248 Geoscience Education (Posters)

Wednesday, 3 November 2010
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Hall D

HOW MUCH NON-TRADITIONAL TEACHING DOES IT TAKE TO DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE LEARNING GAINS IN INTRODUCTORY PHYSICAL GEOLOGY?

Paper number: 248-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

As a part of the GARNET project (Geoscience Affective Research Network), we quantified the relationship between classroom teaching styles and student learning. Such relations are well established in some STEM disciplines (physics) but poorly defined in the geosciences. Instructional pedagogy was characterized using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP; Sawada et al. 2002). The 0-100 scale reflects the span between traditional instructor-centered lecture courses and student-centered, interactive learning environments. Every participating instructor was observed at least twice. Student learning was measured using a 15-question concept inventory (CI) focused on geologic time and plate tectonics. Twelve questions were from the Geologic Concept Inventory of Libarkin and Anderson (2005) and 3 questions were added on relative time. Eight different instructors teaching introductory physical geology at 5 institutions (one small private college, four large public universities) were involved. A total of 407 students completed the concept survey in the 2nd and 14th weeks of the semester and consented to the use of their data.

RTOP scores ranged from 19 to 87. Averaged normalized learning gains on the CI ranged from 18.6% to 47.4%. RTOP and CI positively covary with a R2 value of 0.67. If students score high on a question prior to instruction (>90% correct), then there is little potential for a learning gain. Adjusting for this phenomena results in an even stronger relationship between RTOP and CI (R2 = 0.89). Based on results from our pre-instruction CI, students enter introductory physical geology with strong pre-existing knowledge on geologic time and plate tectonics (average 54.3% correct pre-instruction). Learning gains are not high for traditionally taught courses – lecturing and limited use of clickers produced average learning gains <30%.

Instructors with the highest RTOP scores (> 60) and learning gains > 50% used multiple strategies to engage students with content during class and force students to reflect on their understanding of critical concepts during and outside of class. If one is serious about educating students, the results indicate significant and substantial changes are needed beyond the traditional lecture. Just adding a few activities or interventions will not have great effect.