Topic: Building a Path to Success: Improving Learning Experiences through Constructive Alignment of Course Components
When: Tuesday, September 7 from 12 - 1 pm
Where: Virtual (sign up for the Zoom link)
The next dB-SERC lunch discussion will take place Tuesday, September from 12 – 1 pm. Dr. Renee Cole from the University of Iowa will give a talk talk titled "Building a Path to Success: Improving Learning Experiences through Constructive Alignment of Course Components". The abstract is below:
Many instructors approach to course design is focused on content without explicitly considering the intended outcomes (what students should know and be able to do), how knowledge and skills will be developed through instruction, or how each intended outcome will be assessed. By ensuring that learning outcomes, assessments, and instructional actions are aligned, instructors provide students with coherent curricular opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills and increase the likelihood that instructional actions are appropriate to achieving the desired learning outcomes. Before instructors can align these curricular components, they must first reflect on each of these components individually and how they can support student success. When designing learning outcomes, instructors must have a clear picture of the knowledge that students should gain and determine the performance expectations, which relates to how students should demonstrate their knowledge. These outcomes must also be clearly articulated so that students understand what is necessary for success in a course or activity.
Marzano’s taxonomy provides a useful (and practical) way to think about developing learning objectives, activities, and assessments. The levels are based on the degree of cognitive control or intentionality of the thought processes needed to complete a task. Well-designed learning objectives serve many purposes: they guide curriculum development, guide assessment, and help students direct and monitor their learning process. With the increased emphasis on creating active learning environments to better support student learning, it is important to consider what aspects of activity design and implementation are effective in supporting student learning. We have used Marzano’s taxonomy to characterize instructional tasks from a variety of contexts and have extended this work to analyze classroom discourse to investigate how task design can influence student engagement. This work provides insights into how instructors can design and align course components to develop more effective learning environments.
BIO: Renée Cole is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on issues related to how students learn chemistry and how that guides the design of instructional materials and teaching strategies as well on efforts related to faculty development and the connection between chemistry education research and the practice of teaching. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Chemical Education and has been a co-editor for two books focusing on chemistry education research. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2015) and was named as a CLAS Collegiate Scholar in 2018. She was awarded the Iowa Women of Innovation Award for Academic Innovation & Leadership (2014), the University of Central Missouri College of Science & Technology Award for Excellence in Teaching (2010), and the Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education (2009).
