Spring 2008
TLC in the Classroom:
Faculty Initiatives Elevate Importance of Teaching & Learning
As the university of Maryland strives to enter the top echelon of U.S. research universities, there is simultaneously a renewed emphasis on the importance of teaching excellence, student engagement, and “learning outcomes.” Ahead on the Learning Curve
The College’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) , led by Dr. Gili Marbach-Ad, has been ahead of the curve in encouraging strategies to improve classroom learning. Established in 2006 by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Program, the TLC not only promotes excellence in teaching by providing resources for faculty and graduate teaching assistants, it also facilitates faculty-led initiatives to analyze classroom curricula, to assess what students are learning, and to publish their findings in journals about science education.
“It is important that faculty are looking seriously at what they are doing in their teaching as well as in their research.
But, we didn’t want them to have to recreate the wheel to take this on, so we bring the research in science education to them.”
- Gili Marbach-Ad, Director of the Teaching and Learning Center
Rigorous Research on What Works in Science Education
“It is important that faculty are looking seriously at what they are doing in their teaching as well as in their research,” says Marbach-Ad, herself an international expert in science education research. “Our faculty are generally not trained in curriculum development or analyzing the effectiveness of teaching styles. But we didn’t want them to have to recreate the wheel to take this on. We bring the research in science education to them.”
Dr. Marbach-Ad brings her science education expertise to a group of faculty who call themselves the “Host Pathogen Interaction Teaching Group." This group of 17 faculty members, who range from lecturers to full professors, teach the series of eight undergraduate courses focusing on host-pathogen interactions, from General Microbiology to Immunology. They have been meeting since 2004 to discuss teaching and learning and have shared their work at national and international conferences and published several papers in leading science education journals.
Are Students Really Learning the Concepts or Just Passing the Tests?
Beginning in 2004, the HPI group got together to discuss how and what they were teaching, to ensure that they weren’t duplicating efforts or omitting key concepts necessary for students to progress to higher-level courses. Led by Dr. Ann Smith, instructor of cell biology and molecular genetics and the project’s principal investigator, the group would focus on one course each semester and develop ways to incorporate more “active learning” into it. They also agreed upon 13 fundamental concepts that students need to know, and have used these to develop a “concept inventory” that enables them to monitor if students are really learning these central ideas. They give students an 18 question multiple choice test in which they are also asked to explain their rationale for their answer. From this, they can deduce how to better target their curriculum to student needs.
“‘Learning outcomes’ has become a buzzword phrase. It relates to accountability and measuring that students are really learning something,” explains Kaci Thompson, Director, Undergraduate Research and Internship Programs. “In some fields, they already have concept inventories, but they are much less developed in the biological sciences.” The HPI group is clearly filling a void, and others on campus and beyond have taken notice.
Promoting Active Learning on Campus and Beyond
Recently, Dr. Ann Smith was invited by the School of Public Health to share strategies for active learning at a teaching retreat they sponsored. “We’re thrilled to share how we’ve transformed our courses in host-pathogen interactions to engage students in more research-oriented learning,” Smith says. Members of the HPI group are presenting their findings at conferences focused on science education research, including an upcoming invitation to speak on their Host Pathogen Concept Inventory at the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting to be held in Boston in June. Norma Allewell, Dean of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, encourages faculty participation in these initiatives. "I am really excited about how this is bringing together the teaching and research missions of the college," she says, "and is raising our undergraduate program to a new level of excellence."
Exposing Biology Students to the Math Needed for 21st Century Research
William Fagan, Professor of Biology, is leading another significant initiative to improve undergraduate student learning by increasing the exposure that biology students get to mathematics. The National Science Foundation is funding the expansion of the “MathBench” interactive modules that Fagan and and Karen Nelson, post-doctoral researcher in Entomology, have developed. Using interactive examples that incorporate fun references to pop culture, they hope to reinforce biological concepts, increase math literacy, and prepare students for upper-level courses. The web-based modules give students the opportunity to perform simulations where they can change parameters and watch the result, make predictions, and check their answers. The grant will also help Montgomery College to implement “MathBench” modules in its introductory biology classes, since an increasing number of our college’s undergraduates transfer in from MC.
The TLC is shepherding a variety of ongoing curriculum redesign efforts throughout the college in addition to these, and Marbach-Ad welcomes faculty initiatives, however large or small. She is available for individual consultations and can be reached at gilim@umd.edu or 301-405-2075.