Using SoTL to Make Student Learning Visible

Beth Dietz-UhlerCathy Bishop-Clark

© Beth Dietz-Uhler and Cathy Bishop-Clark

33rd Annual Lilly Conference on College TeachingOxford OhioNovember 21-24, 2013

Cathy Bishop-Clark

Cathy Bishop-Clark (SoTL Journey)

Assistant Professor

(SoTL for me)

Associate Professor (SoTL with

Beth)

Full Professor (SoTL for others)

Administration (SoTL for decision making)

Beth Dietz-Uhler

Beth Dietz-Uhler (SoTL Journey)

Assistant Professor

(Social Science Research)

Associate Professor

(Social Science Research)

Full Professor (Mix of Social

Science Research and

SoTL)

Associate Chair of Assessment

(SoTL Perspective)

Making Student Learning Visible

Using SoTL to Make Student Learning Visible

“I will never take another computer science class again!”

“Walk-Away” Goals

• Deeper understanding of SoTL• Appreciation for the issues involved in making

student learning visible• Ideas for using SoTL to expand and explore the

visibility of student learning

Definition of SoTL“An act of intelligence or artistic creation becomes

scholarship when it possesses at least three attributes: it becomes public, it becomes an object of critical review and evaluation by members of one’s community, and members of one’s community begin to use, build upon, and develop those acts of mind and creation.” (Shulman, 1999)

Making Student Learning Visible

• Jeff Bernstein– Cofounder of the SoTL

Academy, EMU Political Scientist

– “Making student learning visible is a key element in this evidence-based culture”

2008

Making Student Learning Visible

“If a central goal of the scholarship of teaching and learning becomes making learning visible, the next question that arises is visible to whom?”

Bernstein, Jeffrey L. (2008) "Introduction: Making Learning Visible to Whom?," The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at EMU: Vol. 2, Article 2.

Visible to WHOM?

Instructor

Students

Discipline

Higher Educatio

n

Bernstein, Jeffrey L. (2008) "Introduction: Making Learning Visible to Whom?," The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at EMU: Vol. 2, Article 2.

SoTL

Visible to the Instructor

• Turning in a working computer program (math problem, term paper)– What happened in

between the blank paper and the outcome?

– What is not understood?

Visible to Students

• Experiment this semester with EXAMS• Make student learning visible to themselves• Provide opportunities for student to reflect on

their own learning• Doing research with students!

Visible to the Discipline

• “What are the best ways to help students understand recursive methods of creating linked lists?”

Visible to the Higher Education Community

Educators

Computer Science

Visible to WHOM

Visible beyond the Higher Education Community

• Currently, there is intense interest and pressure to make student learning visible beyond instructor, students, the discipline, and higher education community

• Improving Transparency and Accountability (http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education)

• College Affordability and Transparency Center (College Scorecard) (http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education/college-score-card)

• What Employers Want (Hart Report: http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf)

• Academically Adrift (36% of students did not demonstrate any significant gains in learning) (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_large_numbers_of_college_students_don_t_learn_much)

• Increased pressure for accreditation (http://www.aaup.org/article/accreditation-and-federal-future-higher-education#.USE822fld8E)

• Increased pressure to retain students (American Graduation Initiative: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-American-Graduation-Initiative-in-Warren-MI)

• Pressure from MOOCs and online education in general (http://chronicle.com/article/American-Council-on-Education/137155/)

Visible beyond the Higher Education Community

Activity

• Of the different visibilities, which do you consider the most important and why?– Instructor– Students– Discipline– Higher Education Community– Those Outside the Higher Education Community

• Spend two minutes thinking/writing and two minutes to share with person next to you

A Debate!

Of these Visibilities which is the MOST IMPORTANT

Instructor

Students

Disciplin

e

Higher Ed

Beyond Higher Education SoTL

Hattie (2012) suggests that visible teaching and learning occurswhen there are “active, passionate, and engaging people, including teachers, students, and peers participating in the act of learning”

Visible Teaching and Learning

Making Learning “Visible to Students” is Most Important because

they are the foundation of SoTL work

Dissemination

SoTL Research

Teaching-Learning(Students)

In order to make learning “visible to students”

Learning must occur

Evidence of learning must be gathered

Evidence of learning must

be communicated

“Learning can’t occur if there aren’t learners” (Flinders, 2013)

Unless it is our priority to make learning “visible to students”

We may NOT fix what is broken in our

teaching

Students may NOT become “better” (deeper) learners

Students may NOT be able to communicate

their context to potential employers

People “out there” may go on believing

that higher education is “not worth it”

Finally, All the Cool Professors are Doing It…

• Meta-cognition is where it’s at• Brain-based learning matters• Cognitive approaches to learning

work• Student Voices should be heard

STUDENTS

Of these Visibilities which is the MOST IMPORTANT

Instructor

Students

Disciplin

e

Higher Ed

Beyond Higher Education SoTL

“Visible Beyond the Higher Education Community” is most Important

Visible Beyond Higher Education

Visible Beyond the Higher Education Community

College is not “worth it”

• Higher Education is expensive• Student debt is at an all time

high• Recent data from Census

Bureau & DOL found 54% of recent college grads unemployed

.

Visible Beyond the Higher Education Community

Academically Adrift• Authors followed 2300

undergraduates at 24 universities

• 45% of students did not demonstrate significant improvement in learning during the 1st two years of college

• 36% do not show improvement in 4 years

Visible Beyond Higher Education Community

• Standardized Tests– Use of standardized tests has increased

dramatically as a way to measure learning• Concern that that accountability is “squeezing

out creative and content rich learning”• Even when test scores rise that does not

always reflect in better or deeper learning.Krechevsky, Mara, Rivard, Melissa and Burton, Fredrick R.(2010) 'Accountability in Three Realms:Making Learning Visible Inside and Outside the Classroom', Theory Into Practice, 49: 1, 64 — 71

Visibility of SoTL Beyond the Higher Education Community” is most Important• Why – Because of the “bad rap” higher education is getting– Because the outside is controlling our funding– Because of accreditation pressures– Because people criticize what they don’t understand– Because standardized tests do not tell the whole

picture– Because SoTL can improve teaching and learning

Summary: Which visibility is in fact the most important?

Instructor

Students

Disciplin

e

Higher Ed

Beyond Higher Education

SoTL