Active learning has been recommended as a more effective way to teach when compared to traditional lecturing, yet active learning can be implemented in many different ways. One common approach in active learning is to ask students to share out their thoughts either with other students or in front of the whole class. These social interactions can be fruitful for hearing different perspectives and building classroom community, but they also can present challenges because they create a larger number of opportunities for a student to feel judged based on their answers. This worry of being judged, or fear of negative evaluation, has been shown to be a problem in active learning, particularly for students with anxiety . Implementation of Active Learning In two interview studies, one with students from a research institution and a second with community college students , students reported that how active learning is implemented matters. Answering a question that is timed based on accuracy...

Summer is here (feeling the heat!), and hopefully, you can set aside a bit of time to spend on developing yourself professionally! In the School of Life Sciences Teaching Innovation Center (TIC), we’re reading evidence-based articles this summer and meeting to discuss them to grow in our teaching practice. We did this last summer and found it to be successful! We invite you to join us in reading one article each month for June and July. We will meet virtually to discuss the key takeaways and how we can implement the strategies provided in the articles for our courses. Bonus: in June, the first author of the article, Student Perceptions of Instructor Supportiveness: What Characteristics Make a Difference , will be joining us to share their research and answer questions we have.  TIC Summer Reading Group Sign-up to receive invitations to the conversations! We plan to meet via Zoom on Fridays, June 25 and July 23, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Arizona/PST time. June 25 Schussler, E. E., Wea...

The number of best practices for technology implementation, the scaffolding of skills, practice opportunities, inclusivity, and collaboration can be overwhelming when considering adjustments to a course design. The list is long, but as always these ideas are meant to be part of a large interwoven tapestry rather than isolated practices. There are methods for integrating efforts across these best practices to get as much use out of a single course interaction as possible, thereby reducing the burden on you and your students (and bloating your assignment list or syllabus). One of my favorite areas of the course to apply this concept to is in the first week of school during course introductions. Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels Why Introductions? I’ve spoken about course introductions and first day of school activities before in the blog posts ““ Ice Breakers” and Community Makers: The Importance of the Introduction in Online and Face-to-Face Classrooms ” and “ More than “Syllabu...

The ability of students to think abstractly and formally is one of the major challenges instructors have faced over time. This is true across all disciplines but more so in the sciences. Concepts such as molecular bonding, biochemical pathways and cellular communication bring the biggest challenges to students as they require one to think outside of one’s normal schema. Arizona State University Emeritus Professor Anton Lawson , states, Concrete thinking is just regarding the facts. On the other hand, abstract thinking goes down below the facts. While some mental process is involved in abstract thinking, no such effort is evolved in concrete thinking. A person with concrete thinking does not think beyond the facts. They do not have the ability to think beyond a certain limit. Concrete thinkers only have a generalized concept for all things. On the other hand, abstract thinkers have a very specific concept of things. Is there a secret to teaching abstract thinking to learners? One of the...

  Why do I keep seeing people list pronouns on their email signatures? Can I use the word queer? What’s a deadname? As ASU is defined by who we include and how they succeed , we need to make sure that this includes everyone in the classroom, including students with identities that are invisible. Even though society tends to assume that everyone is straight and cis-gender, current estimates of individuals who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community range from 10-20% of the population. Specifically in biology classrooms at ASU, about 9-16% of undergraduates report having an LGBTQ+ identity on surveys. What challenges might a biology classroom present for LGBTQ+ students? Instructors and fellow students may inadvertently make incorrect assumptions that may cause some LGBTQ+ students to feel uncomfortable. For example, individuals may mis-gender transgender students and non-gender binary students in class. This could be done by using a...

Depression is a mental health concern for many students and is prevalent among undergraduates at a concerning rate. It has also been shown that underserved and underrepresented individuals in science are disproportionately impacted by depression  ( Turner and Noh, 1988 ,  Eisenberg et al., 2007 ; Jenkins et al., 2013 ; American College Health Association, 2018 ).  If we want to create a more inclusive community in science, we should consider how students’ depressive symptoms interact with their research experiences. However, there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between undergraduate research and students’ depression. A recent study published by the Biology Education Research Lab at ASU begins to explore how depression impacts undergraduate research experiences, as well as how these research experiences affect students’ depression.                      Depressive symptoms affect undergradua...

"F ind a group of like-minded people in your community who are supporting each other on the path to success." - Henry L. Roediger A new year... a fresh start to learn ways to improve our teaching! Perhaps even changing habits, and making new ones that stick. One way to do this is to have friendly support , especially when found in a group that will share your challenges and celebrate your progress.  This semester the School of Life Sciences is partnering with the Schools of Engineering to host our 3rd reading group for faculty and graduate students. We've chosen to read, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning , by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel.  The reading group's first meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 29th, from noon- 1pm in LSC 202. If you're interested in joining us for friendly support as you make things stick in your teaching, and would like a copy of the book, please RSVP here . The book description, f...

Palm Walk, Arizona State University, Tempe Campus. While Fall is not in the weather for Arizona, the Fall semester has arrived on campus! As we get back into the swing of things, we've read some interesting articles that are relevant to you as the semester begins. How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing This article by James M. Lang (author of our forthcoming reading group book pick!), gives us permission to take it easy when preparing for our classes. He provides four quick ways he has adjusted his courses to engage students. You may find that you're already doing some of them! How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course This article by Michelle D. Miller, has extensive and excellent advice on considering the technology you choose to include in your course. She poses THE great question that Amy and I often have, "Is it necessary? Will it improve the learning?" The author also includes several resources that are worth checking out. How to...

This week we were honored to have Chris Pagliarulo, PhD from UC Davis speak at our Evidence-Based Teaching Seminar Series. He shared his insights on how graduate TAs learn to teach, and shared a program that UC Davis uses to prepare them better. Teaching is a complex skill that requires repeated cycles of deliberate practice and feedback to master. He said teaching needed to be like "muscle memory". The program consists of deliberate practice of structured drills along with accountability and feedback through observations. They were drilled with 4-8 different teaching practices, and then assessed on whether they consistently used those techniques throughout the semester. He also discussed having grad students build "warm up" exercises based on pre-tests, to help students prepare for the activities in class. Below is a short clip of his presentation. (If you are interested in the full presentation, please send an email to amy.pate@asu.edu ) There are also some...