The Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching PDF
Preview The Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching
The Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching Chicago Guides to Academic Life A Student’s Guide to Law School How to Succeed in College Andrew B. Ayers (While Really Trying) Jon B. Gould What Every Science Student Should Know Justin L. Bauer 57 Ways to Screw Up in Grad School Kevin D. Haggerty and Aaron Doyle The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science How to Study Victor A. Bloomfield and Arthur W. Kornhauser Esam El- Fakahany Doing Honest Work in College The Chicago Handbook for Teachers, Charles Lipson Second Edition Alan Brinkley, Esam El- Fakahany, Succeeding as an International Student Betty Dessants, Michael Flamm, in the United States and Canada Charles B. Forcey, Jr., Matthew L. Charles Lipson Ouellett, and Eric Rothschild Off to College The Chicago Guide to Landing a Job in Roger H. Martin Academic Biology C. Ray Chandler, Lorne M. Wolfe, and The Thinking Student’s Guide to College Daniel E. L. Promislow Andrew Roberts The PhDictionary Doodling for Academics Herb Childress Julie Schumacher Behind the Academic Curtain The Graduate Advisor Handbook Frank F. Furstenberg Bruce M. Shore The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career John A. Goldsmith, John Komlos, and Penny Schine Gold The Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching Terry McGlynn The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2020 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637. Published 2020 Printed in the United States of America 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5 isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 54222- 5 (cloth) isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 54236- 2 (paper) isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 54253- 9 (e- book) doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226542539.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: McGlynn, Terry (Biologist), author. Title: The Chicago guide to college science teaching / Terry McGlynn. Other titles: Chicago guides to academic life. Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2020. | Series: Chicago guides to academic life | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2019058080 | isbn 9780226542225 (cloth) | isbn 9780226542362 (paperback) | isbn 9780226542539 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Science—Study and teaching (Higher) Classification: lcc q181 .m26 2020 | ddc 507.1/1—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058080 ♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of Paper). For Amelia and Bruce Contents Preface ix 1. Before You Meet Your Students 1 2. The Syllabus 26 3. The Curriculum 49 4. Teaching Methods 70 5. Assignments 105 6. Exams 117 7. Common Problems 133 8. Online Teaching 162 Afterword 178 Acknowledgments 181 Notes 183 Suggested Readings 191 Index 193 Preface Higher education is a strange beast. Our institutions hire highly trained professionals to teach, but most of us have not been trained in teaching. Scholars of education have compiled a mountain of evidence about effec- tive teaching practices in college science classrooms. Many journals are dedicated to publishing peer- reviewed research about science teaching. Yet, by the time we finish graduate school, many of us feel overwhelmed at the prospect of diving into books and articles about pedagogy, even if teaching is a substantial part of our career. After all, don’t we have enough trouble keeping up with the latest work in our own disciplines? A chasm separates scientists from scholars of teaching and learning, and few sci- ence instructors have invested in building a way across. I’m hoping this book can help more scientists develop their own bridges. When I said I was writing a book about college science teaching, one education professional asked me, “Which theorists are you using?” And my answer was “Well, it’s not that kind of book.” If you can rattle a list of your favorite educational theorists off the top of your head, then this is probably not the book for you. I’ll be discussing teaching practices that are rooted in theory, but I’m not here to teach (much) theory. As a research biologist and a classroom instructor, that’s outside my wheelhouse. x Preface Scientists have jargon, and scholars of teaching and learning have just as much jargon. We often talk past one another. It is unfortunate that most academic literature is written to be inaccessible to nonexperts. This makes it hard for science instructors and pedagogical experts to communicate with one another. I hope we can have more conversations about what ef- fective teaching looks like and how we can change what we do to help our students find academic success. The suggestions in this book are grounded in the peer- reviewed lit- erature on teaching. I don’t think you need to be an expert in science pedagogical theory to become an excellent classroom teacher. However, it helps to be receptive to what experts have to say and to be prepared to adapt to improve your craft. At the back of this volume, I’ve provided notes on the academic sources for each chapter. I have done my best to cite large meta- analyses and review papers along with books, which I think will be of greatest utility for a newcomer. I also suggest some addi- tional books, in case you get jazzed about the scholarship of teaching and learning. Teaching is a practical act. When we step into the classroom, we are not clouds of theory. We are actual people, supporting the learning of others. In this book, I suggest a range of actions that you can take in the classroom, which are informed by research, theory, and experience. Ultimately, your choices can help you build an impactful relationship to support the success of your students. If you’re new to teaching at the university level, and you have some time before the start of the semester, then you have the opportunity to di gest this guide from the start. But if your teaching assignment starts very promptly, I suggest jumping straight to the syllabus chapter and then going to associated chapters on curriculum and teaching methods as the need arises. If you’re more seasoned in the classroom, then I am hoping that I might be able to pro- vide some fresh perspectives, to nudge you into changing up some aspects of your teaching. I think the chapters most of interest to you will be chap- ters 1, 4, and 6. If you’re a graduate student teaching lab sections, chapter 4 on teaching methods will be of particular interest, and the tail end of the chapter is specific to laboratories. If you are teaching an online course, the chapter about online teaching will clearly be of particular interest, but the entire book is broadly applicable to online learning, aside from some parts of chapter 4. This book is intended for instructors in higher education in STEM from around the world. After all, effective teaching practices work wherever you
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