a first year zoology class through the use of ... practical courses tend to emphasise the completion of tasks ... drawings in their practical books. At the end of class ...
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/5 H E R D S A
N E W S
A u gu st l 9 9 9
Cooperative learning
first year zoology class
.
m
a
S u sa n
J on es
w eekly programme of lunchtime " study
bo ok s th at w ou l d be rew arded by hi gh
groups" . T hi s initiativ e grew out of the
grades. S tudents w i thout li ttle intrinsic
F o r m e to o , i t t o o k th e s t i m u l u s o f a
perception that many fi rst y ear students
m o ti v a t i o n c o u l d d o t h e w o r k w i t h o u t
G r ad u a te C e r ti f i c a te i n E d u c a ti o n to
ne ed he l p to e stab l ish a peer su ppo rt
ac tu a l l y l e a r n i n g v e r y m u c h - e v e n
netw ork . A sim ple m eans of doi ng this i s
th ou g h I th ou g h t I h a d d e si gn e d th e
to prov ide a ti me, a place and a reason
a sse s sm e n t w i t h t h e p r o m o ti o n o f
for
learni ng v ery m uc h i n m i nd.
I r e a l l y r e l a te d to D ar r y l J o n e s ' artic le i n H E R D S A N ew s A pri l l 998 .
m ake m e real ise that w hat w as i m port ant
w as no t i m p r o v i ng m y teac hi ng , but
helpi ng my students to improv e thei r l eam ing .
O ne thi ng I reali sed w as. that i t i s
important to allow for different learning sty les among students; yet, especially for
large fi rst y ear science classes, didactic
teachirig strategies continue to dominate ( M att h e w s ,
l 99 l ) .
I n n o v ati o n
l S
discouraged by (perceived) timetable and staffi ng constraints. H ow ev er, in recent
y ears, J ohn D earn has done muc h to encourage us to re-think our approaches t o f i r st y e ar sc i e n c e te ac h i n g ( se e H E R D S A N ew s A pril l 998) particularly thr o u gh t he u se o f c o l l ab o r at i v e o r cooperative learni ng.
C oope r ati v e
l e arn i n g
an d
opportunities for self-directed learning can encourage students to bec ome more a c ti v e
l e ar n er s
th r o u g h
t ak i n g
responsibility for their ow n learning. I n parti c ul ar the re i s a l ot of l i ter ature
suggesting that small group proj ect w ork c an be hi ghly m oti v ating f or students,
en c ou r agi n g th em to g o " b ey on d
reproducti on to the appl i c ati on of know ledge" (G ibbs, l 990: p. l 3) . A s a coroll ary , it i s al so im portant to u se a
v ariety of w el l desi gned assi gnm ents.
R arely w ill one assessment method fulfi l all obj ectiv es for a course; a v ariety of assi gnments i s needed to accommodate d i f f e r e n t l e ar n i n g sty l e s , an d i t i s
therefore important to have sev eral bases for assigning grades (M atthew s, l 99 l ) H ow ev er
tr a d i ti o n a l
f i r st
y ear
sc i en c e te ac h i ng p attern s te n d no t to
pr ov i de opportu ni ti es. I n p arti c ul ar,
practic al courses tend to emphasise the compl etion of tasks set by the teacher an d
th e
a sse ssm e nt
l abor atory l e arn i n g
w o rk .
c an
of
indiv idual
C o m pu ter -ai de d
pro v i d e
se l f -g ui de d
ac ti v i ti e s , bu t w h at abo u t th o se o f u s
w ho do not hav e the resources to prov ide them , or al tern ati v e ly , are sti ll ab le to c o n si der
m ore
i n ten si v e
te a c h i n g
patterns?
I n my fi rst year Z oology I classes, I hav e been using tw o strategies to try to
address some of these points. T he fi rst of the se i s m y S tudy G rou p sc hem e. F or F v e y e ars now , I h av e been runni ng a
l i k e -m i n d e d
stu d e n ts
to
m eet
regularly . T he regular but informal S tudy
T th e re f o r e i n tr o d u c e d a e r o u p
G roup m eeti ngs prov i de a contac t poi nt
p roj e ct , b a se d on the h y p othe si s that
a n d f o ste r th e d e v e l o p m e n t o f p e e r
s tu d e n t s w o u l d b e m o r e m o ti v a t e d a n d
support netw orks. I n l 998, I targeted
m o re l i k el y to ado pt a de ep le arni ng
m atu re age students particularly , usi ng
approach if w orki ng in small groups and
stu d e n t m e n to r s w h o c o n tr i b u te d to so m e
i f gi v e n s o m e au to n o m y o v er t hei r
early S tudy G roups
assessm ent task . T his took up tw o n on-
T he S tudy G roups also addressed a
c onsecuti v e c l asses. T he proj ec t brief
second m aj or c oncern . M any students,
w as to present a c ompar ativ e study of
o v e rw he l m e d by the ne w k n ow le d ge
the th r ee m aj o r gr ou p s o f an ne l i d s
base, adopt a surface learning approach
(w orms) , and to show an appreciation of
to the m ateri al , f ocussing on " learning
f u n d a m e n ta l a n n e l i d c h a r a c te r i sti c s a n d
the new v ocabulary " rather than looli ng
functi onal anatomy
for c onnections. S tudy G roup prov ides
structure refl ects its ec ologic al ni che) .
an op po rtu n i ty to re fl e c t u pon , and
W hile there w ere some com pulsory core
di scu ss the c ourse m ateri al , dev el opi ng a
t a sk s , th e y c ou l d Ch o o se h o w t h e y
deep leam i ng approac h to the subj ec t.
completed the proj ect, al low ing for some
T he emphasi s is on talking, not w riting
i n i ti ati v e an d v a r i ati o n s i n f o c u s b e tw e e n
dow n answ ers, and I provide help only if
group s. S o me re al l y
they get stuck ! I al so use S tudy G roups
c h al l en g e , i nc o rpo r ati n g f i e l d d at a ,
to i ntrodu c e e f f ec ti v e stu dy tec hni qu es
building a w orm farm or ev en presenting
such as concept mapping: there is much
a seri e s o f p h o to gr aph s o f a l ee c h
ev idence to suggest that l ear ning skill s
f eedi ng
( how an anim al ' s
to ok u p th e
are b e st d e v e l o pe d w i th in a su bj e c t-
O bviously , I w as interested to see if
s pe c i f i c c o n te x t . T h i s p r o g r a m m e
the proj ect resulted in w ork of a higher
c o n ti n u e s to a ttr a c t stu d e n t s i n te r e ste d i n
standard . A ssessment of group w ork is
de v e l opi ng thei r thi nk i ng sk i l l s and
al w ay s a th o r ny i ssu e . T hi s p r oj e c t
enhanci ng thei r u nderstandi ng of the
re pre se nted o nl y a m i no r p ar t o f an
m aterial c ov ered in thi s uni t, and m any
overall assessment pack age so I decided
peer support netw orks grow out of Study
to aw ard the same grade to all members
G roup
of the group, but w ith a mechanism for
I have also been experimenting w ith
adj u sti ng g r ad es a c c o r d i n g t o e a c h
w ay s of introduci ng some cooperativ e
stu d e n t ' s c o n tr i b u ti o n . C o n t r a r y to
l earni ng i nto pr ac ti c al s . M y students
e xpe c tati on , the re w as no si g ni f i c ant
u n dertak e a sem ester-l o n g l abo r ato ry
d i f f e r e n c e b e tw e e n t h e m e a n sc o r e f o r
c our se i n ani m al sy stem ati c s. D uri ng
the proj ects and for the most equiv alent
these classes, they are introduced to the
' indi v idual" presentation. H ow ev er the
maj or phyla; laboratory activ ities include
range of sc ores for the proj ect ranged
o b se r v i n g l i v e a ni m a l s , l o ok i n g a t
from 4 - 20/20, w hil e f or the indi v idu al
m i c r o sc o p e
practical s on annelids the range w as 4 -
sl i d e s
an d
m u se u m
sp ec i me n s, and do i n g som e si m pl e
l 8 /2 0 . S t u d e n t e v a l u a t i o n s s h o w e d
d i s s e c ti o n s . T h e s tu d e n t s r e c o r d th e i r or as
stron g support for the grou p proj ect al though there w as a signifi cant rninority
drawings in their practical books. A t the
that did prefer to w ork alone (they w ere
e n d o f c l a s s th e re i s a d i s c u s si o n se ss i o n ,
abl e to c oul d exerci se thi s opti on) .
o b se r v a ti o n s i n w r i t t e n
form
and t hey al so w ri te answ er s to these discussion questions in their books.
I don' t pretend to have presented any
H ow ev e r, the teac hi ng str ate gy w as
r adi c al l y n e w i de a s he re . I to o am leaming as I go along, and the w ay that I
being perceiv ed by a proportion of the students as w hat M organ ( l 993) c alled
present my practical cl asses changes a bit each y ear. I n fact, this y ear' s students
" explicit pedagogy " ; i .e. they saw that there w as a " r ight w ay " to complete their
w ill not be doing a proj ect; instead they w ill
be
e x pe c te d
to
do
m ore
H E R D S A
N E W S
A v g u s t 19 9 9
collaborative work within each practical. T he S tudy G roups conti nue, and I am
enc our aged by the many po si ti v e
R ef e r en c e s
M organ, A . l 993. Improving your
Gibbs, G . l 990. I mproving student
c o m m e n t s f r o m s tu d e n t s w h o a t te n d
learning: proj ect briefi ng paper for
them. I f the proj ect goes some w ay
proj ect participants. O xford C entre
towards helping a few students adj ust to
for S taff D ev elopment, O xford
u n i v e r si t y
life,
th e n
i t h as
be e n
w o rt h w h i l e .
P ol y tec hni c
M atthew s, D . B . l 99 l . T he effects of
A ck n ow ledgm en t I am grateful for the support of the
U ni versity of T asmani a T eaching
learning style on grades of first year college students. R esearch in Higher E duc atio n, 32 : 2S 3-269
D ev elopment G rant S cheme in l 99S , 6
9 7 for consecutive stages of this, and related, proj ects.
-
students' leaming. R efl ections on the
experience of study. K ogan page in association with the O pen
University, L ondon & Philadelphia
S u sa n
M.
J on es,
S c h ool
of
Z oology, U niversity of T asmania, B ox 252-O5, H obart ,T A S 7001 S . M . J o n es @ u t u .ed u .a u