Science Education Research Journal Club papers

Meetings are typically held in the Math/Science Center room E200 (the round lounge next to Jazzman's Cafe). Click here for directions to campus. Note that the directions are to Emerson Hall, but there's a map that shows you where to park and also indicates where the Math/Science Center is.

• Possible future papers
• Links to other websites

2008

• Thursday, December 18, 1 pm -- note special time
  • "The Genetics Concept Assessment: A New Concept Inventory for Gauging Student Understanding of Genetics"
    Michelle K. Smith, William B. Wood, and Jennifer K. Knight CBE Life Sci Educ 2008;7 422-430
  • A new concept inventory, I'll bring paper copies of the inventory to the discussion.
• Thursday, December 4, 2 pm
  • "Comparing students' and experts' understanding of the content of a lecture"
    Z Hrepic, DA Zollman, NS Rebello
    J. Sci. Ed. Tech. 16, 213-224 (2007).
  • Students & experts watch the same lecture and hear quite different things. (9)
• Thursday, Nov 13, 2 pm
  • "Effects of an active learning environment: Teaching innovations at a Research 1 institution"
    MT Oliver-Hoyo, D Allen, WF Hunt, J Hutson, & A Pitts, J. Chem. Ed. 81, 441-448 (2004).
  • SCALE-UP for chemistry ("Student-Centered Activites for Large Enrollment-Undergraduate Programs").
• Thursday, Oct 30, 2 pm
  • "Teaching evolution (and all of biology) more effectively: Strategies for engagement, critical reasoning, and confronting misconceptions"
    CE Nelson, Integrative & Comparative Biology, 1-13 (2008).
  • Also mentions "the false dichotomy ... between atheistic evolution versus religious creationism." (9)
• Thursday, Oct 16, 2 pm
  • "Nanocourses: A short course format as an educational tool in a biological sciences graduate curriculum"
    AM Bentley, S Artavanis-Tsakonas, & JS Stanford, CBE-Life Sci. Ed. 7, 175-183 (2008).
  • Some topics don't merit a full-semester approach. Short courses may be easier to implement.
• Thursday, Oct 2, 2 pm
  • "Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention"
    LS Blackwell, HK Trzesniewski, & CS Dweck, Child Development 78, 246-263 (2007).
  • Students who think their intelligence is fixed give up sooner; students who think intelligence can be improved will work harder and do better. Study of junior high students. (12)
• Thursday, Sept 18, 2 pm
  • "Using clickers in nonmajors- and majors-level biology courses: student opinion, learning, and long-term retention of course material"
    K Crossgrove & KL Curran, CBE-Life Sciences Education 7, 146-154 (2008).
  • Title says it all
• April 30, 3 pm
  • "An evaluation of the mathematics workshop program"
    RE Fullilove & PU Treisman, J. Negro Education 59, 463 (1990)
  • subtitle: Mathematics achievement among African American undergraduates at the University of California, Berkeley
• April 16, 3 pm
  • "University students' activities, thinking and learning during laboratory work"
    C von Aufschnaiter & S von Aufschnaiter, Eur. J. Phys. 28, S51-S60 (2007).
  • How do introductory labs help students connect concepts to their lab activities? What do they learn from labs? (8)
• April 2, 3 pm
  • "The role of metacognition in learning chemistry"
    D Rickey & AM Stacy, J. Chem. Ed. 77, 915-920 (2000).
  • Students thinking about their thinking: very important; what role should instructors play in this? (8)
• March 19, 3 pm
  • "Unintended consequences: How science professors discourage women of color"
    AC Johnson, Sci. Ed. 91, 805-821 (2007).
  • Interviews with 16 science students, who were discouraged by their intro science classes
  • PowerPoint talk by Angela Johnson -- includes information on "where are they now?" for the students she interviewed, near end of presentation
• February 27, 3 pm
  • "Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments"
    J Kruger & D Dunning, J. Personality & Social Psych. 77, 1121-1134 (1999).
  • Student peer review may fail because poor students don't recognize the traits of better students (5)
• February 13, 3 pm
  • "Talking about Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences"
    E Seymour & NM Hewitt, pages 24-31, 88-115 (Westview Press, 1997).
  • Interviews with undergrads, both those who switched out of science majors, and those who stayed. (11)
• January 30, 3 pm
  • "Identifying future scientists: Predicting persistence into research training"
    R McGee & JL Keller, CBE Life Sci Educ 6, 316-331 (2007).
  • Differences between pre-med and pre-PhD undergrads who are doing summer research programs. (12)

• December 12, 3 pm
  • informal discussion on grade distributions in Emory's introductory science classes. (12)
• December 5, 3 pm
  • "Exploring Scientific Literacy at Emory" -- talk by Jordan Rose (20)
• November 28, 3 pm
  • "They're not dumb, they're different", by Sheila Tobias. Pages 71-93 this week (finishing the book). (5)
• November 14, 3 pm
  • "They're not dumb, they're different", by Sheila Tobias. Pages 33-70 this week. (8)
• October 31, 3 pm
  • "They're not dumb, they're different", by Sheila Tobias. Pages 1-32 this week. (9)
• October 17, 3 pm
  • "PhET: Interactive simulations for teaching and learning physics"
    K Perkins, W Adams, M Dubson, N Finkelstein, S Reid, C Wieman, & R LeMaster, The Physics Teacher 44, 18-23 (2006).
  • "A powerful tool for teaching science"
    CE Wieman & KK Perkins, Nature Phys. 2, 290-292 (2006).
  • The first article introduces the PhET simulations, with lots of pictures. The second discusses some of the testing and validation done to develop the simulations. (5)
  • PhET website -- try the simulations yourself!
• October 3, 3 pm
  • "Prescribed active learning increases performance in introductory biology"
    S Freeman et al., BE-Life Sciences Ed. 6, 132-139 (2007).
  • Clickers help, and they tested various ways of using clickers (8)
• September 19, 3 pm
  • "Force Concept Inventory"
    D Hestenes, M Wells, & G Swackhamer, The Physics Teacher 30, 141 (1992)
  • The most famous concept inventory in physics (13)
    Related work:
  • "What does the FCI actually measure?"
    D Huffman & P Heller, The Physics Teacher 33, 138 (1995)
  • "Interpreting the FCI: A response"
    D Hestenes & I Halloun, The Physics Teacher 33, 502 (1995)
  • "Interpreting the FCI: A reply"
    P Heller & D Huffman, The Physics Teacher 33, 503 (1995)
• September 5, 3 pm
  • "A discussion group program enhances the conceptual reasoning skills of students enrolled in a large lecture-format introductory biology course"
    MA Peteroy-Kelly, J. Microbiology & Biology Education 8, 13-21 (2007).
  • Adding a discussion component to a lecture course is very helpful (9)
  • Note that the PDF file is the whole issue of the journal, the article to read is only pages 13-21.
• April 24, 4 pm
  • "Implication of cognitive studies for teaching physics"
    EF Redish
    American Journal of Physics 62, 796 (1994).
  • Joe Redish gave the physics dept colloquium on Monday, April 30
  • How people understand and learn, and what implications this has for how we teach. Joe suggested this article as the most relevant for his colloquium topic. (8)
• April 17, 4 pm
  • "The writing approaches of university students"
    E Lavelle and N Zuercher
    Higher Education 42, 373-391 (2001).
  • How college students write, and how they think about themselves as writers. (5)
• April 10, 4 pm
  • "When learning about the real world is better done virtually..."
    ND Finkelstein et al.
    preprint.
  • Students simulated building circuits on the computer can then build real circuits as fast, if not faster, than those who took an actual lab. (5)
  • Noah gave the physics department colloquium April 20
• April 3, 4 pm
  • "Infusing active learning into the large-enrollment biology class"
    D Allen & K Tanner
    Cell Bio. Ed. 4, 262-268 (2005)
  • Subtitled "Seven strategies, from the simple to complex" (3)
• March 27, 4 pm
  • "Success and diversity: The transition through first-year calculus in the university"
    SE Moreno & C Muller, Am. J. Ed. 108, 30 (1999).
  • Univ. of Texas at Austin implements program to help students succeed in calculus (3)
• March 20, 4 pm
  • "Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping: Part 2"
    P Heller, R Keith, S Anderson
    Am. J. Phys. 60, 627 (1992)
  • Subtitled "Designing problems and structuring groups" (5)
• March 14, 1 - 2:30 pm -- special location, MSC W201
  • "Developing tools and strategies to assess student learning"
  • This is an online seminar, the Center for Science Education has paid the fee. (10)
• February 27, 4 pm
  • "Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping: Part 1"
    P Heller, R Keith, S Anderson
    Am. J. Phys. 60, 627 (1992)
  • Subtitled "Group vs individual problem solving" (5)
• February 20, 4 pm
  • "'Clicker' Cases: Introducing case study teaching into large classrooms"
    CF Herreid
    J. College Sci. Teaching 36, 43-47 (2006).
  • Using clickers for interactive case studies. (8)
• February 13, 4 pm
  • "The interrupted case method" -- editorial about next article
    CF Herreid
    J. College Sci. Teaching 35, 4 (2005).
  • "Mom always liked you best"
    CF Herreid
    J. College Sci. Teaching 35, 10-14 (2005).
  • Example of case studies in the classroom. (6)
• February 6, 4 pm
  • "Another reason that physics students learn by rote"
    A Elby
    Phys. Educ. Res., Am. J. Phys. Suppl. 67, S52 (1999)
  • Mismatch between how students study and how they would study if they only cared about learning (not grades). (5)
• January 30, 4 pm
  • "Teaching more by lecturing less"
    JK Knight and WB Wood
    Cell Biol Educ. 4, 298 (2005)
  • Using clickers in large biology classes, and measuring how effective this is (12)
  • PubMed link
• January 24, 3 pm -- note special day & time
  • "Barriers to the use of research-based instructional strategies..."
    C Henderson & MH Dancy
    preprint.
  • The gap between what we (instructors) would like to do in class, and what we actually do. (9)
  • Henderson was the physics colloquium speaker for Friday, January 26
• January 16, 4 pm
  • "Reverse engineering the solution of a "simple" physics problem: Why learning physics is harder than it looks"
    EF Redish, RE Scherr, J Tuminaro
    preprint.
  • Students taking an hour to solve a simple problem. (9)

Possible future papers:

• "Does active learning work? A review of the research"
  M Prince
  J. Engineering Education 223-231 (July 2004).
  • Evidence that case-based learning works
• "Dan tries PBL"
  HB White, reprint on the web (1996)
  
  • Difficulties of using problem based learning, written in case study format
• "Scaling up research-based education for undergraduates: Problem-based learning"
  DE Allen et al, article on the web
  • Univ. of Delaware group discusses how they use PBL in large classes.
• "Assessment of the effects of student response systems..."
  RW Preszler, A Dawe, CB Shuster, & M Shuster, CBE Life Sci Educ 6, 29-41 (2007).
  • Examines learning & attitudes in biology courses
• "Does the introduction of non-traditional teaching techniques improve psychology undergraduates' performance in statistics?"
  S Helman & MS Horswill, Psychology Learning & Teaching 2, 12-16 (2002).
  • Five non-traditional techniques used in intro stats; exam scores are improved
• "Preparing students to participate in an active learning environment"
  HI Modell, Advances in Physiology Education 15, 69-77 (1996).
  • How to convince students that active learning is good.
• "Fostering integrative problem solving in biomedical engineering: The PBL approach"
  WC Newstetter, Annals of Biomed. Eng. 34, 217-225 (2006).
  • Author is at Georgia Tech; Bob suggests inviting her for a discussion
• "The value of animations in biology teaching: A study of long-term memory retention"
  DH O'Day, CBE-Life Sciences Ed. 6, 217-223 (2007).
  • Animations are more effective than graphics, even without captions or narration. Thus, web-based materials can work.
• "Teaching effectiveness research in the past decade"
  T Seidel & RJ Shavelson, Rev. of Educational Research 77, 454-499 (2007).
  • A highly sophisticated and expert meta-analysis
• "Application of Bloom's taxonomy debunks the 'MCAT myth'"
  AY Zheng, JK Lawhorn, T Lumley, S Freeman, Science 319, 414-415 (2008).
  • Turns out, the MCAT does test critical thinking.
• "Reasoning across ontologically distinct levels: Students' understandings of molecular genetics"
  RG Duncan & BJ Reiser, J. Res. Sci. Teach. 44, 938-959 (2007).
  • Genetics! Studies 10th graders.
• "Are our brains wired for math?"
  J Holt, New Yorker (March 3, 2008).
  • According to Stanislas Dehaene, humans have an inbuilt number sense capable of some basic calculations and estimates. The problems start when we learn mathematics and have to perform procedures that are anything but instinctive...
• "Engaging student learning in science through writing tasks"
  TF Slater, Phys. Teacher 46, 123-125 (2008).
  • Variety of ideas about using short writing assignments to enhance student learning.
• "The advantage of abstract examples in learning math"
  JA Kaminski, VM Sloutsky, AF Heckler, Science 320, 454-455 (2008).
  • When it comes to teaching mathematical concepts, abstract formulas may be more effective than the familiar examples of speeding trains and tossed coins favored by algebra instructors.
• "Cooperative study teams in mathematics classrooms"
  C Toumasis, Int. J. Math. Educ. Sci. Technol. 35, 669-679 (2004).
  • Details on forming study groups within a classroom setting
• "Essay contest reveals misconceptions of high school students in genetic content"
  KR Mills Shaw, K Van Horne, H Zhang, & J Boughman, Genetics 178, 1157-1168 (2008).
  • "Our analysis reveals the nature of student misconceptions in genetics, the possible sources of these misconceptions, and potential ways to galvanize genetics education."
• Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention"
  GL Cohen, J Garcia, N Apfel, & A Master, Science 313, 1307 (2006).
  • Article on identity threat
• Pedagogies of engagement in science
  T Eberlein, J Kampmeier, V Minderhout, RS Moog, T Platt, P Varma-Nelson, & HB White, Biochemistry & Molecular Bio. Ed. 36, 262-273 (2008).
  • A comparison of PBL, POGIL, and PLTL.
• "Clickers in the large classroom: Current research and best-practice tips"
  JE Caldwell, CBE Life Sci Educ 6, 9-20 (2007).
  • Review article summarizing clicker research
• "The role of metacognition in learning chemistry"
  D Rickey & AM Stacy, J. Chem. Ed. 77, 915-920 (2000).
  • "Metacognition is...key to deeper, more durable, and more transferrable learning."
• "Creative and occupational accomplishments among intellectually precocious youths: An age 13 to age 33 longitudinal study"
  J Wai, D Lubinski, & CP Benbow, J. Ed. Psych. 97, 484-492 (2005).
  • accomplishments of the best of the best on the SAT.
• "The Poor and the Rich: A Look at Economic Stratification and Academic Performance Among Undergraduate Students in the United States"
  JA Douglass & G Thomson, Center for Studies in Higher Education, CSHE.15.08 (2008). link to website
  • Experiences of lower-income students. "Low income" and "first generation" are found not to be synonomous.
• "Teaching information evaluation and critical thinking skills in physics classes"
  A Popescu & J Morgan, TPT 45, 507-510 (2007). Journal.
  • Library skills for the internet age; might want to pair this article with a 2nd one with more depth.
• "Integrating Policy and Decision Making into Undergraduate Science Education" "Biology in Bloom: Implementing Bloom's Taxonomy to Enhance Student Learning in Biology"
  Alison Crowe, Clarissa Dirks, and Mary Pat Wenderoth CBE Life Sci Educ 2008;7 368-381
  • Implementation of the BBT helped us to adjust our teaching to better enhance our students' current mastery of the material, design questions at higher cognitive skills levels, and assist students in studying for college-level exams and in writing study questions at higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
• "Encouraging Minority Undergraduates to Choose Science Careers: Career Paths Survey Results
  M Villarejo, AEL Barlow, D Kogan, BD Veazey, & JK Sweeney, CBE Life Sci Educ 7, 394-409 (2008).
• "A delicate balance: Integrating active learning into a large lecture course"
  JD Walker, SH Cotner, PM Baepler, & MD Decker, CBE Life Sci Educ 7, 361-367 (2008).
  • Pros and cons of active learning; would be a good start-of-semester aticle.
• Other ideas
  • Talk with folks from Georgia Tech who have adopted the "Matter and Interactions" physics textbook
  • article about teaching genetics
  • Ben Freed has done podcasts & is testing iTunes University, maybe he could tell us about this
  • Several articles from Carl Wieman's group -- includes a great clicker introduction.