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Scientific Teaching Resources and Survey Data on Writing Assignment

Thank you to everyone who attended my seminar “Scientific Teaching: Gathering data in and out of the classroom” on 5/17. I really enjoyed the discussion and comments that came up — please feel free to contact me directly if you want to discuss any aspect of teaching or gathering data on teaching practices.

To access the slides from my talk, go here.

The user friendly teaching resources I mentioned in my talk are below:

  • Santa Clara University “Digital Resources for Teaching” or “DRT” can be found here
  • University of Central Florida “Teaching and Learning Resources” can be found here, and the instructional strategies page is especially helpful where you can select the size of your class. For people that love lists (and I do), they compiled nearly 200 ideas and succinctly present a list of techniques.

I shared most of the data collected about my writing assignments in BIS102 during my talk, but both complete surveys are listed below. To see the results of each question, click on the question. The sample sizes are as follows: Quarter 1 with writing  n=88, Quarter 2 with writing  n=87, No writing class n=145. All the bar graphs and pie charts show the data as percentages.

Survey after writing assignment:

Q1 I appreciated the opportunity to write in an upper division course.

Q2 The amount of effort I put into the writing of the assignment was

Q3 The amount of effort I put into the reviewing of writing assignment was

Q4 The writing assignment allowed me to practice and/or improved my writing skills.

Q5 The writing assignment allowed me to practice and/or improve my reading skills.

Q6 Reading papers used my skills of problem detection, problem diagnosis, and suggesting solutions.

Q7 I would have preferred to be graded by the TA.

Q8 I gave low back evaluation scores if I didn’t agree with the reviewer.

Q9 I gave back evaluation scores based on the amount of effort the reviewer put into his/her comments.

Q10 I would have liked to be able to submit a second draft of my 350 word assignment after receiving peer evaluation.

Q11 I understood the way my grade was calculated.

Q12 I enjoyed reading other people’s writing/ seeing what topics they wrote about.

Q13 I would have liked to have received more instruction on how to do reviews.

Q14 I would have liked to have received more instruction on how to back evaluate.

Q15 The assignment length was

Q16 I read the rubric before I wrote my assignment.

Q17 The writing prompt was too vague.

Q18 I enjoyed being able to pick a topic to write about.

Q19 I would rather have had four reviewers/ done four reviews.

Q20 I had a hard time selecting the levels (1,3,5,7) in the review process.

Q21 I was satisfied with the peer review process.

Q22 Please add any comments here that you would like to share: note: this question was mistakenly not included in Q1 so comments are all from Q2

 

No writing assignment class survey:

Q1 I would appreciate the opportunity to write in an upper division course.

Q2 I would like to have two short (~350 words each) writing assignments that are (in total) worth 10% of my grade.

Q3 I would be okay with a writing assignment that involves getting part of your grade from your peers.

Q4 I would prefer a writing assignment that was graded by a TA.

Q5 I would like an assignment that allowed me to practice and/or improved my writing skills.

Q6 I would like an assignment that allowed me to practice and/or improve my reading skills.

Q7 I would like an assignment that used my skills of problem detection, problem diagnosis, and suggesting solutions.

Q8 I have had a written assignment in other upper division science courses.

Q9 I have had a written assignment in lower division science courses.

Q10 I would enjoy reading short (~350 word) essays from my classmates about BIS102-related topics of interest.

Q11 For a written assignment, I would enjoy being able to pick a topic that interests me within biochemistry to write about.

Q12 Please add any comments here that you would like to share about this topic and/or survey:

Written by Mona Monfared, LPSOE (MCB Dept.)

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