1. Using Assessment to Design Instruction that Enhances Student Learning
From Seminarcolepsy To Deliberate practice
Nephew story
Michelle Withers, West Virginia University

2. Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this workshop you will be able to:
design classes that help your students learn what you want them to learn
use formative assessment to engage students in “deliberate practice” so they can achieve your intended learning outcomes

3. Are our students learning what we want them to learn?
A Private Universe

4. Brainstorm
If the folks from “A Private Universe” interviewed your class at the end of the term, what things would you be embarrassed to find that your students didn’t know or couldn’t do?

5. Backward Design goal-oriented instructional design that emphasizes learning not teaching (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998)
Learning goals
What should
students know
or be able to do
by the end of
your course?
What evidence
will convince
you that they
got there?
Assessments
How will you help
them get there?
Learning activities 5

6. Which column is easier to assess?
Intended learning outcomes
Learning Goals
Understand gene expression
Develop science process skills
Understand evolution by natural selection
Students will be able to predict changes in amino acid sequences caused by mutations
Students will be able to interpret a graph.
Students will be able to explain how adaptations seen in nature occurred.

7. Alignment Students will understand evolution by natural selection
Learning Goal
Intended Outcome
Assessment
Learning
Activity
Students will understand evolution by natural selection
Students will be able to explain how adaptations seen in nature occurred.
Students will be able to explain how running speed in cheetahs increased given interactions with their prey.
Work in groups to explain how various adaptations occurred.

8. If they sit and listen, what they learn to do is sit and listen
If they sit and listen, what they learn to do is sit and listen. Randall Phillis, UMass Amherst

9. “Deliberate Practice” The one doing is the one learning.

10. As the acorn grows into the tree, the majority of the biomass comes from _________
Air (104671)
Soil (104672)
Water (104678)
Sun (104683)
Text a code to: 37607

11. Three identical plates of radish seeds are incubated under three conditions, with results as shown. Their DRY weights in increasing order will be (lightest to heaviest):
1, 2, 3 (104736)
1, 3, 2 (104740)
3, 2, 1 (104741)
3, 1, 2 (104745)
All the same (104753)
Text a code to: 37607
Batzli and Ebert-May 1 2 3

12. What are some intended learning outcomes that the previous learning activities would help students achieve?

13. Reflection What did you learn or experience in the role of student?
What feedback did the learning activities offer the you?
How do you think this feedback compares with a traditional lecture classroom?

14. Summary
Backward design is a framework for creating a goal-oriented class that drives meaningful learning
Formative assessment serves as deliberate practice to engage students in ways that help them achieve your intended learning outcomes
There are a variety of ways to successfully engage students, so use methods that fit your style and situation.
Key misconceptions about AL: As long as students are busy, they’re learning.
Students’ minds are empty vessels or blank slates.
If students are not taking notes, they’re not learning.
Miscons can be addressed by simply telling right answer.
Students should learn the way I did.

16. % normalized learning gain
Comparison of student normalized learning gains in traditional and interactive-engagement courses
traditional
interactive
Number of students
interactive
% normalized learning gain
Developmental biology,a required course for majors, ~70 junior and senior undergraduates, taught in Fall '03, Spr. 04,and Spr. 05 by Jennifer Knight and Bill Wood (Cell Biol Educ 4: , 2005).