describing and evaluating curriculum: i. identifying skills, goals, experiences, content and values...
TRANSCRIPT
Describing and Evaluating Curriculum:
I. Identifying Skills, Goals, Experiences, Content and ValuesII. Curriculum Maps and Matrices
Randy RichardsonDepartment of Geosciences, University of Arizona
(with thanks to Mary Savina, Carleton College)
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Predicting the future: What will the next 15 years hold in geoscience and geoscience education?
• More interested in applications
• More collaboration
• Different and broader career paths
• More societal relevance
• More complex data management tasks (from Beyond Earth System Science - Kip Hodges, 2007)
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Trends in Higher EducationChanging nature of the student body, Change in what it means to be an “educated
person,”Emphasis on skills and habits of mind rather
than content, Recognizing learning outside the classroom, A more cohesive and coherent first year
experience, a capstone.
(thanks to Chico Zimmerman, Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, Carleton College)
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Thinking About Curriculum – Model #1
• Emphasizing individual course titles and content:– Introductory geology (audience)– Specialized geoscience courses
OR
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Thinking About Curriculum - Model #2
• Emphasizing sequence and student intellectual development – – What are good second level courses? – What work as advanced courses?– What should students carry from one class
to the next?
OR
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Thinking About Curriculum – Model #3 – Identifying:
• Skills– Geoscience-specific– General
• Experiences• Goals• Values• “Threshold concepts” (Randy Bass, Georgetown
University) – (What are the central ideas from geoscience that are important to all students (majors and non-majors))?
• Other Content
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
First fundamental question:
• What do you want your (seniors, graduates, alumni) to be able to do?
• First exercise: Defining goals, values, experiences, skills, knowledge (about 10 minutes of independent/small group work followed by 15 minutes of post-it organizing and reporting out).
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Student Learning Outcomes:
• Student Learning Outcomes
• California State University, Chico
Students will be able to...
• Determine the physical and chemical composition of earth materials and the processes that produced them. – Identify and fully describe rocks(http://serc.carleton.edu/departments/assessment/learning_goals.html)
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Second fundamental question:• Where in the curriculum (or co-curriculum) do
students get these skills, experiences, etc.?• Using the curricular map: Two Examples(http://serc.carleton.edu/departments/programs/curriculum_profiles.html)
Visiting Workshop Program, 2009 - 2010
A matrix approach to curricular designCoursesSkills
110 120 210 220 230 240 250 255
General skills
ComputerskillsField skills
Lab skills
Interpretiveskills
This matrix concept has been used by the geology departments at Carleton and at College of William & Mary, as well as by other Carleton departments.
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Another version of the general matrixCourseSkill Category
110 120 210 220 230 240 250 255
Interpretive/CriticalEvaluationDocumentation/CommunicationQuantitation
Data Collection
Experimentation/SimulationInformationLiteracy
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
A breakdown of one category CoursesSkills
110intro
120intro
210geomorph
220tect
230paleo
240Italy
250min
255pet
Essay a a aPoster s s a a aField report a a a a aLibraryresearch
s s s a a a
Researchproposal
s s s
A = always; S = sometimes
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Second fundamental question, con’t:
• Exercise 2 Mapping curriculum and identifying where in curriculum experiences, goals, etc. are situated (about 20 minutes of independent and small group work on the maps and matrix).
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Thinking about assessment
• Use the capstone projects– Subjects and methods– Sources and experiences
• Use the department review process
• Check in with alumni
• Evaluate the course content
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Managing the department discussion – barriers and obstacles
Identify principles and broadest learning objectives Identify skills, experiences, goals, values, threshold
concepts, content areasDiagram or map structure of the major – as it is Identify the curricular (or co-curricular) locations of
the skills, etc. Affirm (or at least acknowledge) perennial debatesCheck in with institutional and broader higher ed
prioritiesRepeat more often than you think you need
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009
Connecting with institutional initiatives
• Importance of cross-cutting skills – not just “general education,” but also in major
• Quantitative reasoning, Writing Across the Curriculum, visuality, academic civic engagement, ethics, sustainability. . . . (Carleton has between eight and twenty, depending on who is counting)
AGU Heads & Chairs, 2009