This video is the second in a series on how you can keep current with journal articles, blog posts, and other digital resources in your academic field through the use of a number of free and easy technology tools. In the first video, I demonstrated how to subscribe to RSS or syndication feeds from journals and Web sites that are important in your field using a free service called Feedly. In this video, I walk you through: 

• how I process those feeds in an IOS app called Reeder, 
• send those that I'd like to read more carefully to Instapaper, 
• and then finally send those that I want to archive or work with further to Evernote. 

How do you use tools and strategies to stay current in your discipline? What questions do you have? 
Please post your comments or questions below.

"Self-assessment is essential for progress as a learner: for understanding of selves as learners, for an increasingly complex understanding of tasks and learning goals, and for strategic knowledge of how to go about improving."
- D.R. Sadler

An instructor's assessment of student learning is an important measure that requires expert judgment. Much can also be learned when students assess their own work and that of their peers, whether this assessment factors into grades or not. In many cases, students see things in their own or their peer's work that they can correct before passing it along to the instructor. They may also be able to communicate suggestions and critiques in a way that is less threatening and approachable than that of an instructor. If effectively structured and supported, peer and self-assessment can provide powerful learning opportunities for our students.

Key features of the strategy
In addition to providing opportunities for students to be more reflective and aware of their own learning, when we employ peer- and self-assessment strategies in our cases, we can increase student responsibility, autonomy and ownership for the learning. These kinds of activities also encourage critical reflection, a better understanding of their own judgment, and help them to develop self-regulation skills. These benefits, however, can only be realized when instructors prepare the students effectively to engage in them.

For either peer or self-assessment to be honest, reflective and effective, the instructor must establish a classroom climate in which they feel free and supported to evaluate their work. One way this can be achieved is when these assessments do not always factor into a student's grade. They also must be taught to develop the necessary skills and "look for's" to productively assess their own or a classmate's work. It can be helpful to model your own thinking on an example piece of work and also provide a checklist of specific elements or attributes that students can use in forming their feedback. Finally, the use of performance rubrics can be a helpful way to both prompt substantive feedback related to key features of the assignment and create consistency in the type of feedback desired. The following examples illustrate one or more of these key features in teaching practice.

Examples and Variations
Critical Friends
Drs. Debbi Leialoha, Shelly Leialoha, and Sherry Leialoha-Waipa share an approach to peer-assessment called critical friends.  In this approach, students submit weekly assignments to their small group (3-4 students) prior to submitting to the instructor. Students are provided with a rubric that encourages them to offer suggestions for revision and improvement, to better align the work with the assignment criteria (including the provided writing guidelines), and to approach the task in a respectful way that honors divergent viewpoints. They then submit the work to their instructor for additional feedback. Finally, they have the opportunity to revise the work based on both sets of feedback, tracking their progress through the development of a personal portfolio. The grade is derived from an equal weighting of participation in the feedback process and the quality of the final work submitted in the portfolio.

Peer-Assessment in Small Groups
Baker (2008) explores three different commonly used methods of peer-assessment of student performance in group work. She notes that the different methods can be used for development, evaluation or a combination of the two. Instructors can also use a point allocation approach in which she asks students to assign a given number of points to each group member based on their overall contribution to the group. A peer comparison approach challenges students to compare each group member based on different dimensions of the group work. Finally, instructors can ask students to develop project diaries in which they assess group members' contributions at various stages in the group project. Baker concludes the article with a detailed discussion of when these different approaches are most effective for both development and evaluation.

Developing Self-Assessment Skills
Dr. Maryellen Weimer relays an example of a student self-assessment example designed to help them set and then review goals they have for their learning. The first stage of this assignment occurs at the beginning of the course. Students are challenged to prepare a 750 word paper on their personal goals for the course, providing specific and detailed explanation. At the conclusion of the course, students are asked to review and analyze how well they met their goals. In the process, students assign themselves an overall grade based on their performance in the course. This grade constitutes one-third of the possible points for the assignment. Weimer suggests that one key benefit of this approach is that it encourages students to think about the relevance and importance of the course at the beginning of the semester. And, knowing that they would evaluate their progress at the end of the semester, they may regulate their learning accordingly.

Connections to 21st Century Skills and Technologies
Like reflection, peer and self-assessment can support the development of two key 21st century skills: knowledge construction and self-regulation. By engaging in self-assessment or in receiving feedback from their peers, students can deepen their understanding of the course content. In many cases, students may be more receptive to feedback from their peers, increasing the likelihood that they will internalize the critiques more fully. In the process of assessing their own work, students can gain insight on their own learning process and quality of work. This can help them improve their performance and work in the future.

Technology tools can assist with peer and self-assessment in a variety of ways. First, many learning management systems (e.g., BlackBoard) provide for the creation of assignment rubrics and opportunities to provide feedback in a variety of forms. Similarly, the editing and revision features in Microsoft Word and other word processing applications enable students to provide feedback and suggestions for revisions in a document. Finally, simple Web surveys can provide an easy way to capture and collate student self-assessment or peer ratings for further analysis.

What strategies do you use to help students be more reflective in your courses?
Please post your comments below.   

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
- Confucius

Reflection is a powerful approach to learning in higher education. They benefit most from field work, service learning, role play and simulation, and even problem based learning when they reflect on the experience in a meaningful way. Similarly, if we can assist students in thinking about their thinking, or metacognition, they not only learn the material more deeply, they also increase their ability to apply their learning in new situations and even become more efficient and effective in their approaches to learning. As teachers, however, we must design deliberate and purposeful ways for our students to reflect on their learning – it may not happen naturally.

Key features of the strategy
The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University offers a very substantive and helpful overview of reflection and metacognition. Here they outline a range of different strategies that support students in the process, including:

• pre-assessments (which could be effectively bookended with José Bowen’s approach to  cognitive wrappers)
  
• prompts at the end of class that encourage students to identify the most challenging or “muddiest” point
• reflective journals with prompts that encourage students to think about their learning process

In addition to these specific strategies, they also note the importance of establishing a classroom culture that encourages metacognition through reflective activities that are credited and consistent modeling of expert thinking by the instructor. The overarching idea is that encouraging students to reflect should be planned, deliberate, and rewarded, as the following examples illustrate.

Examples and Variations
The Louisiana State Center for Academic Success offers some excellent resources for students to build skills for metacognition. They offer opportunities for students to better understand their learning style through a strength inventory, learn to manage time and reduce stress, and better prepare for exams. Within the section on preparing for exams, they have devised an interesting study cycle process and accompanying video. In addition, they offer a number of resources for concept mapping, which could be very helpful for comparing and contrasting concepts.

Dr. Tamara Rosier offers a substantive, but practical approach to reflection that she calls Knowledge Ratings. She argues that, “Knowledge Ratings are quite effective because they evoke a sort of metacognitive dissonance – creating a lack of harmony in one’s mind. Students will work to restore continuity or harmony in their thoughts.” In this strategy, students are challenged to assess what they do and do not know relative to a course topic. Not only does this information prove very helpful for the instructor in tailoring learning experiences, it also helps students to continually assess and identify gaps in their knowledge, thus helping them strengthen their weak points.

Ed Nuhfer, Retired Professor of Geology and Director of Faculty Development and Director of Educational Assessment, shares many different approaches to helping students develop their metacognitive skills. One of my favorites was his post on Developing Metacognitive Literacy through Role Play: Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. In this series of activities, each students takes on one of six roles (practical, positive outlook, cautious/negative, emotional, provocative, summarizer) as they work through a team-based challenge, discussion or other activity. This is a very deliberate and conscious approach to monitoring and regulating thinking. And as Dr. Nuhfer notes, “We can become aware of metacognition by reading about it, but we only become literate about metacognition through experiences gained through consciously applying it.” 

Connections to 21st Century Skills and Technologies
Reflection can support the development of two key 21st century skills – self-regulation and knowledge construction. Reflection is a key way to help students develop self-regulation skills. These skills help them to monitor and regulate their own approach to learning and to process their notes or other class work. Less obviously, perhaps, as students deliberately and substantively reflect on their learning, they are building their knowledge relative to the concepts and ideas presented in class or through texts and other materials.

While technology is not critical to student reflection and metacognition, it can help them to document and clarify their thinking. A simple journaling application (e.g., Day One), word processor or blog can help them to articulate and archive their ongoing thought process.  The advantage to using digital tools for this purpose is they can be quickly searched and organized/reorganized by the student. In terms of studying and preparing for exams, simple strategies and tools can help students avoid cognitive overload by taking intermittent and regular breaks. A favorite of mine is to use a simple app to implement the Pomodoro technique in which you alternate brief blocks of time between uninterrupted focus and rest. While an app isn’t essential to the technique, it does help to automate the process efficiently.

What strategies do you use to help students be more reflective in your courses?
Please post your comments below.   

In this episode, I was joined by colleague and friend, David Slykhuis. David is an Associate Professor of Science Education at James Madison University. He is the Director of the Content Teaching Academy, Co-Director of the JMU Center for STEM Education and Outreach, and President of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. In the show we discuss the rationale for incorporating inquiry-based learning experiences in our teaching, different levels of inquiry, and how you can get started.

Show Notes:

• 5E Model of Inquiry
• TPACK framework
• Higher Education Learning Activity #14: Conduct Inquiry/Research
• Luminaris Podcast E06: Design Thinking
• 7 Steps to Teaching with Inquiry
• NSTA Web site
• David on Twitter
• Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education

What opportunities and challenges do you see in incorporating inquiry in your teaching?
Please add your comments below.

One way to promote deeper learning of course concepts is to help students identify and then compare and contrast their key aspects. It is in this process of questioning, pushing against preconceived ideas, and considering different examples and non-examples that students come to really understand the nuances of course concepts. These experiences also challenge students to connect ideas from different texts or even different courses.

Key features of the strategy
On the surface, this activity might seem simple. However, it actually requires a higher level thinking, and consequently, scaffolding on the part of the instructor to help students to be successful. When we ask students to compare and contrast two concepts, they must first be able to identify the salient features of each individually. Depending on the complexity of the concept, this may require some prompts or scaffolds for them to consider. For example, if students are to compare and contrast the contributions of two political leaders, you may wish to narrow the focus to some key features. It can also be helpful to either provide or encourage students to develop a chart, table or Venn diagram to assist them in their analysis. The examples below provide strategies and resources that you may find helpful.

Examples and Variations
Unpacking Compare/Contrast Essays
A common paper that many faculty assign is the classic compare/contrast essay. The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers a robust resource for students writing compare/contrast essays. It helps students not only with practical suggestions for formatting and structuring their essays, but also with strategies to help them determine what to focus on, develop a thesis, and implement one of two organizational schemes. In addition to helping students, this resource can also be valuable for faculty in devising these kinds of experiences for their students.

Concept Formation
Walter Parker from the University of Washington has developed an approach called concept formation that provides a systematic framework to help students construct their own understanding of a concept. To prepare for a concept formation activity, the faculty member must first clearly define and identify the critical characteristics of the concept. They then assemble a collection of examples that have all of the critical characteristics of the concept as well as a collection of non-examples – those that have some, but not all key features. Finally, the faculty member should then create a data organization chart that guides student work. From the student perspective, they work through an interactive process of “uncovering” the definition and characteristics of the concept through an analysis of the examples and non-examples. This inductive approach is an engaging and sophisticated approach to understanding a concept.

Developing a Classification Scheme
An advanced form of a compare/contrast activity is offered by the University of Waikato in New Zealand that challenges students to develop their own classification scheme for a collection of organisms. In the suggested process, students are challenged to develop their own classification scheme in whatever way makes sense to them. They must, however, name each category, identify the criteria that they used to create their scheme, and defend their process to the class. This process could be modified to work in different disciplines and would help students to develop the critical thinking skills to analyze key features and characteristics.

Connections to 21st Century Skills and Technologies
When students engage in compare/contrast activities, they develop critical 21st century learning skills in the construction of knowledge. By focusing on critical features and characteristics of course concepts, they develop analytical skills and a deeper engagement with the content that is characteristic of knowledge construction activities. Both collaboration and skilled communication skills can be integrated with these activities as well.

Mind maps are graphic representations of how ideas or concepts connect or relate. I addressed this topic briefly in an earlier post on student note taking. One powerful mind mapping tool is Mindmeister. With Mindmeister, students can develop a range of visual representations of concepts that can illustrate connections, differences, and key features of course concepts. These representations can be developed and expanded over time and in collaborative fashion. Also, simple charts and tables developed using word processing applications can also be helpful for organizing ideas in a more linear format.

How do you structure compare/contrast experiences in your courses?
Please post your comments below.