Developing higher-order thinking in the 100-level classroom Kevin Gould School of Biological Sciences Victoria University of Wellington

Match these famous faces to their professions: Physicist Botanist Microbiologist Chemist

BIOL BIOLOGY OF PLANTS

Pathways to Success Two goals: 1)Improved performance & retention in Plant Science 2)Deeper learning, creative & critical thinking

Can 100-level students engage in high-order learning? Krathwohl DR, Anderson LW (Eds), A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Use of narrative to illustrate relevance of plants - generates curiosity & desire to learn 1

2 Replace prescriptive, menu-driven labs with problem-solving exercises requiring teamwork “Your task in this part of the lab is to design and conduct an experiment of your choice to investigate adventitious rooting in hypocotyl cuttings of Vigna radiata, the mung bean. Working as a team of five or six people, you have been supplied with… …” “In this part of the lab, you will assume the role of a team of scientists working for an agrochemical company. The chemists have handed to you a solution containing a newly synthesised compound which has structural similarities to a plant hormone …Your goal is to determine the possible biological activity of this new compound. “

3 Promote student engagement through interactive lectures Design a plant “Draw or describe the features of a plant that is ideally suited for survival in the habitat assigned to you, and explain your choices…” You are in Uluru National Park in Australia….

Use of ‘clickers’ to promote class discussion 4 Students learn and engage more fully when they are involved in some form of discussion, or peer learning (Bruff, 2009)

When you eat a potato, you are eating a: 1.Root 2.Bulb 3.Seed 4.Stem 5.Bud 6.Flower But not all clicker questions are created equal

Our clicker wiki project

Final grades for BIOL 113 before (2008) and after (2009) Pathways to Success

Using clickers in lectures helps you to pay more attention than in other lectures N % Strongly Agree66 50 Agree49 37 Neutral16 12 Disagree1 1 Strongly Disagree0 0 Total

Seeing the correct answers to questions helps you to judge how well you understand the subject N% Strongly Agree8665 Agree4534 Neutral21 Disagree00 Strongly Disagree00 Total133100

Overall, how useful do you think clickers are in lectures? N% Very useful6851 Quite useful6246 Neutral43 Not useful00 Not at all useful00 Total134100

“…I just want to say thanks for changing the course. I failed this paper last year, probably because I hated plants and found it really boring. When I'm not interested in something it's very hard for me to learn, and I was dreading having to do it again this year… … But this year it's so much better. I actually enjoy coming to the lectures, and I feel like I've learnt more in the last few weeks than what I did during the whole semester last year… … I've become really interested in plants and I finally understand your enthusiasm for botany (last year I just thought you were crazy)… … BIOL113 has gone from being the course I hated the most last year to my favourite class this year…”