What is a teaching circle?

A teaching circle is a group of faculty and graduate students who meet regularly throughout the semester to discuss issues of teaching and learning.  For each meeting we will focus on a single topic, often centered around a presentation or a journal article.  Examples of topics could be: case-study teaching techniques; making large classes more interactive; mentoring  students; current issues in higher education; teaching and technology.

What will the first meeting be like?

Our own Kathleen Hoffman, along with Sarah Leupen and Jeff Leips from Biology, have agreed to share their presentation:  Development and Assessment of Modules to Integrate Quantitative Skills in Introductory Biology Courses (description below).

Abstract of the presentation

Redesigning undergraduate biology courses to integrate quantitative reasoning and skill development is critical to prepare students for careers in modern medicine and scientific research.  In this paper we report on the development, implementation and assessment of stand-alone modules that integrate quantitative reasoning into introductory biology courses. Modules are designed to improve skills in quantitative numeracy, interpreting data sets using visual tools, and making inferences about biological phenomena using mathematical/statistical models.

We also examine demographic/background data that predict student improvement in these skills through exposure to these modules.  We carried out pre-/post-assessment tests across four semesters and used student interviews in one semester to examine how students at different levels approached quantitative problems.  We found that students improved in all skills in most semesters, although there was variation in the degree of improvement among skills from semester to semester.  Only one demographic variable, transfer status, stood out as predictive of the degree to which students improved (transfer students achieved much lower gains every semester, despite the fact that pre-test scores were similar between transfer and non-transfer students).

We propose that increased exposure to quantitative skill development in biology courses is effective at building competency in quantitative reasoning.