Biology core curriculum vertical alignment study

Shana KerrBiology Teaching Retreat 2015

Goals of this session

• Rationale, goals, and study approach• Broad overview of findings and implications• Detailed discussion/next steps…

Evolution Ecology BiomoleculesGenetics

Biol 1510/1511 modules:

2000-LevelCore Courses:

3000-Level Core Courses: Evolutionary

BiologyCell & Molecular

Biology

Ecology Genetics

Biology Core Curriculum Structure

Rationale• Wanted to flip portions of 1510/1511• 1510/1511 is the required course for all upper

level Biology courses……But there is little overlap between 1510/1511 and core course instructors

• Intro bio committee developed 1510/1511 learning objectives for every lecture– “students will be able to…”

• Opportunity to generate discussion about our curriculum on a program level

How well aligned is the 1510/1511 curriculum with the four core courses?

• What LOs are most important as incoming knowledge for core courses?

• Are students prepared for core courses?• Are there redundancies and/or gaps between

1510/1511 and core courses?• Are there redundancies and/or gaps between

courses on a program level?

Study Design

• Phase I• Content/topics of each core course

categorized for relative importance (Wiggins & McTighe) by at least three instructors the course

• Phase II• Introductory Biology Learning Objectives

categorized by at least two core course instructors for relative importance for preparation for their course

• Phase III• Open-ended follow-up and discussion with

core course instructors via one-on-one interviews

• Top three concepts/topics for which students are least prepared identified by core course instructors

1: Worth being familiar with/Nice to know

2: Important to knowand be able to do

3: “Enduring” understanding/Essential knowledge

Adapted from Wiggins & McTighe , Understanding by Design, 1998

Part I: Core Course Topics

Study promptsCore Course Topics:The following topics/concepts were identified from recent course syllabi. Based on the way you and your co-instructors teach the course, and thinking about what you want students to retain 6 months to a year after the course is over, please categorize each topic/concept according to the following scale:

0 = Not important / Not taught1 = Worth being familiar with / Nice for students to know2 = Important for students to know and/or be able to do3 = "Enduring" understanding / Essential knowledge for biologists

Topic or Concept:• Mitosis• Meiosis• DNA as hereditary material• Dominant/recessive alleles

Average categorization for core course topics as outgoing knowledge

Genetics Ecology Cell & Molecular Evolution0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

Core Course

Aver

age

topi

c ra

ting

as o

utgo

ing

know

ledg

e

0 = Not important / Not taught1 = Worth being familiar with / Nice for students to know2 = Important for students to know and/or be able to do3 = "Enduring" understanding / Essential knowledge for biologistsError bars represent standard deviation

Part II: 1510/1511 LOs

Study prompts1510/1511 Learning Objectives:The following Learning Objectives are used to design lectures for each module in Biology 1510. Please categorize these Learning Objectives for their importance to your course as incoming student knowledge according to the following scale:

0 = Not important / Not relevant as incoming knowledge1 = Worth being familiar with / Nice to know as incoming knowledge 2 = Important for students to know and/or be able to do as incoming knowledge 3 = “Enduring” understanding / Essential as incoming knowledge

Learning Objective (“students will be able to…”)• Describe the chromosomal makeup of a cell using the terms chromosome, sister

chromatid, homologous chromosome, diploid, haploid, and tetrad• Explain how chromosomal separation at meiosis leads to segregation of alleles in gametes• Explain how alignment at metaphase results in independent assortment of (unlinked)

genes

*one faculty evaluated LOs for Evolution & Ecology modules; two faculty evaluated LOs for Biomolecules & Genetics modules. Error bars represent standard deviation.

Incoming knowledge expectations for each core course: analysis by core course

Genetics Course Ecology Course Cell Course* Evolution Course

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

Evolution ModuleEcology ModuleBiomolecules ModuleGenetics Module

Core Course

Aver

age

1510

/151

1 m

odul

e LO

ratin

g

*one faculty evaluated LOs for Evolution & Ecology modules; two faculty evaluated LOs for Biomolecules & Genetics modules. Error bars represent standard deviation.

Evolution Module Ecology Module Biomolecules Module

Genetics Module0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

Genetics CourseEcology CourseCell Course*Evolution Course

1510/1511 Module

Aver

age

1510

/151

1 m

odul

e LO

ratin

gIncoming knowledge expectations for each core course:

analysis by 1510/1511 module

How do 1510/1511 LOs align with core course topics?

Total Number of 1510/1511 LOs and Core Course Topics

*Ecology LOs were in draft form at the time of this study

Evolution Ecology* Biomolecules/Cell & Molecular

Genetics0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1510/1511Core Course

1510/1511 Module or Core Course

# LO

s/To

pics

Topic A Topic B Topic C Topic D

# Topics related to LO

Avg LO/Topic rating by core course faculty

1.00 2.00 3.00 3.00

LO 1 4 1.00 X X X X

LO 2 1 2.00 X

LO 3 1 3.00 X

LO 4 4 3.00 X X X x

Core Course Topic/Concept:

1510

Lea

rnin

g O

bjec

tive:

Analysis approach for alignment of individual LOs with individual topics:

Percent of 1510/1511 module LOs linked to at least one core course topic

Genetics Course Ecology Course Cell Course Evolution Course0.00

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

Evolution Module (29 LOs)Ecology Module (23 LOs)Biomolecules Module (54 LOS)Genetics Module (36 LOs)

Core Course

Perc

ent o

f mod

ule

LOs l

inke

d to

core

cour

se to

pics

photosynthesis

Average number of topic links per LO

Genetics Course Ecology Course Cell Course Evolution Course

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

Evolution ModuleEcology ModuleBiomolecules ModuleGenetics Module

Core Course

Aver

age

num

ber o

f top

ic li

nks p

er L

O

Error bars represent standard deviation.

Part III: open-ended interviews

Incoming knowledge gaps• Genetics

– Mitosis/meiosis: behavior of chromosomes– Interpreting phylogenetic trees– Importance of genetics in evolution/vice versa– Probability in Mendelian genetics

• Ecology:– How to analyze organismal interactions in a quantitative way– Conceptual definition of ecology; recognition that ecology is a process– Importance of ecology in evolution/vice versa

• Cell & Molecular– Highly variable student backgrounds– Practical understanding of genetic concepts incl. allele, transcriptional regulation

• Evolution– Interpreting phylogenetic trees– HWE (but do they need it?)– History of life: focus should be on process/amount of time rather than specific timeline of events– Speciation and species concepts

• All: how to study, how to analyze/solve problems vs. memorizing facts, process of science

General curricular concerns• Redundancy between intro/core and across core courses: is it

good or bad?• How to make evolution more explicit in each core (all areas of

biology are sub-disciplines of evolution)• History of science vs process of science: should we move away

from classical/historical studies and focus instead on how science is done (“evaluate experiments, not learn history”)?

• Overall amount of material (“why cover everything if they’re not going to keep it?”)

• How much variation is there in core course “core” based on instructor, and is this OK?

• Learning objectives for core courses

Take-homes and remaining questions

• In general we have good alignment between 151x and the core courses

• There is a lot of overlap/redundancy esp. between Genetics and Cell & Molecular– this is viewed as both good and bad

• There are missed opportunities to make evolution more explicit in the core courses (esp. in Genetics and Ecology)

• There are specific incoming knowledge gaps in each core course which can be addressed in 1510

• Are we asking students to be more broadly trained than we consider ourselves to be?

Limitations

• LOs/topics evaluated by only 3 faculty (max)• Did not ask faculty to assess each LO or topic

for general preparation level (assess lack of incoming knowledge)

• Evaluated by one faculty for links between 151x LOs/core course topics

• Comparison between LOs (measurable) vs topics (descriptive)

Topic A Topic B Topic C Topic D

# Topics related to LO

Avg LO/Topic rating by core course faculty

1.00 2.00 3.00 3.00

LO 1 4 1.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 3.00

LO 2 1 2.00 1.00

LO 3 1 3.00 0.33

LO 4 4 3.00 0.33 0.67 1.00 1.00

Core Course Topic/Concept:

1510

Lea

rnin

g O

bjec

tive:

Analysis approach for alignment of individual LOs with individual topics: heat map of topic score/LO score

Review the data: http://tinyurl.com/biovertical

• What necessary 1510/1511 LOs are students not adequately meeting prior to the core course?

• Are there inappropriate gaps and/or redundancies between LOs and core course topics?