1. Citizen Science in the classroom: assessing an interactive teaching approach
Paula Miles
School of Psychology & Neuroscience
University of St Andrews

2. Consumer of Information (Traditional) Generator of Knowledge
Introduction
Role of University Educators:
aid student transition from school pupil to investigative learner
Consumer of Information (Traditional)
Generator of Knowledge
(Interactive)
Interactive Approaches:
lead to higher levels of satisfaction and understanding
(e.g., Fraser et al., 2014; Hake, 1998; Laurillard, 2009)

3. Citizen Science A biological data collection method defined as:
“…scientific activities in which non-professional scientists volunteer to participate in data collection, analysis and dissemination of a scientific project.”
(Haklay, 2011, para.3)
Application to learning and teaching?

4. Teaching Styles Traditional Citizen Science Passive (Surface) Active
Learn analysis
Perform analysis on pre-prepared data set
Draw conclusions
Traditional
Design study; report back to class
Complete pre-prepared study
Collect data
Learn appropriate analysis
Perform analysis on class data
Citizen Science
Passive
(Surface)
Active
(Deep)

5. Hypotheses
The use of an interactive Citizen Science-informed teaching strategy, compared to a Traditional approach, leads to:
Greater student satisfaction
Greater retention of taught material
Two studies:
Experienced teacher
Novice teacher

6. Study 1: Method Participants: Design:
216 first year psychology undergraduates
104 completed all 4 testing sessions – this paired data was collated for analysis
Design:
Repeated measures, mixed design
Conditions counterbalanced
Each student experienced both styles of teaching twice in the academic year

7. Study 1: Method Design: Semester 1 Semester 2 Session 1 Session 2
Group 1
Citizen Science
Traditional
Group 2

8. Study 1: Method Assessment Tools
Measure of Satisfaction:
8 questions pooled to give overall satisfaction score.
Examples:
How would you rate the organisation of the lab content?
The clarity of lab content was?
Rating scale ranged from 1 (excellent) to 6 (very poor)
Measure of Performance:
10 question multiple choice tests (4 possible answers)
Matches standard assessment tools in first year psychology

9. Study 1: Results Overall
Satisfaction
Lower
Higher
Performance *

10. Study 1: Results by Semester
Lower
Higher
Satisfaction
Performance *

11. Study 2: Method Participants: Design: Semester 1 Semester 2
291 first year psychology undergraduates
105 completed all 4 testing sessions – this paired data was collated for analysis
Design:
Semester 1
Semester 2
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Group 1
Citizen Science
Traditional
Group 2

12. Study 2: Method Assessment Tools
Measure of Satisfaction:
9 questions pooled to give overall satisfaction score.
Measure of Performance:
10 question multiple choice tests (4 possible answers)
Measure of Student Perception:
Content Specific Questions
I understand the function of a paired samples t-test
I am confident interpreting the results of a paired samples t-test
Measure of Mathematics Anxiety (MARS-R):
24 questions: Learning Maths & Maths Evaluation
Plake & Parker (1982)

13. Study 2: Results Overall
Satisfaction
Lower
Higher
Performance

14. Study 2: Results by Semester
Lower
Higher
Satisfaction
Performance

15. Conclusions Interactive Approach (Citizen Science) vs Traditional:
No difference in student satisfaction
Initially, poorer performance for Citizen science
With time, equivalent performance
Experienced & novice teachers can use either method
Considerations:
Surface vs Deep Assessment
Time required to implement Citizen Science approach

16. Ongoing/Future Work Student Confidence Maths Anxiety
Assessing Deep learning
Application in different year levels
Application in other disciplines