Written and designed by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Reproduce with permission only.
A professor from the University of Minnesota reflects on the gap between how scholars work and how they teach:
As teachers, we tend to present material to our classes in the form of the results of our discipline's work. We collect the data, do the reading and synthesize the material into a finished product. Students, in their assignments and exams, are generally expected to demonstrate that they have learned what we as scholars have already found out. Rarely are they provided with the opportunity to make those discoveries themselves. And yet it is potentially very rewarding to offer students the opportunity to use raw materials themselves, giving them "hands on" experience doing the work of the discipline.
In specific courses at UNC, instructors do offer undergraduate students problem-based learning opportunities in which students collect, analyze and critically evaluate data and ideas, synthesize their findings and then propose answers to complex problems This issue of FYC focuses on three examples of courses or strategies within courses that enable students to do research and problem-based learning. Although the ideas and examples for this issue come primarily from interviews with undergraduates and instructors in the Sciences, the same approaches to learning are being used by UNC instructors in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
For a number of years, both the Chemistry and the Biology Departments have offered courses for undergraduates in which students actively participate in on-going faculty research projects or occasionally develop original research projects. These courses are Biology 98 and 99 and Chemistry 99.
In Chemistry 99, "Undergraduate Research", students most often work on an offshoot of a larger problem that has been described by a research professor, and they work on the problem for at least two semesters. Although students rarely work on their own research idea, they may do something that is in addition to or an extension of the research problem described by the professor. In Biology 98, "Undergraduate Research," undergraduates also work primarily on a discrete piece of a larger project that is going in a lab. In both Chemistry and Biology, time, complexity of the field and financial resources prohibit most undergraduates from undertaking independent research. Many undergraduate researchers, however, do valuable parts of a larger research project and their findings enable them to be second authors, and occasionally first authors, on research publications.
Biology students can also choose to take Biology 99, "Senior Honors Thesis," as a follow up to Biology 98. In this course, students write a thesis based on their research, and in the Spring term, they formally present their research in a day long symposium. Weekly seminars give students the opportunity to discuss their research and also learn how to structure their thesis and how to give short, formal presentations.
Students interested in doing research obtain a list from the department secretary of research professors who take undergraduate students in their labs and their specific area of research. Students then interview selected professors to see if there is space in the lab and to find out what they would do in the research. Once they have chosen a lab, students often must demonstrate their competence in using techniques which are standard in that lab. Research professors say they are glad to have undergraduates assisting with research because they are often as skilled as the first year graduate Research Assistants.
A Biology student described the research course as an opportunity to apply the scientific process and experience what it is like to be a scientist. This student, who was encouraged to do an original zoology research project by his professor, explained the inquiry process he used in his work: "First, I decided on the problem or phenomenon to study. Then I described the problem and in doing this, I found the tangible thing to solve and narrowed down the problem. I designed a set of experiments to confirm the hypothesis, theory or explanation. Regardless of whether you do your own project or part of a larger project in a professor's lab, it is an invaluable learning experience."
Although students who are planning to go to graduate school are encouraged to take Biology 98 and Chemistry 99, many students take the course who are going into fields such as medicine and dentistry. A professor says, "Although students who have actively participated in undergraduate level research go to medical school, they tend to take more advantage of research opportunities in medical school, and I think a lot of them head into medical research when they might not have considered medical research as a career option."
A former student, who is now a doctor, says that the research experience gave her skills to know what questions to ask when evaluating new products from drug company representatives or articles in medical journals describing new treatments, new protocols and new products. She feels that she evaluates those things totally differently than she would have if she had not taken the research course.
Problem solving is a learning strategy that encourages students to analyze and think critically by integrating and synthesizing the facts and ideas they have learned in order to solve or propose possible solutions to an authentic problem, or one for which a solution does not already exist. Here is an example of a group problem solving strategy that an instructor uses in a Microbiology course of ninety students:
Because of your expertise in Microbiology you are hired as a consultant to a large mining company. They wish to use bacteria to clean up (and possibly profitably extract minerals from) their mine tailings (left over materials). They own many types of mines. From which minerals do you think you could find bacteria which would do this? Would it be easier to find bacteria which would reduce or oxidize minerals? How fast would you expect these bacteria to grow?
On most Fridays during the semester, the ninety students in Ann Matthysee's Microbiology class (Biology 108) break into small cooperative learning groups within the large classroom to develop group solutions to complex problems like this one. The problems are specifically related to the previous lectures and text readings and frequently require the practical application of theories and ideas. This problem, for example, follows lectures and readings on oxidation reduction reactions and on how bacteria get energy from redox reactions.
The problems - there are eleven of them during the semester - are described in the syllabus so students can prepare and come to their groups with some kind of individual solution which also might include an area of difficulty or a point they need to discuss.
Many of the problems developed by Matthysee are based on actual situations confronted by colleagues and former students.
Cooperative learning groups differ from discussion groups in at least one important way: the cooperative learning group is focused on accomplishing a group task such as, in this case, discussing, deciding on and writing up a group solution to a problem. In this process, students become responsible not only for their learning but also for the learning of other students in the group.
Dr. Matthysee explains the value of cooperative learning groups to students in the syllabus: "Science is currently a cooperative activity. Most scientists now work in groups. Medicine is also often practiced in groups, both in and out of hospital settings. And group discussions tend to aid the development of critical thinking and to foster the ability to design experiments and protocols. The groups also provide an opportunity for [students] to hear new and diverse points of view."
A secondary, but equally important, reason for using cooperative groups to address problems in a large class is that these groups provide the logistics for weekly interactive discussion and writing in a large lecture class. While the instructor can read eleven group papers each week, reading ninety individual papers each week would not be feasible. Although there is a TA assigned to the class, Matthysee reads and grades the papers herself because the problems are complex and may have many possible correct answers as well as different approaches and levels of interpretation. Reading the papers also helps her evaluate how well students are understanding the concepts from the lecture. When there are consistent problem areas in the papers, Matthysee goes over these areas of difficulty in the next week's lectures before proceeding with new areas. Also, if there is something interesting that some groups saw and other didn't, she will discuss those points in lecture.
In this class of ninety, there are eleven groups with seven to nine students in each group. Using a simple questionnaire in which students check off science courses they have taken, Matthysee ensures that each group has a balance of students with the different areas of expertise required to solve the complex problems. For example, each group has at least one student who has taken a number of Physics courses, a student who has taken Biochemistry, a student enrolled in the optional lab for this course, and students with other relevant science courses. This method of distribution prevents seniors with a strong science background from being in one group and sophomores with a more limited science background, in another group.
The eleven groups meet in class on Fridays to discuss a specific problem. Each student is expected to come to their group with some kind of written solution as well as problems they may have encountered in addressing the problem. Matthysee and the TA go around to the groups and check off that each student in the group has prepared something in writing. If a student is not prepared, he or she may not participate in the discussion. According to Matthysee, this simple checking encourages students to prepare ahead of time and prevents the group from depending on one or two people to do all of the work. In the groups, the students discuss and point out the flaws in different proposed solutions. After the group discussion is over, one person (the "scribe") writes up the collaborative solution over the weekend calling several members of the group to make sure that the paper accurately reflects the group decision. This "scribe" position must rotate each week. Occasionally an entire group may meet over the weekend to discuss and work on the problem further. Group papers are due on Monday. Matthysee posts at least one good paper for each problem although when groups take different approaches that are equally acceptable, she posts several papers.
Matthysee grades the group papers on a scale of one to ten and she does not grade the group papers competitively. Instead each group can earn up to eighty points that will count as 20% of their total grade for the course. Students count eight of the eleven problem scores. This flexibility also allows Matthysee to drop an entire problem if it does not work out well in the groups. At the end of the semester, students choose their best eight scores on the eleven problems.
Matthysee also encourages creative thinking and risk taking in problem solving by providing the opportunity for students to earn bonus points. "I tell (students) that on any of these questions, they can draw a line across the bottom of the page and write `bonus' and then they can put any creative, off-the-wall ideas that they come up with. This will not count in the answer to the regular question but I will not count off if it's totally off-the-wall and absolutely incorrect. Bonus points are given to the whole group and are added after I figure the final grades.
"We use what we don't know to invite students to understand the scientific process," says Patricia Pukkila who team teaches Biology 166 with Albert Harris. In the course, "Unsolved Problems in Cell Biology," Harris and Pukkila select current topics in cytology, embryology and genetics where key problems remain unsolved but appear close to being solved. Examples of topics examined in previous courses include AIDS, Recombination, Cancer and the Biological Effects of Electric and Magnetic Fields.
According to Harris, the instructors and students in the course analyze special problem topics from the perspectives of "what is not known but seems to be almost known about a topic and what the questions are that one would try to answer if we were to undertake research in this area."
Students are introduced to the problem solving approach used in the course when they read and discuss the Double Helix. Harris tells students (slightly facetiously) that the Double Helix illustrates how Watson and Crick won a Nobel prize by doing what they will be doing in this course. Harris explains:
Watson and Crick were aware of the findings and theories about DNA without having created very much of the data themselves. They educated themselves about the state of the research in the area and then they discussed and bounced ideas off each other as to what the possible explanations were. They found out the current evidence by reading journals and by getting people to give them the current data. They synthesized all this information, thought up a solution to the problem and published it. And they were credited with the discovery. In the book, students see an example of how the scientists who are responsible for providing the data and for providing the information are not the ones who synthesize it.
It's interesting to read the Double Helix and then say to students that there's a whole bunch of other topics that are in a comparable state of development that DNA was in 1963. We don't have to do the research on these topics. We're just going to consider what is in the literature and what the alternative possibilities are.
A major conceptual emphasis in the course is the process of thinking about science based on the ideas of Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Students learn the perspective of how a conceptual framework, such as theory or set of theories, may determine how observed facts are interpreted and explained. Students take into account the current theories and assumptions that make up the framework of a problem as they study and propose possible solutions to a problem.
Here's generally how the course works: Harris and Pukkila begin a topic by giving students a summary handout on the topic For example, the handout, "Cancer and Oncogenes in One Easy Lesson," includes these sections: (1) some meanings and definitions of descriptive terms; (2) a list of known information or current evidence on causes of human cancers; (3) descriptions of drugs used in cancer chemotherapy; (4) a summary of differences between normal and cancer cells, and (5) important questions to consider for class discussion. In these handouts, the instructors lay the foundation of the topic by summarizing "what is known, what the reasonably specific questions are where the answers are uncertain and the hypotheses that people argue about in the area," explains Harris. These handouts give everyone a common foundation regardless of their science background.
In class discussions and writings, students are asked to analyze the topic and think of the next problem that needs to be solved if they were going to undertake research in this area. In the class, students read short papers and discuss articles with an emphasis on identifying what the article is really saying and explaining the ideas presented. In these research articles, students read to understand what is known and what is not known and to note where the clues are for the next step. Students also learn to deal with contradicting evidence either by broadening their hypothesis or explanation to include it or by coming up with a good reason to disregard it. The point is for students to synthesize a series of individual ideas and theories from the research and develop a comprehensive picture or explanation of what may be happening. "In scientific research, each person contributes a tiny bit and together it adds up, rather than there being a sudden great revelation that changes everything," Pukkila says. Students learn this as they piece together the various research findings on a problem. Pukkila concludes, "The course shows how people discover things and gives students the delight of solving something." "The course," she says, "is about the thrill of discovery rather than just the joy of learning. It encourages students to try new things and to take risks."
An instructor from the University of Indiana writes about the importance of sharing the intellectual process of developing ideas with students:
The key aspect of teaching is revealing the teacher as an individual striving, like the students, to interpret a complex and uncertain world. Although lectures require much prior thinking, it may seem to the students as if professors spontaneously think the way we lecture and consequently, as if "real" thinking is beyond the students' reach. This impact can be softened by exploring new ideas as they emerge during class and by noting how our views have changed: the mistakes and other factors that led to changes, the alternatives we explored and rejected, and the changes we are now considering. Sharing the triumphs and the false starts involved in creating new ideas is central.
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