Utdanningsklinikken at the Department of Biology - Kunnskapsbasen
Utdanningsklinikken at the Department of Biology
Introduction
Utdanningsklinikken is a workshop series where members of the Department of Biology address specific issues about teaching-learning activities and education. We arrange individual seminar presentations on particular 'problems' we are experiencing, from issues with a specific lecture to a whole course structure. There is then an open discussion with the group providing suggestions for a range of possible solutions (see the bottom of the page for a list of previous seminar topics, etc.). This allows a free exchange of ideas and opinions concerning the wide variety of pedagogical methods being used in our department. In this way, individual teachers can incrementally improve their teaching through 'action research cycles' of experimentation and appraisal:
Proforma for documentation of action research cycles in teaching (DOCX)
Everyone is most welcome to attend these seminars from any part of the department, including academic, technical and administrative teaching staff, as well as teaching assistants.
Anyone wishing to get feedback on a specific issue with their teaching is welcome to present in a future session - just contact Anita Kaltenborn, Jon Wright or Rick Strimbeck.
Text Books Concerning Teaching Methods
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A book that is recommended for new university teachers is: Biggs J, Tang C & Kennedy G (2022) Teaching for Learning Quality at University. 5th Edtn. McGraw & Hill, Berkshire UK.
However, experienced teachers may prefer a book that takes a problem-based approach, rather like we do in utdanningsklinikken: Ambrose SA, Bridges MW, DiPietro M, Lovett, MC & Norman MK (2010) How Learning Works. Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Learning. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, CA.
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A nice short book that is only available in Norwegian is: Svendby, RB (2023) Inkluderende Undervisning i Høyere Utdanning: oppstartsguide med inkluderende strategier for undervisere. Cappelen Damm Akademisk, Oslo, which is available online as an e-book via the NTNU library.
Research Studies, Web Sites and Other Useful Literature
Some interesting topics and references to read on teaching and learning:
- The End of Lectures: Waldrop NN (2016) The science of teaching science. Nature 523: 272-4. Daniel SA, Mann LMW & Mazzolini AP (2016) The phenomenography of lecturing. 44th SEFI Conference, 12-15 September 2016, Tampere, Finland. Walker JD, Cotner SH, Baepler PM & Decker MD (2008) A delicate balance: integrating active learning into a large lecture course. CBE – Life Sci Edu 7: 361-367. Death of the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv1134PLylU.
- A meta-analysis of interactive teaching effectiveness in STEM subjects was carried out by Freeman S, Eddy SL, McDonough M, Smith MK, Okoroafor N, Jordt H & Wenderoth MP (2014 Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS 111, 8410-8415). See also: Michael, J. (2006). Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education, 30: 159– 167; Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93: 223–231; Springer, L., Stanne, M. E., & Donovan, S. S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 69: 21–51. Plus there is good evidence for the effectiveness of 1st yr biology problem-solving and student-centered learning in all aspects by Armbruster P, Patal M, Johnson E & Weiss (2009 Active learning and student-centered pedagogy improve student attitudes and performance in introductory biology. CBE – Life Sci Edu 8: 2013-213. Much of the theory and practice of interactive teaching is captured very well by Chapter 4 of Ambrose SA, Bridges MW, DiPietro M, Lovett, MC & Norman MK (2010) How Learning Works. Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Learning. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, CA.
- See also: Cotner, S., Loper, J., Walker, J.D. and Brooks, D.C. (2013) “It’s Not You, It’s the Room” — Are the High-Tech, Active Learning Classrooms Worth It? Journal of College Science Teaching 42: 82-88. Interestingly, a recent paper also suggests that students themselves do not necessary feel this increase in effectiveness: Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L.S., Millerc, K., Callaghana, K. & Greg Kestina, G. (2019) Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. PNAS, 1821936116. - Team-Based Learning (TBL, info from Frank Kraemer: https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/kraemer): The Essential Elements of Team-Based Learning, by Larry K. Michaelsen and Michael Sweet. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, no. 116 Winter 2008. Wiley Periodicals. (This article is the first one in the book Team-Based Learning: Small-Group Learning's Next Big Step also recommended here.) The following two books capture TBL in individual chapters written by teachers focusing on different aspects. All provide a very practical introduction: Team-Based Learning: Small-Group Learning's Next Big Step, by Larry K. Michaelsen, Michael Sweet, Dean X Parmelee (Eds.), Wiley 2008. Team-Based Learning -- A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching, by Larry K. Michaelsen, Arletta Bauman Knight, L. Dee Fink (Eds.), Stylus Publishing 2004 (Paperback. Original hardcover edition from 2002). Getting Started With Team-Based Learning, by Jim Sibley and Peter Ostafichuk, Stylus Publishing 2014. NOKUT-podden: Den om teambasert læring Brief podcast episode that provides a good overview of TBL. With Børge Lillebo and Ivar Sjåk Nordrum from NTNU. (In Norwegian.) Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast: Team-Based Learning Podcast episode with Jim Sibley. A general web site on TBL is: teambasedlearning.org, whilst scratch-cards for use in TBL can be ordered at: Ordering of Scratch Cards from Epstein Education
- Peer-Assessment: see teachers handbooks from universities in the UK, US and Australia at URLs:
Peer and self assessment in student work: principles and criteria
Why should I use peer assessment?
Peer and Self Assessment of Student Work (PDF)
Self and peer assessment – advantages and disadvantages (PDF)
There is also further literature on this topic and a report from Loughborough University, UK: Student experiences of peer review marking of team projects (PDF) - Multiple Choice Assessments might work better with multiple true-false questions instead: see Brassil & Couch (2019).
- Targeted Feedback: see Anderson JR, Corbett AT, Koedinger KR & Pelletier R 1995 Cognitive tutors: lessons learned. J. Learn Scis 4: 167-207; Bloom BS 1984 The 2-sigma problem: the search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Edu Res 13: 4-6; Merrill DC, Reiser BJ, Ranney M & Trafton GJ 1992 Effective tutoring techniques: a comparison of human tutors and intelligent tutoring systems. J Learn Scis 2: 277-305.
- Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow: Kahneman D (2011) Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY.
- Correlations Between Teaching Quality and Research Quality see: Cadez S, Dimovski V & Groff MZ (2017) Research, teaching and performance evaluation in academia: the salience of quality. Studies in Edu Res 42: 1455-1473.
- Students Reflecting on Learning: for example: Palinscar AS & Brown AL (1984) Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cog. & Instru 1: 117-175). For a wider discussion of such metacognition issues in teaching, see Chapter 7 in Ambrose SA, Bridges MW, DiPietro M, Lovett, MC & Norman MK (2010) How Learning Works. Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Learning. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, CA.
- Different students have long been thought to have different styles of learning, and therefore it has been suggested that different students may require different types of teaching methods in order to learn most effectively. For example, various surveys can tell students where they are on the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire. There are other tests that tell students about different aspects of their personality, how to learn best and which areas of science can work for them, such as this local Norwegian one Utdanningstesten - med fokus på realfag. However, upon closer inspection many of these claims regarding individual student 'learning styles' appear not to be the case - Veritasium video, and it is perhaps the type of learning task that needs to be considered when choosing a teaching methods, not the 'type' of student.
- The myth of the use of technology in 'revolutionising' education - Veritasium video
- Commercial educational software for biologists: SimBio, Labster and NetLogo
- Evaluating Teaching
- Developing Biology Education - BioCEED
NTNU Educational Web Sites
NV Faculty Innovative Teaching Initiative
SEED - Centre for Science & Engineering Education Development
Free Educational Software
LearnLab - for which NTNU has a site licence
Mentimeter - for which NTNU has a site licence
Previous Utdanningsklinikken Workshop Topics
23rd September 2016 – Veerle Jaspers – Getting students to read the textbook before the lectures so that more time in the lectures can be spent on giving relevant examples – suggestions: short quizzes at the start of lectures (using Kahoot)
12th October 2016 – Bente Graae – Traditional plant identification versus teaching a wider ecological/evolutionary context – suggestions: integrating ecology/evolution into the floristics field course exercises, but major reorganisation is required to get the lectures into the same semester as the field course
2nd November 2016 – Rick Strimbeck – Student reports of ‘confusion’ in problem-solving classes – suggestions: the classes seem very effective as they are, but the student questionnaire might need more precise wording
14th December 2016 – Nicole Aberle-Malzahn – Successful integration of group exercises into a masters course – suggestions: the teacher should determine group sizes and composition, more supervised group work and clearer assessment criteria
16th January 2017 – Anita Kaltenborn – Time and effort involved in invertebrate morphology drawing exercises and marking – suggestions: get the best from these drawing exercises using only a sub-set of taxonomic groups, and perhaps get students to mark each other’s drawings?
21st February 2017 – An open discussion about opportunities for active learning in BI1003 – suggestions: a more basic redesign of first year teaching as a whole is probably required
16th March 2017 – Per Winge – Issues teaching a mixed ability molecular biology masters course – suggestions: more interactive group work should help, but greater academic progression needs to happen across successive years of NTNU bachelors teaching (perhaps via greater interactive teaching techniques with lasting knowledge), although perhaps a pre-requisite bachelors course requirement will be needed on this masters course (e.g. for students with a non-NTNU background)
11th October 2017 – Veerle Jaspers 2 – Follow-up on getting students to read the textbook via short quizzes at the start of lectures (using Kahoot) – suggestions: this seems to have worked very well, and just needs a few minor modifications next year
8th November 2017 – Bjørn Munro Jensen – Mixed ability classes in an envitoxicology masters course – suggestions: more interactive group work should help with the better students benefiting from helping the poorer students catch up, although perhaps a pre-requisite bachelors course requirement will be needed on this masters course (e.g. for students with a non-NTNU background)
15th November 2017 – Marine Utdanningsklinikken @TBS – Teaching tools for distance learning activities together with Ålesund – suggestions: various video-based teaching techniques, maybe interactive problem-based learning by different groups based at the two sites
6th December 2017 – Fredrick Jutfelt - Changing from lectures to interactive classes (and use of Socrative software) in a bachelors course in advanced physiology
12th January 2018 – Thor Harald Ringsby – Innovative solutions to teaching more in less time on BI1003 – suggestions: interactive teaching seems like the way to go here, but a more basic redesign of BI1003 as a whole may ultimately be required…
14th February 2018 – Marine Utdanningsklinikken @TBS – Student participation in Marine Science Seminars BI3062 – suggestions: retain student and visitor seminar presentations, but allow 2-3mins at the end for small student group discussions to encourage student (rather than staff/researcher) questions (later reported to be a very successful change)
19th February 2018 – Anita Kaltenborn – How R2 and some help from Utdanningsklinikken turned the horror lecture into something nice
16th April 2018 – Henrik Jensen & Christophe Pélabon – Challenges with BI2017 Genetics & Evolution: obligatory activities and other issue
28th May 2018 – Invited Speaker – Jenny Hagenblad (Linköping University, Sweden) – Teaching without lecturing and other pedagogic adventures
28th May 2018 – Invited Speaker – Frank Kraemer (IIK, NTNU) – Team-Based Learning (TBL)
8th October 2018 – Utdanningsklinikken Restart – general discussion on how we want Utdanningsklinikken to progress
22nd October 2018 – Invited Speaker – Sehoya Cotner (BioSEED, UiB & Univ Minnesota) – Research on interactive teaching techniques
5th November 2018 – Rick Strimbeck – Use of Socrative software in BI1007 and how it could be could used more effectively
19th November 2018 – Jon Wright - Why aren’t we using more educational funding to support our educational and research activities? – suggestion: there is perhaps a lack of time and effort, and maybe also a need, for such large-scale projects to improve teaching activities for most staff
24th January 2019 – Brainstorming session for IBI collective course BI2080 Global Change Biology and possible active teaching methods we might employ
5th February 2019 - Jonatan Marquez – Developing an EiT village
19th February 2019 – General discussion on the issue of student attendance of non-compulsory teaching sessions, especially lectures and when active learning sessions are planned – suggestions: more interesting/useful teaching away from textbooks of material that will be on the exam, or make attendance compulsory (at least initially)
5th March 2019 – General discussion regarding BI3091-3 Special Syllabus – suggestions: flexibility should be encouraged in the scope and type of chosen topic, and in the assessment methods in order to suite the particular student, area of research and supervisors/examiners involved – to be taken by JW to the IBI Utdannings Komite (UK)
19th March 2019 – Rick Strimbeck – Ecological and evolutionary simulations from SimBio and NetLogo for active learning sessions in BI1003 and other courses – suggestions: there are many applications here even outside planned practical classes, such as student-centred learning outside the classroom (if software can be made available to students) and SimBio can be used to illustrate examples (e.g. in community ecology dynamics) in lectures even without any interactive element
14th May 2019 – Elin Kjørsvik – Planned teaching methods in the new course “Natur, miljø og bærekraft”
28th May 2019 – Christophe Pelabón – Issues regarding BI3091 Special Syllabus – suggestions: there is value in keeping the current course description and instructions intentionally vague and the use of this course as flexible as possible
6th November 2019 - Gunnar Austrheim (INH, NTNU) – Development of the course RFEL3082 Sustainable Development of Ecosystem Services (NARM program) over the last three years – suggestions: this seems like an excellent course using a variety of effective teaching methods, so maybe just increase real-world application, such as get the stakeholders themselves to suggest and even assess usefulness of write-ups/presentations
27th November 2019 - Martin Kuiper - Going “full active learning” in BI3019 Systems Biology: Resources, Standards and Tools – suggestions: this is an excellent example of such courses using interactive teaching methods, but the workload on students and staff could usefully be reduced with fewer write-ups and perhaps student marking of each other’s work?
11th December 2019 – Rick Strimbeck - How much should we require attendance in IBI classes? – suggestions: more interesting/useful teaching away from textbooks of material that will be on the exam, or make attendance compulsory (at least initially)
3rd February 2020 - Magne Husby from Nord Univ. and Sigrid talked about using PlantID in teaching.
2nd March 2020 - Anita Kaltenborn: “From paper to digital solutions?”, about designing a project aimed at replacing the 50-year old, 350 page compendium in BI1002, to a platform using digital tools.
20th April 2020 - Open discussion on remote teaching issues during covid restriction on teaching.
4th May 2020 - Open discussion on fair and meaningful digital home exams. How to write copy/paste-proof questions? Can multiple choice or other auto-evaluated questions work? Questions/tasks that explicitly require students to consult and synthesize external sources? Is it fair to conceive of the overall time limit on the exam as a way to limit overuse of external sources (sort out students that have a command of the subject from those that need to look everything up)?
18th May 2020 - Open discussion on “labless labs”: what we can do to deliver as much of the lab experience as possible during covid restrictions when we can’t actually meet in a lab, or perhaps have to do so at reduced student densities.
9th November 2020 - Gine Roll Skjærvø, Irja Ida Ratikainen, Aline Magdalena Lee and Veerle Jaspers shares their experiences with hybrid teaching under covid restrictions on in-person teaching.
23rd November 2020 - Richard Strimbeck and Mari Aas Fjelldal discuss how they have managed the students laboratory teaching during corona times.
15th March 2021 - Felicity Ashcroft discusses the design and purpose of new oral exams BI2012 Cell Biology.
27th September 2021 - Martin Wagner presents recent changes in How to do Science introductory week for masters students, how well it worked and what to change for next year.
4th October 2021 - Bob O'Hara on how to design appropriate and efficient exams for ST2304 Statistisk modellering for biologer/bioteknologer given that the teaching has become more interactive, online and integrated with the biology curriculum. Discussions concerned suitability of assessments using multiple choice to short answer questions.
18th October 2021 - Rick Strimbeck leads a discussion about the expectation that some/many students seem to have that all teaching should be delivered digitally.
8th Novemeber 2021 - Cameron Ghalambor and Daniela Sueldo discuss future planned changes to BI3052 Study Design involving greater integration and more involvement of staff from the different faggrupper.
25th April 2022 - General discussion, especially with all the new IBI teaching staff from across the different sections of the department, about how everyone would like to use Utdanningsklinikken seminars in the future. It was decided to also use them for providing information about teaching procedures and admin at IBI, and as a forum for more detailed discussion of teaching matters at IBI, perhaps acting more as a working group for the Education Committee (UK).
