Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches

About the Book

Gain a clear understanding of what effective teachers doand how successful students learn

Over the past 20 years, a greater concentration on research aimed at both teaching and learning has revealed that chalk and talk teaching, copying notes, and cookbook practical lessons offer little challenge to students. Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches steers the learning process away from traditional modes of instruction to a more student-centered, activity-based curriculum that makes science relevant, engaging, and interesting. This innovative book helps educators bring out the best in their studentsand themselvesby identifying and meeting students’ needs and providing environments that encourage active, strategic learning. Helpful tables and figures make complex information easy to access and understand.

Rather than focusing on teaching methods that merely deal in the content of life science, Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches promotes a deep learning designed to develop critical and skilled learners. This collection of frank and thoughtful empirically based papers places greater emphasis on learning environments and social interaction patterns, assessment processes, and perceptions of students and teachers in a range of learning and teaching settings in the life sciences. The book presents strategies for mentoring and assessing students, assessments of learning outcomes, innovative approaches to curriculum design, constructivist approaches to teaching science, how to use technology to support learning, and practical examples of learner-centered teaching that mark important steps on a journey to transform the learning process.

Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches examines:

• using broadband videoconferencing for distance learning in tertiary science
  
• assessing for learning in the crucial first year of university studies
  
• using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in molecular science
  
• applying ICT to provide student feedback
  
• teaching biostatistics in the environmental life sciences
  
• developing metacognition and problem-solving skills in students
  
• the evolution of metAHEAD, an online resource that supports strategy development and self-monitoring in problem solving
  
• the development of a problem-based learning approach (PBL) for students in environmental science and natural resource management
  
• and much more!

While largely centered on the context of undergraduate science instruction, Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches is filled with valuable lessons for all educators working with students in the pursuit of powerful, effective, and lasting learning.

Table of Contents:
About the Editors Contributors Foreword (Stephen Dinham) Introduction. Learner-Centered Approaches in the Sciences (Catherine McLoughlin and Acram Taji) Chapter 1. Student-Centered Ecology: Authentic Contexts and Sustainable Science (Susan Barker) Introduction Challenges in Teaching Ecology Experiential and Constructivist Approaches Learner-Centered Teaching Materials: Promoting Sustainability Fieldwork Teaching: Are Learner-Centered Approaches Possible? Learning Indicators Conclusion Chapter 2. The Use of ICT in Molecular Science Student-Centered Learning: A Developmental Approach (Philip L. R. Bonner) Introduction ICT and Student Learning CAL: A Learner-Centered Approach to Numeracy Problems Evolving Evaluation A Learner-Centered Approach to Laboratory Simulation Conclusion Chapter 3. The Undergraduate Life Sciences Laboratory: Student Expectations, Approaches to Learning, and Implications for Teaching (Janet Gorst and Susan Lee) Introduction A Review of the Literature A Laboratory Study Conclusion Chapter 4. Developing the Metacognitive and Problem-Solving Skills of Science Students in Higher Education (Rowan W. Hollingworth and Catherine McLoughlin) Introduction Linking Problem-Solving and Metacognitive Skills Teaching Problem Solving The Need for Ill-Defined Problem Types Design of Technology-Supported Metacognitive Training METAHEAD: An Online Tutorial to Support Metacognitive Conclusion Chapter 5. The Use of Distributed Problem-Based Learning and Threaded Discourse (Lisa Lobry de