Reflections on Teaching EnEd 550

These are my comments and reflections after my first time of teaching EnEd 550 Research Materials and Methods for Environmental Education.

Lisa Zinn

Reflections on Teaching


Curriculum Development:
Given the nature of this class, curriculum development might have been the most difficult part of this teaching experience. The course was unique so I was not able to follow any sort of curriculum template or even a textbook for curriculum design or ideas. Several weeks before the class started, I was able to gain some focus by emphasizing the practical aspects of the course and focusing on helping the students learn how to use research tools for educational purposes. I decided to spend each week focusing on a different area of natural history and explore with students how scientists would gather data from these natural systems. I explained that we would not do prescribed labs but rather I would open the “tool box” and show them how to use all the tools. From there I would ask them to develop a lesson plan making use of those tools and data collection methods. I was hoping this would stimulate a higher level of cognitive thinking for the students by asking them to create a new work.
Although, this helped bring focus to the class, I still needed to meet other objectives as well. I needed to do an overview of basic statistics and make them familiar with simple analysis tools. I made a decision to use Excel instead of SPSS or another statistical software program. This taught them what types of statistical analysis that Excel is capable of and also, it is a program that teachers and environmental educators would have access to.
I think both the above decisions helped in the delivery of the class because they allowed me to teach out of my strengths. I am not a statistician but I have worked quite a lot with Excel. Since I have worked in environmental education for 14 years I can offer meaningful critiques on research curriculum design.
Despite this focus, I still had another remaining goal and I found it quite difficult to interweave this into the class. I needed to introduce them to educational research and give them tools that they would use to evaluate educational programs. This is not an area of strength for me and it seemed to be a completely different area of study than the rest of the class. This was one of the areas of weakness in the class design.

Textbook Selection:
I found selecting textbooks to be a very difficult task. Again, because of the uniqueness of this class there was no one textbook that would even come close to the material that I wanted to cover. I settled on a very practical guide to ecological research methods that I hoped would be a good reference piece for the students in the future. I also had them purchase a very simple statistics book that gave tips for using Excel. I decided to not make them purchase the educational research textbook and instead bought several copies for the library for them to share for the few chapters I would use. I am not at all sure that these texts were very useful at all to the students. I provided a lot of additional references in the form of handouts, etc. and it might have been better if I have just put them in the reader. I did give them a collection of articles in the form of the reader that we used for discussion. These articles worked very well as a jumping off point for discussions of good research methods.



Evaluation Methods:
I decided that, given the nature of the class, I would not use tests but rather a series of projects and assignments. This seemed to work fairly well, as it would have been very difficult to design a test for this subject matter. Students were evaluated through their curriculum assignments, a series of data analysis assignments, and leading discussion, and a final research paper. I also gave them a class participation grade. I explained to them at the beginning of the class that this was a way for me to give them credit for the reading and preparation that I expected them to do outside of class. They needed to be prepared for discussions and a class participation grade allowed me to give them credit for that. They also had a large, course-long project. I evaluated this in two parts so that I could ensure that they were moving along on the project in a timely manner. They were also required to present their project in a formal presentation at the end of the course. I am pleased with these evaluation methods and I think it allowed me to give meaningful feedback to them and to evaluate their progress through the course. I think that these assessment methods did allow me to assess weather or not the students were meeting the stated objectives of the course. I did have them also present one of their curriculum activities to the class and I should have also given a grade for this, but I had not put it in the syllabus so I didn’t count it as a grade.

Discussions:
I think this was a very successful element of the class. Over the course of the term the students read a series of articles that we discussed in class. They were articles ranging from ecological sciences to educational research. They often used statistical methods that we were learning in class and provided excellent examples of research designs. The students each led one of these discussions. One of these papers was too difficult for them to get a clear grasp of the material; otherwise, I was pleased with the paper selections and the resulting discussions. This was one area where I successfully combined ecological and educational research in a way that seemed to make sense. It also was a way to help the students learn material without having to present it in lecture format. It was a much for interactive method of learning and it also encouraged student in learning to analyze and critique a published work.

Curriculum Design Assignments:
I think the idea behind the curriculum design was very good but I was a bit disappointed in the curriculum that the students developed. I think it would have helped to spend a bit more time talking about what makes a good curriculum and how research could fit into that. I also think that I might have given a bit too much freedom for these assignments. Perhaps they would have done better if I had dictated the age group and even the research elements for each assignment. This year spend the first few classes on teaching science through inquiry and work on how to write curriculum using the inquiry process. I hope this will enable them to develop lesson plans that use the inquiry process to teach students.

Data Analysis:
I was quite pleased with the lectures and the assignments I developed for them to practice these methods. I tried to select real-life data sets that would provide interesting and meaningful results. The students seem particular pleased with using the bird banding data from right at Merry Lea, since they had participated in that research. It might be good to try and use other Merry Lea datasets when possible.

There were a few technical difficulties that arose. A few of these could have been avoided if I had double-checked the analysis on the classroom computer prior to class time. It is probably better to make sure to do this in the future.

I think I could have used a few more of these assignments throughout the class. They proved quite affective but there were several types of data analysis that we didn’t get to in class.

I was pleased with my choice to use Excel instead of a statistics package. This required learning how to use Excel better myself but I think the students understood the versatility of this spreadsheet software and how it would lend itself for use with k-12 grade students. I was a bit unprepared for the fact that some of the students had never used Excel before. This meant I had to shift gears and provide more detailed instructions for demonstrations and assignments.

Final Project:
I was quite pleased that the students selected a research project that would provide helpful data to Merry Lea concerning the health of their wetlands. I thought the project had mixed results. It did provide them good experience in the process of designing a study, writing a proposal, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting the results. It also gave them good insight into many of the difficulties that arise with a real research experience. On the other hand, I was disappointed in how little they really seemed to grasp the overall problem they were investigating. Perhaps I need to give them written descriptions of the problem instead of simply verbal explanations. Having them work in groups seemed to work well but I need to find a way to insure that they all participate in all aspects of the project. For example, it seemed that one individual did the data analysis and the other students didn’t learn through that process. I want to encourage them to work collaboratively but I also want to ensure that doing the project helps each students reach the learning objectives for working on the project. Perhaps It would be helpful to talk to the students about the learning objectives for the project. I think at times that they think the end product is the objective, not the learning that takes place while they are in the process of creating the end product. If they better understood this they might be more willing to make sure they all helped with all aspects of the project.

I also should have given a grade for the final presentation part of the project. I only listed one grade for the final paper and presentation together. However, these two are very different and really require two separate grades.

Overall, I think perhaps I should have used a more step by step process for the final project. Perhaps it should be split up into multiple assignments throughout the course of the class.

Teaching Effectiveness:
I thought the design of the curriculum did allow students with different learning styles the opportunity to work within their strengths for at least some of the projects. They were able to use their creativity as well as problem solving skills in this class. In the future I think I might structure their projects a little more carefully to ensure that they are incorporating research concepts into their work. Probably my biggest failing in this class was my preparedness. I should have put even more time into class prep for each day to ensure I was ready for any eventuality. I think I successfully addressed my stated objectives for the class and I think the students gained confidence in researching. I think they also see how research can be used as an educational tool in environmental education.