Scientific Teaching
Our textbook, Scientific Teaching, is focused on the development of sound instructional materials. The philosophy behind the book is that the same rigor we employ in laboratory research is needed as we develop teaching materials. Here, we provide a few of the essential materials for scientific teaching included in the book and a brief overview of the topics covered during scientific teaching workshops.
Essential Materials for Scientific Teaching
Framework for Teachable Unit: A teachable unit is more than student instructions and lecture notes. It explains the rationale for the design of the unit and clarifies what students are supposed to be learning, how well they should understand it, and that the responsibility for learning is theirs.
Review Rubric for Teachable Units: This rubric that enables students to strive for various levels of quality as they complete their Teachable Units. Students will also use scoring rubrics to identify the quality of the instructional materials at two points within the course, mid-stream and at the end.
Definitions and Common Myths about Scientific Teaching: Here, we describe common myths about scientific teaching concepts, including the definitions of each term based on its use in the textbook.
Scientific Teaching Workshops
Scientific Teaching Workshops are intended to assist instructors as the attempt to affect broad-scale change by introducing others to the principles and practices of scientific teaching. Typically, workshops are interactive and include assessment - a format that mirrors the practices of scientific teaching.
The workshops can stand alone as independent events, such as a one-time seminar, or they can be integrated into a series of ongoing events, such as a "brown-bag" lunch series. This series of workshops can help participants build a wealth of knowledge, strategies, and innovations in teaching that can be used to work toward institutional transformation in science education. Because they are designed to build on the collective experience and knowledge of the participants, each cohort of workshop participants learns to address problems collectively and intellectually, rather than personally and individually. Consequently, it becomes the responsibility of the entire group to improve teaching.
Topics for Scientific Teaching Workshops include: Scientific Teaching, Active Learning, Assessment, Diversity, and Institutional Transformation.