to
  be less accountable in their teaching than they
  are in their research.

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True or False?

• Assessing student learning in science is more
  closely related to what scientists actually do as
  research than they realize.

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Assessment in TeachingParallels Assessment in
Research

• We collect data with a purpose.
• Data we collect are aligned with a question about
  a problem
• Questions we ask are meaningful, interesting,
  fundable.
• Research methods and designs appropriate for
  question.
• Instruments/techniques we use are calibrated.
• We explain results in the context of our
  questions.
• Results drive our next questions.
• Our ideas are peer reviewed for
  publication/funding.

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What are 3 central questions about learning?

• 1. What do we want our students to know and be
  able to do?
• 1.5. What evidence will we accept that students
  know and can do?
• 2. How will we help students get there?

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Cognitive Theory

• Learners are not simply passive recipients of
  information they actively construct their own
  understanding.
• Svinicki 1991

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Ultimate goal of teaching

• 1. Improved student learning.
• 2. Improved student learning.
• 3. Improved student learning.

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What Type of Learning?

• Bloom (1956) described major categories in
• Cognitive
• Domain of Educational Objectives

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Convergent Thinking

• Knowledge - remember material
• Comprehension - grasp the meaning of material
• Application - use learned material in new
  concrete situations
• Adapted from Grolund (1970)

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Divergent Thinking

• Analysis - break down material to understand
  organizational structure
• Synthesis - put parts together to form a new
  whole
• Evaluation - judge value of material for a
  purpose
• Adapted from Grolund (1970)

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Classroom Environment

• Teacher inspires students to struggle with the
  discipline - both within and outside the
  classroom.
• Teacher needs evidence from students about their
  progress in learning

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What is assessment?

• Data collection with a purpose
• Courses gather data about our students learning.

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What type of data do we gather?

• Depends on the evidence we will accept that
  students have learned what we want them to learn.
• Data must be aligned with the course goals.
• Measures of knowledge, attitudes, and skills.
• tests, extended responses, concept maps,
• research papers, teamwork, communication

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Basic Objectives Biology Department Hope College

• students to
• Be active learners - that is to learn biology by
  doing biology.
• Learn the basic set of principles and factual
  knowledge about each of the major areas of
  biology.

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Write a Learning Goal

• Individually, write a learning goal for one of
  your courses (in the context of the departmental
  objectives)
• e.g.,
• students will demonstrate
• students will be able to

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Next

• Share your goal with a partner in your group
• Write both goals on large post-its
• Beneath, write possible performance expectations

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Functions of Assessment Data

• Formative diagnostic feedback to
  students/instructor
• Summative description of students level of
  attainment
• Evaluative curricular feedback to instructor
• (e.g., effectiveness of field trip, lab
  investigation)
• Educative students engaged in interesting,
  challenging experiences to develop further
  insight and understanding (Hodson 1992)

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In effect...

• Assessment IS a form of learning.

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Goal gt Assessment

• Students will be able to demonstrate their
  understanding of photosynthesis and respiration
  in a variety of problems.
• Tools multiple forms of assessment

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Common Misconceptions Photosynthesis
Respiration

• Photosynthesis as Energy Photosynthesis
  provides energy for uptake of nutrients through
  roots which builds biomass. No biomass built
  through photosynthesis alone.
• Plant Altruism CO2 is converted to O2 in plant
  leaves so that all organisms can breathe.
• All Green Plants have chloroplasts instead of
  mitochondria so they can not respire.
• Thin Air CO2 and O2 are gases therefore, do not
  have mass and therefore, can not add or take away
  mass from an organism.

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Multiple choice question (pre-post)

• Plants gain a tremendous amount of weight (dry
  biomass) as they grow from seed to adult. Which
  of the following substances contributes most to
  that weight gain
• a. compounds dissolved in soil water that are
  take up by plant roots
• b. water
• c. molecules in the air that enter through holes
  in the plant leaves
• d. organic material in the soil taken up directly
  by plant roots
• e. solar radiation

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Carbon Cycle Problem (post)

• Two fundamental concepts in ecology are energy
  flows and matter cycles. In an Antarctic
  ecosystem with the food web given above, how
  could a carbon atom in the blubber of the Minke
  whale become part of a crabeater seal? Note
  crabeater seals do not eat Minke whales. In your
  response include a drawing with arrows showing
  the movement of the C atom. In addition to your
  drawing, provide a written description of the
  steps the carbon atom must take through each
  component of the ecosystem Describe which
  biological processes are involved in the carbon
  cycle.

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Antarctic Food Web
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Radish Problem

• Experimental Setup
• Weighed out 3 batches of radish seeds each
  weighing 1.5 g.
• Experimental treatments
• 1. Seeds not moistened (dry) placed in LIGHT
• 2. Seeds placed on moistened paper towels in
  LIGHT
• 3. Seeds placed on moistened paper towels in
  DARK

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Problem (cont)

• After 1 week, all plant material was dried in an
  oven overnight (no water left) and plant biomass
  was measured in grams.
• Predict the biomass of the plant material in the
  various treatments (use think-pair-share).
• Light, No Water
• Light, Water
• Dark, Water

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Results Weight of Radish Plants
1.46 g 1.63 g 1.20 g
Write an explanation about the results. (Remember
all treatments started as 1.5g).
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Misconceptions gt Assessment gt Instruction

• What data do you want from the assessment?
• What do you do when you identify student
  misconceptions?
• How will the data influence your instructional
  design?

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Gene-DNA-Chromosome

• Students could explain transcription
  translation but not the relation...
• Gene-DNA-Chromosome.
• Concept mapping forces students to Think
  different and confront their (mis)
  understanding.

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Assessment Gradient
Multiple Choice Concept Maps Essay
Interview
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Assessment and Research

• Assessment answers the what questions about
  student learning.
• Research provides explanations about the why
  and how of student understanding.

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Open-ended questions

• Align with learning goals
• What thinking skills do you wish to assess,
  choose one questioning format
• interpret data?
• write conclusions from previous work?
• describe?
• solve a problem?

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Writing Open-ended Questions

• Write a description of the situation.
• Write the directions for writing.
• Develop a simple rubric
• Conceptual understanding
• Content knowledge
• Critical-thinking processes
• Communication skills

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Goal explain evolution by natural selection
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Individual Problem

• Explain the phenotypic changes in the tree and
  the animal. Use your understanding of evolution
  by natural selection.

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How do we develop rubrics?

• Describe the goals for the activity, problem,
  task
• Select the assessment tasks aligned with goals
• Develop performance standards
• Differentiate levels of responses based on
  clearly described criteria
• Rate (assign value) the categories

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Scoring Rubric for Quizzes and Homework
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Advantages of Scoring Rubrics

• Improve the reliability of scoring written
  assignments and oral presentations
• Convey goals and performance expectations of
  students in an unambiguous way
• Convey grading standards or point values and
  relate them to performance goals
• Engage students in critical evaluation of their
  own performance
• Save time but spend it well

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Limitations of Scoring Rubrics

• Problem of criteria
• Problem of practice and regular use
• Scoring Rubric website
• http//www.wcer.wisc.edu/nise/cl1/flag/
• Sample Rubrics for Organismal Biology
• http//www.msu.edu/course/lbs/144/f01

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Proposal Assessment Plan - Essentials

• Agree on goals and objectives for learning
• Design and implement a thoughtful approach to
  planning
• Involve individuals from on/off campus
• Select/design data collection approaches
• Examine, share, act on assessment findings
• Regularly examine assessment process