From Student to Researcher (in one Term!) Post 15: From Queazy to Breezy!
Integrating new teaching approaches requires extra effort at the beginning. Additionally, you are trying something new and it may make you feel a bit queazy at the start.
By Harold Bull, Dawn Giesbrecht, and Sheryl Mills(This blog series is authored by USask denizens Harold Bull, Dawn Giesbrecht and Sheryl Mills) Harold is Assistant Professor Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology. Dawn is Laboratory Instructor Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology. Sheryl is Associate Director, Academic Programs & Interprofessional Education)
Integrating new teaching approaches requires extra effort at the beginning. Additionally, you are trying something new and it may make you feel a bit queazy at the start. Remember that you are letting go of your ‘precious instructional nugget’[1]. You now have one hand free and that can feel less stable until you gain a firm grasp on this new approach. “Failure” and feeling uncomfortable[2] are both natural and expected parts of learning and these can be reframed as ‘surprising new information’ and opportunities for growth that clarify and inform next steps.
And hang in there! After the first iteration (or even less!), it will be easy-breezy! 😎
We invite you to use the following checklist to incorporate CURE elements into your course and begin your own journey of leading students to researchers in 13 weeks – or to CURE-all. As we promised!
Table 1 Rubric for Incorporating CURE Elements into Your Course
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CURE Elements to Incorporate into ANY Course |
I am currently already doing this 😊 |
Where I can add this 🤔 (or “I can’t possibly DO this because”[3]…) |
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Pre-Day 1 |
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Be very clear on what successful completion of this course looks like |
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Attitudes |
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Skills |
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Knowledge |
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Add CHOICE into your existing course outline. |
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Find at least one aspect of your course where you are willing to be surprised by what the learners contribute.[4] |
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Review course syllabus to find opportunities to include authentic assessment strategies.[5] |
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Day 1 |
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Make the deliverables clear. |
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Encourage collegiality and discovery. |
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Outline roles and responsibilities of both instructors and learners. |
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Be up front about both the individual and team responsibilities for the course. |
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Do Research Skills Development 7 (RSD7) Framework[6] self-assessment by learners. |
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During |
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Have learners pitch authentic assessment formats.[7] |
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Use teams or groups (of 2 to 5 learners).[8] |
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Learners develop their own ‘experiment’ or investigation or research project.[9] |
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Increase learner RESPONSIBILITY[10] opportunities |
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o Divvy up topic areas and have learner teams teach one another. |
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o Set up peer-review processes within the course. |
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o Have learners contribute assessment questions, activities, formats, etc. |
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INDEPENDENCE—without abandonment |
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o Support independent work with regular scheduled check-ins to reassure learners they are ‘on track’. |
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o Use activity logs.[11] |
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o Have learners develop a project management plan[12] for the course. |
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Do RSD7 Framework self-assessment by learners. |
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Wrap-up |
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Learners share their work with a wider audience—beyond the course. |
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Do RSD7 Framework self-assessment by learners. |
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Course retrospective with learners. |
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Post-Party ‘Clean-up’ |
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Course retrospective with instructor team. |
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Read the glowing comments from learners |
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Refine the plan for next year |
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Write Blog Post Series on Success and Challenges…. and fade to black – thanks for sticking with us! |
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Find ALL BLOG POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE. Find the PREVIOUS POST HERE. See the NEXT POST HERE.
Podcast series:
All about CURE:
The MightyChondria Team:
[1] See Episode 13.
[2] For both learners AND instructors.
[3] Hey snowflake ❄ – YES YOU CAN! 😉
[4] This could include anything in the ‘current events’ category, topics related to the course but not covered in your syllabus specifically, contribute an article for the reference list, share a blog post or relevant YouTube video
[5] See example from Indiana University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
[6] https://www.adelaide.edu.au/melt/ua/media/771/rsd7_15april2018.pdf
[7] Anything that goes beyond you, the instructor, for sole purposes of providing a grade, and involves ‘real world’ interactions and feedback. Examples may include but not limited to, posters, wiki page, web page, brochure, annotated bibliography, community presentation, solo performance, facilitating a seminar session, organizing or presenting at a conference, an academic article, a blog post (… or series…🙄), conduct regular research meetings, write a grant application.
[8] Team interactions do not have to be all-consuming. A simple five minute task as a team is sufficient to allow learner interaction and engagement and practice team skills see previous episodes!
[9] This can be as small as allowing learners the opportunity to design one step of a project or assignment.
[10] Do what you can to ensure that the balance of power is somewhat equalized. At the end of the thirteen weeks as instructors we still assign the final grade. Up until then however, we can loosen the reigns/reins, offering learners freedom and choice to explore and to create.
[11] You could set up a course as a ‘self-study’, self-guided research project, or work book, with self-reporting on progress i.e. a discussion board, a lab notebook etc. Note when integrated into a team project this practice increasing accountability tremendously. Progress can be monitored by simply checking the logs.
[12] We typically don’t ask our learners to create a project management plan for all their courses, however having an overall scoping of a term can help learners better manage their time and can provide insight to us as instructors about potential bottle necks. The iterative process of examining the steps involved in meeting course deliverables also lends itself to excellent reflective practices.