Peter Newbury and Beth Simon Center for Teaching Development University of California, San Diego 24 February 2014 collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

1. Week 8: Teaching as Research
The College Classroom
February 25 and 27, 2014
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed
under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

2. Can You Solve This?
2
“Play along” with
the Derek’s puzzle.
Also: Who’s doing
the hard thinking?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKA4w2O61Xo
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3. Teaching as Research (TAR)
3
At the core of improving teaching and learning is
the need to accurately determine what students have
learned as a result of teaching practices. This is a
research problem, to which instructors can effectively
apply their research skills and ways of knowing.
Teaching-as-Research involves the deliberate,
systematic, and reflective use of research methods to
develop and implement teaching practices that advance
the learning experiences and outcomes of students and
teachers.
CIRTL Network [1]
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4. Your posts: Education research in
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biology
bioengineering
biotechnology
philosophy
music
sociology
history
engineering
ethics
lab sessions
cognitive science
art history
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archaeology
physics
instructional practices
organic chem
inorganic chem
math
neuroscience
critical thinking
chemistry
microbiology
graffiti walls

5. Categories of Educational Research [2]
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Theoretical research
Comparative
Action or practitioner research
Ethnography
Evaluative
Case study
Experimental
Grounded theory
'Cause and effect' research
Systematic review
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Exploratory

6. What is the value of course-specific learning goals?
Simon & Taylor (2009)
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 3 classes (A = computer literacy Fa07, B = computer
literacy Sp08, C = microbiology Sp08)
 Last week of course (Wk 13): students asked to
complete up to five copies of, “For me, the use of
learning goals in this course is . . .”
Comments
A
225
B
252
C
120
total
597
Students
59
76
51
186
 Comments put into categories using content-analysis
based coding
(Evaluative)
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7. What is the value of course-specific learning goals?
Simon & Taylor (2009)
7
Research informs the
instructors about
 how students are
responding
 what’s working (or
not)
 what to use again (or
not)
Helps instructors become
better educators.
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8. What can you study?
8
Students’ attitudes
 what are they initially?
(e.g., what are students’ views on academic integrity?)
 how did they change after you did X?
(e.g., what do students think about learning goals?)
Students’ knowledge / skills
 what are students able to do now that they couldn’t
do before taking the course?
 are students thinking more like experts?
(e.g. what questions do they ask in lab/discussion?)
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9. What can you accomplish next Qtr?
9
paper
in journal
Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning (SoTL),
Education Research
carefully
designed experiment
to explore learning
research done by you
in your class to inform how
you will teach in the future
teaching
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teaching as
research

10. Humans are involved in teaching-as-research
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Mission of the Institutional Review Board (IRB):
1. Protection of subjects from physical harm.
2. Protection of your students’ privacy and success.
If you suspect your research could violate 2, you might
need to apply for IRB approval or an IRB exemption.
Play it safe!
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11. UCSD IRB grants exemptions to…
11
(1) Research conducted in established or commonly accepted
educational settings, involving normal educational practices,
such as (i) research on regular and special education
instructional strategies, or (ii) research on the effectiveness of
or the comparison among instructional techniques, curricula, or
classroom management methods. [4]
Things a scholarly, reflective instructor
might and should do anyway.
You have to apply to the IRB for an exemption…
but the CTD has a blanket exemption for projects we’re
involved in (so involve us!)
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12. Your turn
12
Imagine you’re going to
teach one section of a
course in your discipline.
You’re want to do
research on it.
What do you want to
learn?
Why is that important
enough to do?
(10 minutes)
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13. Common education research tools
13
Quantitative
What is happening?




Qualitative
Why is it happening?
Multiple choice tests (pre- and post-testing?)
Attitude surveys (Likert SD, D, N, A, SA scale)
mini-writing (muddiest point,…)
document students’ answers on a worksheets
responses to a question opinions/views
votes on peer instruction question questions
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14. Your turn
14
How are you going to
investigate your issue?
What do you anticipate
will happen? (What will
you do with that result?)
(10 minutes)
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15. Share your TAR projects
15
One-by-one at your table, please take ~5 minutes each
to describe your TAR project to your colleagues and get
(and give) feedback.
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16. References
16
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (2010)
Teaching as Research. www.cirtl.net/CoreIdeas/teaching_as_research
Lambert, M. (2012). A Beginner's Guide to Doing Your Education Research
Project. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc. via Tomorrow’s
Professor cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1233
Simon, B., & Taylor, J. (2009). What is the Value of Course-Specific
Learning Goals? J. College Science Teaching, 39, 2, 52-57.
Exemption from IRB Review, UCSD Human Research Protections Program,
retrieved from irb.ucsd.edu/Exempt_forms.shtml 24/2/ 2014.
Adams, W.K., Perkins, K.K., Podolefsky, N.S., Dubson, M., Finkelstein, N.D.,
& Wieman, C.E. (2006) A new instrument for measuring student beliefs
about physics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes about
Science Survey (CLASS). Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010101.
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