Strategies for Teaching Evolution in a High-Enrollment Introductory Paleontology Course for Non-Science Majors

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 77-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia H. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Science Majors ◽  
Student Attendance ◽  
Teaching Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Teaching Evaluations ◽  
The University

The high-enrollment introductory paleontology course, “Prehistoric Life,” taught at the University of North Carolina Wilmington fulfills general-education life-science credit. Most students enter the course with little knowledge of evolution (90% are non-science majors). Some assume evolution and religion are incompatible, and as non-science students, they have little incentive to learn about topics perceived to threaten their faith. Nevertheless, such students need to be prepared to make informed decisions on public-policy issues related to teaching evolution. Five principal strategies have been effective in teaching evolution to such students: 1) creating a student-centered classroom in which active/ collaborative learning engages student interest and prevents them from tuning out a threatening topic; 2) building a foundation for evolution by fostering understanding of the fossil record and geologic time; 3) in discussing evolution, focusing not only on the evidence for and mechanisms of evolution, but also clarifying the nature of science and differentiating it from religion, reinforcing that science and religion need not conflict; 4) giving students the opportunity to respond in writing to one of the position statements on evolution available from professional societies; this approach helps students formulate their own views, reassures them that their religious beliefs are respected, and fends off potential hostility during class; and 5) cultivating evolutionary thinking throughout the course (e.g., discuss evidence for evolutionary transitions and role of natural selection in evolution of various groups). These strategies have been successful in fostering student learning about evolution as indicated by teaching evaluations, student attendance, and comments in student reflection papers on evolution.

Making Noise in the Library

2013 ◽  
pp. 290-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Schendel ◽  
Julie Garrison ◽  
Patrick Johnson ◽  
Lee Van Orsdel
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Speech Communication ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Student Centered Learning ◽  
Collaborative Programming ◽  
Communication Center ◽  
Methods Of Learning ◽  
The University ◽  
Knowledge Market

In this case study, the authors describe the library’s physical and programmatic designs, focusing in particular on the Knowledge Market as the heart of student-centered learning in this new environment. They tie the library’s design and Knowledge Market programming to the Association of American Colleges and University’s (AAC&U) Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Goals, which form the basis of Grand Valley State University’s general education program. By describing the Knowledge Market’s space and the collaborative programming offered within it by the University Libraries, Writing Center, Speech Communication Center, and other student support services, they will show how the Knowledge Market disrupts the traditional notion of the library and traditional methods of learning.

scholarly journals Making It Work: Developing a Student-Centered Assessment Model for a Large-Scale Information Literacy Program

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Gammons ◽  
Lindsay Inge Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Freshman Composition ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
University Of Maryland ◽  
Composition Instruction ◽  
General Education Courses ◽  
The University

Information literacy instruction presents a difficult balance between quantity and quality, particularly for large-scale general education courses. This paper discusses the overhaul of the freshman composition instruction program at the University of Maryland Libraries, focusing on the transition from survey assessments to a student-centered and mixedmethods approach using qualitative reflections, rubrics, and the evaluation of student artifacts.

Academia's Golden Age

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Freeland
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
General Education ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
World War ◽  
Boston College ◽  
Boston University ◽  
Close Study ◽  
University Of Massachusetts ◽  
National Trends ◽  
The University

This book examines the evolution of American universities during the years following World War II. Emphasizing the importance of change at the campus level, the book combines a general consideration of national trends with a close study of eight diverse universities in Massachusetts. The eight are Harvard, M.I.T., Tufts, Brandeis, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern and the University of Massachusetts. Broad analytic chapters examine major developments like expansion, the rise of graduate education and research, the professionalization of the faculty, and the decline of general education. These chapters also review criticisms of academia that arose in the late 1960s and the fate of various reform proposals during the 1970s. Additional chapters focus on the eight campuses to illustrate the forces that drove different kinds of institutions--research universities, college-centered universities, urban private universities and public universities--in responding to the circumstances of the postwar years.

Teaching About Terrorism

1985 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 4-5
Author(s):  
Michael Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Science Majors

During the fall 1983 semester, I experimented with a terrorism simulation that seemed to engage student interest and heighten their awareness about the nature of terrorism.I used the simulation in Political Science 221 — Introduction to International Relations. There were two sections of this course, which met three hours weekly for approximately 15 weeks. About half the students were political science majors; most were freshmen and sophomores. For purposes of conducting the simulation, however, it makes little difference what year students are in or what majors they follow. With the exception of a two-week unit on terrorism, the course devoted about one week to each of the standard topics normally studied by students in international relations.

Creative collaboration: student creative works in the institutional repository

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Rose Sliger Krause ◽  
Andrea Langhurst Eickholt ◽  
Justin L. Otto
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Institutional Repository ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Music Department ◽  
Eastern Washington ◽  
The University

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the music performance collection preserved in Eastern Washington University’s institutional repository (IR). This collection of recordings of student music performances is the result of an ongoing collaboration between the university?s library and music department, which serves to provide discoverability, preservation and access to a collection of student creative works, which had heretofore been a hidden collection. Design/methodology/approach This collection of student creative work was identified as a suitable project for the Eastern Washington University’s IR while it was still in the planning stages because it was identified as an existing need that the new IR could address. Much of the groundwork for the collaboration between the library and music department was completed prior to IR implementation. Thus, the library was ready to begin work on this collection once the IR was operational. Findings The student music performance collection has been a successful project for the IR, which benefits the music department by making student performances discoverable and accessible, and benefits the library by providing the opportunity to demonstrate that the then-new IR could support the university’s student-centered focus on teaching and learning. Originality/value While there is a growing body of literature on IRs emphasizing student work, there is little literature on music or other creative works’ collections in IRs, much less on creative works by students. This paper adds to the limited body of literature on student creative works in the IR by describing the development, implementation and lessons learned from the successful music performances collection.

scholarly journals Training pre-service general educators in assistive technology competencies for students with visual impairments

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Ashby Jones ◽  
Belinda Rudinger ◽  
Nichole Williams ◽  
Stephanie Witcher
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Visual Impairments ◽  
General Education Teachers ◽  
General Educators ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Teacher knowledge of, and comfort with, assistive technology (AT) is key for student use of AT. Previous research identified the AT competencies needed for instructing students with visual impairments (VI) and level of competency required in each. The authors selected 20 of the competencies most appropriate for general education teachers instructing students with VI and investigated the impact of pre-service teacher training in AT on their self-rated competency levels. Pre-service teachers were given a pre-test (using qualitative and quantitative measures), trained in AT using a scavenger hunt in the AT Lab at the university where the study took place, and then completed a post-test of the same measures. Participants could name more AT software and devices on the post-test and viewed themselves as more competent with regards to the 20 SAT competencies.

scholarly journals Samuel Phillips Bedson, 1886-1969

1970 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 14-35
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Grammar School ◽  
Preparatory School ◽  
Postgraduate Study ◽  
Manual Skills ◽  
One Year ◽  
The University ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Samuel Phillips Bedson was born on 1 December 1886 in Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, Peter Phillips Bedson, was born in Manchester, educated at Manchester Grammar School and studied chemistry under Sir Henry Roscoe at Owens College, later Manchester University. After a period of postgraduate study at the University of Bonn, Peter Bedson returned to this country and was appointed to the Chair of Chemistry in the University of Durham (Durham College of Science, Newcastle upon Tyne). He held this Chair for 37 years until his retirement in 1921. His wife was the daughter of Samuel Hodgkinson, cotton spinner (Hollins Mill Co.) of Marple, Cheshire. There were three children of this marriage, Sam being the second. Along with his elder brother and four other boys he was educated privately until the age of ten. Then after one year at Newcastle Preparatory School he went to Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire where he spent the next six years. This school had been founded by Cecil Reddie as an experiment in secondary education because of his dissatisfaction with the narrowness of the curriculum in most Public Schools. Reddie planned ‘a programme of general education catering for physical and manual skills, for artistic and imaginative development, for literary and intellectual growth and for moral and religious training’.

Humane Literacy and Southeast Asian Art

1995 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-158
Author(s):  
Stanley J. O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Southeast Asian Studies ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Integration Of Learning

Humane literacy? An essay on undergraduate education? Isn't it a solecism to broach such concerns in this special issue ofThe Journal of Southeast Asian Studieswhere contributors are invited to take stock of the current state of scholarship in various fields of study? My response is simply if not now, then when? I am writing from North America where Southeast Asian studies has gained only a precarious beach-head in the academy and nowhere is this more evident than in the very limited undergraduate investment in our field. Despite the fact that any expansion of academic appointments for specialists on the region will be spurred by evidence of general student interest, a concern with that issue, on our occasions of collective self scrutiny, has been subordinated to questions of research direction, funding strategies, and the prevailing degree of accord between the various disciplines and area studies. But, however ancillary the general education mission of the undergraduate college may seem to professional scholars eager to get on both with their research and the training of graduate students, it is nevertheless a principal responsibility of those deans who control academic appointments. We differ from our colleagues within Southeast Asia where an interest in the region can be either assumed, or expected eventually to develop. While American universities place globalization high on their agendas today, it is not at all evident that their students will wish to study about Southeast Asia rather than, say, Africa or Latin America. So we do need to focus on how we may demonstrate the centrality of what we do to the process of self-discovery and the integration of learning that is at the heart of general education.

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