Cycles of Learning
- 1. Cycles of Learning: Innovation Through Assessment Heather Gendron & Madeline Veitch ⋅ Sloane Art Library, UNC Chapel Hill Special thanks to our collaborators and fellow instructors Kristin Goode, David Parisi, and Eva Sclippa. Motivation innovate, v. 1.trans. To change (a thing) into something new; to alter; to renew. 2.To bring in (something new) the first time; to introduce as new. Each semester at the Sloane Art Library, research instruction sessions are provided to students taking Art History survey courses. Historically, these fifty minute sessions have included instruction on searching the library catalog, finding journal articles, and evaluating print, journal, and web sources. Culminating with a worksheet or exercise, the sessions have been part lecture, part interactive activity – a packed hour that often left us wondering precisely what students were able to take away and apply to their own research. A driving goal in our instruction has been to focus students on the process of inquiry and discovery. We have aimed to redirect students towards tackling “wicked problems” or deeper research questions, instead of focusing on questions that can be easily answered. How could we assess our/their progress towards this goal? We sought to innovate our approach to instruction by identifying learning outcomes and developing measurable criteria for assessment. We involved students, faculty, graduate assistants, and fellow instructors in an assessment program that has ultimately reshaped our approach to teaching. Methods A Team-Based Approach Rubric Creating a rubric helped us define the goals of our instruction sessions . It also served as a tool to grade the worksheets and give students direct feedback. We found that a teambased approach was necessary in order to develop an assessment cycle at this scale. Working as a team, we developed a teaching outline, worksheet, and rubric. We met in person and online (utilizing online collaborative tools like Google Docs) to share ideas. Summative assessment takes place after instruction, allowing both students and instructors to gauge student learning at a particular point in the process. Reflective Peer Coaching We used this approach in order to assess and improve our own teaching. Each instructor partnered with another instructor for the three-part process, which is outlined in: Vidmar, Dale J. Reflective Peer Coaching: Crafting collaborative self-assessment in teaching. Research Strategies, 20(2006), 135-148. Improvements With several different instructors teaching and grading worksheets, we could improve consistency by clarifying what constitutes "needs improvement," "good," or "optimal" work. Perhaps a group training session in which everyone could practice with sample worksheets would be helpful. By looking at the "grading" breakdown, we identified rubric goals that were too advanced for the phase of research students were engaged in at the time of library instruction (e.g. “effectively triangulates between multiple concepts within a topic” is a benchmark that would be more appropriate near the end of the research process than at the beginning). Formative and Summative Assessment Formative assessment takes place during instruction, allowing for adjustments to be made on the spot. Insights from formative assessments also influence changes made post-instruction. Lessons Learned Interactive Sticky-Note Software This tool allowed us to model the research process and gauge student learning on the spot. It helped us to get maximum class participation quickly and from students we wouldn’t have heard from otherwise. Students used the tool after viewing an artwork and reading and excerpt from Oxford Art Online excerpt, to develop good questions and share them with the rest of the class. Not all students were able to finish the worksheet in the time allotted. We realized that we needed to provide an N/A or “timed out” option on the rubric for students who ran out of time and did not cover all points. There's never enough time! This is a perennial lesson in library instruction. Establishing the goals of the course helped us guess better how much time would be needed. That said, instructors continued to go over their time allotted for presentation. Discoveries Peer coaching increased confidence in instructors’ ability to teach effectively. The History of Western Art students were evenly distributed by year, with First Year students comprising a slightly larger portion of the group at 31%. In contrast, the Introduction to South Asian Art course was predominantly made up of Juniors and Seniors. Together these two groups comprised 80% of the students, while First Years and Sophomores represented 10% each. When students are expected to turn in worksheets, they are more invested in the process. Power Point Annotation Tools We asked students to respond to an excerpt from Oxford Art Online, working as a class to identify biographical, cultural and historical contexts, materials and methods, influences, style/period/movement(s), and critical response to the work that might inform keyword searching. Student demographics Visual Thinking Strategies We started by interacting with an image of a work of art using the VTS method. Evaluating individual student performance with a rubric and narrative feedback helped us identify gaps in understanding. We discovered: Worksheet The worksheet served as a way for students to log their research process during a half-hour breakout session. It included: generating relevant keywords and research questions, locating a book, locating an article, and evaluating one of the resources they found. This was turned in for assessment using the rubric. TA Survey We conducted a post-class survey of TA’s who were responsible for teaching the recitation sections of the courses. •Students were not using reference sources or books to their full potential; most began their search by looking for journal articles (usually too granular for starting out). •Those who did use reference sources did not always distinguish them from scholarly sources that would be appropriate to evaluate for their annotated bibliographies. •Many students had lingering questions about source evaluation, particularly with regard to web sources.