SaMnet
Science & Mathematics network
of Australian university educators
CALL FOR ACTION-LEARNING PROJECTS – EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
What is SaMnet of Australian university educators?
SaMnet is a new national network that brings together university academics to collaborate on
national issues in university science and mathematics education. It is working co-operatively
with discipline networks and universities to develop educational leaders, to foster and spread
best practices, and to promote cultural change in university teaching and learning. SaMnet has
been conceived to provide a coherent voice on policy related to university science, and it
represents a source of expertise for science faculties in areas such as curriculum review. To
support more frequent and productive communication and collaborations, SaMnet is
coordinating regional and online meetings as well as a national website.
Over the next two years, SaMnet will focus on (1) learning and teaching standards for science and
mathematics, (2) dissemination of more effective and efficient approaches to laboratory exercises
and inquiry learning, (3) effective use of learning technologies and new media, and (4) leadership
training for science and mathematics lecturers.
Collaboration
SaMnet is currently funded by a leadership grant from the Australian Learning and Teaching
Council / Learning and Teaching Excellence (DEEWR). It will work closely with the new
Discipline networks:
VIBEnet: Vision and Innovation in Biology Education
Charlotte Taylor (USyd), Pauline Ross (UWS), Sue Jones (UTas), Liz Johnson (La Trobe)
Chemistry Discipline Network
Madeleine Schultz (QUT)
Australian Mathematical Sciences Learning & Teaching Network
Dann Mallet (QUT)
CUBEnet: Collaborative University Biomedical Education Network
Phil Porronik (RMIT), Yvonne Hodgson (Monash), Janet Macaulay (Monash), Susan Howitt (ANU),
Peter Thorn (UQ), Louise Lutze-Mann (UNSW)
Physics Education Network
Margaret Wegener (UQ) Les Kirkup (UTS), Manjula Sharma (USYD), Johan du Plessis (RMIT),
Marjan Zadnik (Curtin), Anna Wilson (ANU)
Inquiry Learning Fellowship Project
Les Kirkup (UTS)
SaMnet Action-Learning Projects
SaMnet offers a model for collaborative teaching and learning projects. The team undertaking
each project are supported by advice, peer review, and leadership training from SaMnet. SaMnet
will assist project participants to disseminate their work and to publish in scholarly teaching and
learning journals. In its first two years, SaMnet will work with at least 25 action-learning
projects across Australia. There are 21 such projects currently under way, and we are seeking
expressions of interest for pursuit of further worthy projects.
SaMnet leaders:
Manjula Sharma (USyd), Will Rifkin (USyd), Stephanie Beames (QUT)
Steering Committee:
Sue Jones (UTas), Cristina Varsavsky (Monash), Andrea Crampton (CSU), Marjan Zadnik (Curtin),
Brian Yates (UTas), Liz Johnson (La Trobe), Kelly Matthews (UQ)
SaMnet of Australian university educators
Contact: Email: samnetaustralia@gmail.com Web: www.samnet.edu.au
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SaMnet of Australian university educators
Action-Learning Project -- Expression of Interest
Send EOI to SaMnetAustralia@gmail.com by 9 April 2012.
Selection criteria:
A. Emphasis on changing how a collective teaches
B. Rationale and evidence on why the change is needed
C. Potential for impact on applicant, teammates, school, faculty, and discipline
1. Project title: Improving student performance and
understanding in biochemistry: Assessment to develop a
creative multimedia expressions of biochemical theory.
2. Applicant
Team leader – Are you (tick one or more):
X Innovative (or junior) academic - Sees the change that is needed
Senior Academic - Understands the challenges of creating change
Educational developer, Academic staff developer, or equivalent Knows cases beyond the faculty and relevant concepts from the literature
Associate Dean (Education) or equivalent - Has faculty–wide insight and knows priorities
Name: Jessica Vanderlelie
j.vanderlelie@griffith.edu.au
Discipline: Biochemistry
E-mail:
Faculty: Health
3. Project Scope (the collective being addressed)
Target Degree programs, Years of study, and Disciplines
Second Year,
Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Health Science, nutrition and dietetics, biochemistry
(Biochemistry : metabolism) discipline
4. Project Description (rationale and evidence)
Aims, Innovation, Rationale, Precedent - What do you want to change (e.g., nature of lab work in
second year) and why
Project Overview
Metabolism 2011MSC is a second semester second year course in the School of Medical Science.
The traditional lecture plays an important role in biochemical education though in an attempt to
create an engaging and intellectually stimulating learning experience for students and to
facilitate a shared experience of learning, the implementation of a group based assessment item
is being evaluated.
The assessment item (Appendix 1) encourages students to develop their own collection of
multimedia resources. The task provides students with an opportunity to creatively explore
fundamental biochemical concepts and encourages engagement, deeper understanding, peer
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collaboration and entertainment with an overall aim to improve learning outcomes for students.
This project aims to answer the following research question;
Can a creative multimedia based assessment item increase student engagement, participation
and performance in a second year biochemistry course?
Aims
•
To facilitate the exploration of fundamental biochemical concepts in a creative way that
enhances and supports deeper understanding.
•
To enhance student engagement and the enjoyment of metabolic biochemistry.
•
To encourage students to participate in groups and develop as independent learners.
•
To develop enduring relevance and deep learning in second year biochemistry.
•
To assess the effectiveness of the creative task in supporting student learning and
overall performance in the course.
Evaluation
A number of evaluation methodologies will be implemented to assess the projects relevance to
student learning outcomes and capacity to engage student learning, these will include;
1.
Evaluation questionnaire with both quantitative and quantitative questions that will
cover; overall student satisfaction with the assessment task; the effectiveness of the assessment
task in facilitating student learning; the effectiveness of the assessment task in engaging the
student; the usefulness of the assessment task as a learning tool; the likelihood that the student
will draw on the resources developed by other students; Qualitative feedback on what students
about the assessment task; Qualitative feedback on what students did not like about the
assessment task.
2.
Student Evaluation of Course data for the course will be used as a comparison with
previous years to determine the impact of the assessment item on overall student satisfaction
with the course.
3.
Comparison of the overall performance of students in the final examination with that of
previous years (2009, 2010, 2011) who have sat a similarly structured exam that examines the
fundamental concepts in a long answer more conceptually based format without the inclusion of
this assessment item.
Appendix 1
The Assessment Task
The assessment is designed to be a semester long group based project worth 10% of the final
grade, with 5 students in each group. The assessment task will involve the production of a 5
minute (maximum) creative presentation using digital media, in the form of a song, animation,
movie/role play, integrated flow chart/concept map with explanations that will be uploaded on
to the discussion board in the Metabolism Learning @ Griffith blackboard site.
Each group will be asked to pick one topic from a list of 7 content areas that cover of the
fundamental concepts/pathways of biochemistry and map to clearly defined learning objectives
for the course.
The content areas and topics will include;
1.
Stage 1 Metabolism : Digestion, absorption and transport of carbohydrates, protein or
fats
2.
Carbohydrate Metabolism : Glycolysis and gluconeogenesis
3.
Protein Metabolism : Transamination/deamination reactions, urea cycle, protein
biosynthesis
4.
Lipid Metabolism : Lipid catabolism and lipid biosynthesis
5.
Citric Acid Cycle : Reactions of the citric acid cycle, glyoxylate cycle, pentose phosphate
pathway
6.
Electron Transport chain : Reactions of the electron transport chain,
regulation/inhibition
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7.
Integration of Metabolism : Hormonal regulation of metabolism
Students will be required to submit an outline of their project by Week 7 that will be reviewed
by the assessment team. The final assessment piece will be submitted in Week 12 and students
will be given until the Monday of Week 13 to evaluate each other’s assessment items using the
rate post function in the discussion board.
A two hour session in the final week of teaching will be set aside to review and discuss the
presentations as a class group that will give the class the opportunity the see examples of the
best presentations and for the convenor to link student work to the revision of the course. There
will be three methods of assessment that will combine to form the final grade;
1.
Class Wide Peer Assessment (10%)
•
Students will be required to grade each presentation using the rate post function on the
discussion board.
•
Each group member will be required to rate at least 10 projects.
2.
Intra Group Peer Assessment (10%)
•
Within the groups students will be required to peer assess each member of their group
in terms of input and willingness to participate.
3.
Examiner based
•
Part 1 (40%)
•
Outlines submitted in week 7 will be evaluated and written feedback provided to each
group.
•
Part 2 (40%)
•
Examiner will post a general rating on the discussion board after each post prior to week
13 to give students a guide to the technical accuracy of each post. (10%)
•
At the completion of the project examiners will assess the groups on the accuracy and
quality of the presentation and detailed written feedback will be given to each group. (30%)
5. Outcomes (potential for impact)
Expected outcomes if successful (e.g., higher pass rates), why those outcomes, impacting how
many students (estimated)
Outcomes and Deliverables
It has been expressed that one downfall of a didactic teaching methodology is that
students generally do not acquire the skills to apply knowledge obtained from one area
of biochemistry in order to gain insight into another and therefore biochemical
knowledge is treated as non-overlapping sets of information (Palmer, 1986). It has been
proposed that a teaching approach that constantly reinforces the concept of integration
of knowledge is required (Palmer, 1986) to transform student epistemological beliefs
and facilitate self directed, deeper approaches to learning. In addition to traditional
lectures, innovations in the delivery and support of a traditional lecture format through
the use of advanced organisers (Torres, 1993), mnemonics (Patel & Shastri, 1996) web
technology (Traver et. al., 2001) and audio tutorials, videotapes and animations (Wood,
1992; Leader, 1979; Lightfoot & Steffen, 1977; Postlethwait et al., 1972) have proven
effective in increasing student engagement in biochemistry education.
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Such positive uses of technology in the biochemistry classroom have led to the
development of visualisation tools such as molecular models, metabolic maps, symbolic
pathways and multimedia/graphical representations of pathways. However more
recently consideration has been given to a student’s ability to interpret and synthesise
the information presented and the necessity for student to be taught to develop their
visual literacy(Schonborn & Anderson, 2006). Schonborn and Anderson (2006)
identified ten fundamental guidelines for the teaching and learning of visual literacy, the
current project makes use of a number of these guidelines to encourage students to
interpret multiple sources of content and synthesise the information gained into their
own unique creative representation of biochemical theory. Not only will this encourage
depth of understanding it enhances students’ visual literacy that goes beyond what
would be achieved if students are asked to write summaries of content(Gobert &
Clement, 2006). By constructing their own visual expression of a biochemical pathway
students also become more able to process other abstract visual representations
(Schonborn & Anderson, 2006) that will assist them not only in their studies of
biochemistry but to become better metacognitive thinkers (Postlethwait et al., 1972)
It is anticipated that this will have a positive impact on the learning outcomes of the 150
students who participate in this course each year in a number of ways;
•
By encouraging students to examine, critically evaluate and synthesise
knowledge concerning biochemical pathways and use what they have learnt to develop
a creative expression of the theory to be shared with their peers.
•
The assessment task will also encourage students to work as they go rather than
leaving their study to the last minute
•
By discussing what they know about a particular pathway with other members of
their group they will be able to increase the depth of their understanding.
•
By embedding this assessment item into Metabolism 2011MSC it diversifies the
assessment strategy of the course and allows students to take the time to deeply
consider a particular biochemical pathway and also encourages the development of
visual literacy (Schonborn & Anderson, 2006) that can then be used to critically evaluate
the postings made by other groups.
Improve knowledge of biochemisty that will be translated into improved scores
on the final examination and overall for the subject.
•
Deeper understanding of biochemical concepts and their integration that will
assist with the answering of conceptual based long answer and case based questions on
the final examination.
•
Promote innovation and creativity in the students and also facilitate the
development of effective communicators and team members .
•
The detailed evaluation strategy will provide the framework for any alterations
that need to be made to the assessment task and ensure the enduring success project.
In addition to the development of skills as mentioned above other project deliverables
include
•
Students will also have a set of developed resources that they are able to draw
upon for their study
•
Developed learning object to be loaded onto the web that showcases the top ten
assessment items.
•
Preparation and submission of findings in conference papers and journal articles
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6. Project Implementation
What capabilties you hope to build, what do you want to learn about leading change
It is proposed that this project will develop a range of capabilities in the students who undertake
the project as mentioned above. Additionally I percieve the development and
implementation of this project will further enhance my capability to perform research in
teaching and learning. This project will also assist me in demonstrating the benefit of
creativity and innovation in tertiary education, particularly in biochemistry a field that is
often appriached in a diadactic and traditional manner.
This project also has the capacity for wide grneralisability as the importance of developing
visual literacy is not limited to students of biochemistry. A report out of Brigham Young
University suggests that the development of visual literacy is important to students of
engineering, nursing, business, social and family sciences, the fine arts and
communication (Christopherson, 1996). Although Christopherson (1996) makes an
argument for a structure course designed to teach visual literacy, inroads may also be
possible through structured assessment that facilitates the development of such skills.
The current assessment concept although directly relevant to the education of
biochemists could easily be translated to any subject where an emphasis is placed on the
integration of multiple sets of information to achieve a coherent understanding. One
would expect therefore that such a statement would apply to the vast majority of subject
areas taught within the University. The design of the assessment task utilises established
technologies and it would be logically considered that little addition infrastructure
would be required for this style of assessment to be taken up by other courses/schools.
7. Comments or Questions
•
•
•
•
What do you need to know? Where can you use assistance?
It would be beneficial for me to have access to some support in leadership development.
The Project was implemented in 2011 and I am in the process of writing up the findings, which were
positive. I could utilise support in the publication process and any available assistance in the disemination of
the project outcomes (ie conference funding)
I am anticipating the assessment task will run again in 2012 and I intend to evaluate it again for comparison
longitudinally.
FAQ’s
0. Submitting the proposal
Fill in the blanks. Just a line or two for each blank is sufficient. A full project plan is also welcome –
pasted in or as an attachment. More than one EOI may be submitted from any individual, team,
school, faculty, or university.
1. What counts as an Action-Learning Project / ‘change initiative’?
The Action-Learning Projects are ‘change initiatives’ in that they are a way to address a problem that
you see in your school or faculty. That could be a high dropout rate for majors or heavy emphasis on
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SaMnet of Australian university educators
final exams. An action-learning project can also be a way to disseminate a teaching strategy that you
have developed or means to implement a new curriculum. For example, do you have a method for
improving feedback to students that ought to be used more widely?
What we are not counting as a ‘change initiative’ is an experiment in teaching that you are not
planning to embed more broadly within your school or beyond. A change initiative takes an idea – an
invention – and turns it into an ‘innovation’ – something that others are taking up.
2. What if I have already started the effort?
It is fine if you have already started. These action-learning projects have been conceived to support
people to do things that they want to do anyway, and to learn through this pursuit via our support.
You are welcome to apply to SaMnet for assistance with a project that is already internally funded.
SaMnet will also support a project funded by the ALTC fellowship in inquiry learning (c/- Les Kirkup)
or a curriculum mapping effort with Beverley Oliver, to name two of many examples.
3. What if my Action-Learning Project has limited success?
Null or negative results are viable options. SaMnet action-learning projects are not premised on your
need to deliver 100-percent success. However, it is important to avoid ‘reinventing the flat tyre’,
failing in a way that experienced hands (and the literature) would readily predict.
Our action-learning projects are meant to increase your understanding of what it takes to lead change.
You can learn to connect with the right people in the right way and to successfully navigate university
politics. You can also learn through reflection on new experiences.
The outcome of your effort is meant to be an increase in the capacity to drive change for you and your
teammates. The record of what you tried, what worked, and what failed to work informs others who
face similar challenges.
4. Can you provide support funding in small, unmarked bills?
SaMnet provides support in the form of leadership development training, coaching, networking, and
mentoring in both management and publication. There is no funding provided by SaMnet for teaching
relief or research assistants. A SaMnet initiative is meant to be part of your weekly investment in
research or administration.
You will be rewarded with increased capability to persuade and lead. You will gain an internal sense
of accomplishment. You will become part of a larger community, a movement to improve university
teaching in science and mathematics in Australia. You will earn ‘points’ with publications. You will
also contribute toward lifting the profile of academics who apply their intellect to improving teaching,
a key objective of SaMnet.
5. Why me?
The culture of teaching in university science and mathematics needs to change. Many people have
developed new and more effective ways to teach and assess. The ALTC and its predecessors have
funded more than 40 projects across the disciplines of science and mathematics. Such individual
initiatives now need to gain traction locally, in your university, to instil sector-wide change.
15/3/12 -- altc nation leadership network in sci & maths \ action learning projects \ prop form \ EOI
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