Upper level students at UBC decreased in their confidence with timescales of landscape formation at the end of the term, as measured by the Student Attitudes about Earth Science Survey (SAESS). In order to further investigate this result, the Landscape Identification and Formation Test (LIFT) has been developed. Students view images of various landscapes, identify them, answer a multiple choice question on the time it took to form, and rate their confidence in their answers. The understanding of deep time and interpretation of landscapes is vital to the skill set of the geologist. Both the attitudes and confidence of students greatly impact the learning process, and the results of the LIFT can be used to understand it in greater detail.
Undergraduate Thesis (April 2010): Identifying Landscapes and their Formation Timescales: Comparing Knowledge and Confidence of Beginner and Advanced Geoscience Undergraduate Students - Alison Jolley
Poster (August 2009): Landscape Identification and Formation: The Development of a Test to Measure Student Knowledge and Confidence - Alison Jolley (Undergraduate Honours Thesis)We developed a survey to gauge the students' attitudes and beliefs about learning earth & ocean sciences. It is administered in both majors- and non-majors courses early in the term (pre-) and late in the term (post-) to measure the effects of courses on student attitudes. It has been used in >25 courses both at UBC and other institutions. More than 8000 students have participated since the survey began.
Poster (April 2009): Student Attitudes in Earth Science Survey - Erin LaneWe developed an objective, quantitative classroom observation protocol to measure student engagement in a large first year Oceanography course. Observation data show that student engagement is strongly correlates to teaching practices and is higher when instructors employ active learning techniques. Observations of three instructors with different teaching expertise showed similar trends in engagement. The classroom observation data help identify best teaching practices and provide continual feedback to instructors.
Poster (April 2009): How does student engagement change with instructional technique? - Erin LaneHaving a firm grasp of geological time is essential to developing a full understanding of the Earth. The proposed 20 question, mainly multiple-choice, assessment mechanism is designed to probe the understanding of geological time amongst beginner (entry-level college) and advanced (graduating) students in a major's geology program. From validation interviews students displayed gaps in their understanding of geoscience terminology and a lack of technical vocabulary when reasoning questions out-loud. The implementation of this assessment should aid in development of the geology curriculum within the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at UBC by giving instructors a snapshot of student understanding of geological time.
Poster (April 2009): Understanding Geological Time: A Proposed Assessment Mechanism for Beginner and Advanced Geology Students at UBC - Jamil RhajiakUndergraduate Honours Thesis - Jamil RhajiakCritical Incidence Questionnaires (CIQs) have been used for a couple of years, but in spite of literature promoting their use, we are not sure if they help students make measurable gains in metacognitive abilities. We are not even sure how to measure increases in metacognition. This project is an exploration of both those questions in the context of our Environmental Sciences course ENVR 200. In this course, CIQs are answered weekly by all students, and contain a few questions like: What about the class this week surprised you the most?
Seminar (Oct 2008): Keeping the feedback loop active: Critical incidents for learning - Sara Harris & Douw SteynPoster (Nov 2008): Improving Metacognitive Skills of 2nd year Environmental Science Students: What to Measure? at the workshop on the Role of Metacognition in Teaching Geoscience at Carleton College - Francis Jones, Sara Harris, and Douw SteynEffects of multiple instructors in single courses; using pair programming in EOSC 211; pre-post test results from various courses; impacts of group exams; effects of instructor interventions on low-performing students; developing field expertise; developing scientific thinking skills; student workloads and comparative workloads; changes in student evaluations.
