Improving a Subject Through Integration
by
Ken Sutton, Department of Aviation and Technology, Faculty
of Science and Mathematics
and
Anthony Williams,, Learning and Development, Information and Education Services
Division
The University of Newcastle
Abstract
This Paper reports on the implementation of a strategy that integrated units of work in a faculty computing subject in the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at the University of Newcastle. The subject provides for students across many disciplines and previously treated units of work as stand alone units. Under these conditions, the subject lacked cohesion and it was difficult to give every unit of work meaning to all students. Because of staff concerns, a decision was made to combine a number of units into an integrated project and to allow students to nominate a theme appropriate to their disciplines. A substantial portion of student assessment was allocated to the project.
The strategy reduced the disjointedness of previous approaches and gave added value to a diverse group of students. Evaluation justified the decision taken with clear evidence of support for this approach. Formal student evaluations conducted after three separate implementations were consistently positive.
Introduction
Changes in economic activity due to the global knowledge economy are leading to shifts in employment patterns. As a consequence, the skills required by the future participants in the economy are changing rapidly. This situation is compounded in the field of science due to the rapidity of scientific advances and the fast proliferation of scientific knowledge. In considering what knowledge skills and attitudes we engender in science students in their tertiary education provides many difficult issues to be confronted. Many of these issues exist within the current science curriculum development and teaching practices. ATSE acknowledge the difficulty of achieving the appropriate skills because:
On the one hand, there is increasing reliance on knowledge based skills applied in complex environments, together with increasing demand for person-based skills. On the other, there is reduced relative demand for many skills tied to physical abilities and to the goods industries in particular. But, within this broad framework, changes in the demand for specific types of skill are often abrupt. For example, in recent years the demand for skills related to computer mainframes has fallen sharply, whereas that for skills related to networked PCs has exploded.
Internationally there has been a great deal of attention given by universities to the issues of providing specific core skills to their graduates in an effort to better prepare them to be participants in the world of work they will confront. This heightened concern with these qualities of the graduate can be seen in the quality assurance processes for teaching which the British Dearing Report (1997) calls for which identified specific program outcomes. These outcomes included:
- the key skills of communication and numeracy,
- the effective use of information technology,
- the ability to learn how to learn,
- the cognitive skills associated with critical analysis, and
- subject specific skills such as laboratories.
The need for the development of specific core skills in the discipline field of Science has also been acknowledged by the National Science Foundation. The Foundation developed a system of support for the development of such skills through the Course and Curriculum Development (CCD) project development grants scheme. The aim of these grants is to enhance the curriculum development of science and engineering courses in the US. The grants achieve this through the funding of innovative curriculum development programs and teaching initiatives. The programs were developed to address negative trends in participation in science programs across the country. The Foundation (Tucker, 1997) identified the need to have imbedded in science programs a range of core skills or proficiencies, following are examples of these skills:
- increased understanding of the scientific approach to problems,
- using scientific equipment,
- working in teams, and
- well developed computing skills.
The University of Newcastle
The University of Newcastle's Institutional Strategic Plan has as a University goal to:
Develop graduates whose knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes are highly valued in the workplace and the broader community.
The University is currently developing a generic graduate profile which documents the qualities or competencies of graduates of the University of Newcastle. All courses of the university will be required to meet these qualities within their own discipline context. The graduate profile is supported by examples of how these skills might be evidenced, faculties will be able to use these examples to develop a range of indicators to assess whether or not students have acquired each of the skills.
The Science Faculty over the last twelve months has been reviewing all of its undergraduate programs. One of the initial outcomes of these reviews has been the development of graduate profiles for the courses. The graduate profiles guide the development of the course and are used as the benchmark for the 'curriculum mapping' phase. The outcome will be courses where these skills are integrated into the learning experiences provided in the subjects of the faculty. Examples of some of the graduate profiles are outlined below:
The Bachelor of Science Graduate Profile
The Bachelor of Science graduate should have the skills and knowledge
to function at a professional level in their discipline. To achieve this they
should have:
- *The ability to be resourceful enough to work as an individual or as part of a team
- The knowledge and abilities to communicate effectively using written, oral and illustrative methods.
- The ability to apply critical thinking and scientific method to analyse and solve problems.
- The skills and motivation to support life-long learning.
- An understanding, appreciation and respect for the role of ethics in their discipline.
- An awareness of the role of their discipline to the wider society.
Graduate Profile for the Bachelor of Teaching / Bachelor of Science Course
In broad terms, a BTeach/BSc Graduate will strive for:
- The achievement of course objectives and learning outcomes as set by the University having regard for the requirements set by peer review, relevant professional bodies and employer groups.
More specifically, the BTeach/BSc Graduate will:
- Acquire a systematic and coherent body of knowledge, principles and concepts and associated problem solving techniques relevant to science.
- Develop academic skills and attitudes necessary to comprehend and evaluate new information, concepts and evidence from a range of sources.
- Develop the ability to consolidate, extend and apply the knowledge and techniques learnt.
- Deliver knowledge and techniques at a level appropriate for the training of high school students.
- Be proficient in and confident with a broad range of scientific techniques.
- Be adaptable with the ability to access appropriate scientific resources, as necessary.
- Be aware of what can be done with science and of the role science plays in maintaining and developing our society.
- Be aware of the history and origins of science.
- Be an effective communicator of scientific concepts and ideas.
- Have a sufficient grounding in core science to be able to learn and use further techniques as required.
- Be able to participate in and contribute to collaborative projects.
- Have the ability to be resourceful enough to work as an individual or as part of a team.
- Demonstrate knowledge and abilities to communicate effectively using written, oral and illustrative methods.
- Develop skills and motivation to support life-long learning.
- Have an understanding, appreciation and respect for the role of ethics in their discipline.
Although the development of course graduate profiles are currently in the process of development and implementation, there have been examples of subjects in the faculty where the concepts of student and graduate skills has been the focus of the subject. Identified in the two examples of graduate profile are the skills associated with the application of computing to science. Five years ago the subject now known as SCIM101 was developed with the specific purpose of providing computing skills for science students. Although it specifically intended to convey computing skills, it had to grapple with many of the issues associated with defining and implementing core skills into a multidisciplinary context.
Rationale for Faculty Computing Subject
In 1995 the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at the University of Newcastle proposed an initiative for a foundation computing subject. The initiative was timely in that core skills in computing were, to this time, not being addressed at a faculty level although pockets of discipline-specific computing were being offered by some departments within the faculty. Students prior to 1995 wanting to elect a general introductory computing subject were forced to enrol in elective subjects offered by other faculties of the University. These were often nominated by science departments as prerequisites for their discipline-based subjects with departments identifying the basic computing skills students needed to support their science studies. The main problems with subjects offered by other faculties was relevancy, their narrow focus and the lack of applied methodologies suitable to science students. For example, a popular recommendation was a subject provided by the Faculty of Economics and Commerce. This subject had a management focus and was heavily biased in favour of database systems and database applications. Science students needed to extract value for themselves and try to adapt the management experiences to a science environment.
Despite some initial concerns with various issues, Faculty supported the introduction of a faculty computing subject (SCIM 101) aimed at addressing the computing core skills of science students.
Initial Implementation
SCIM 101 is an elective subject available to all students within the Faculty of Science and Mathematics but students from outside of the Faculty sometimes select it as an elective. The students tend mostly to be BSc or BArts students whose major fields of study are from the discipline areas of psychology, biology, chemistry, geology or geography.
One of the main challenges confronting SCIM 101 was how to make it relevant to students from different fields of study as diverse as psychology and geology. Initially there was the problem of the units being too generic or at the other extreme, too disciplined-specific. Which situation occurred depended upon which department was servicing the unit of work. Where coverage was seen to be generic, it lacked the applied approach needed and students had difficulty recognising the relevance of the module. On the other hand, where a unit of work was discipline-specific, it was seen as being very relevant to some students but of little value to many others. This was particularly so where content was seen to be very mathematical because many students did not have sufficient background or interest and were unable to see its relevance.
Reflective Phase
One of the difficulties in presenting the subjects was how best to deal with word processing, databases, presentation software and library resourcing. Originally these were treated as discrete units and this was very much in a generic sense. During this period mass lectures made no reference to these units and they tended to be treated with less importance than other units of work. This resulted in disjointedness and a perceived lack of importance by students. This problem was exacerbated by staff doing work based specifically on their own discipline areas and assessment not appropriate to the objectives of the course. The challenge was to provide meaning to these units and to demonstrate to students how applicable they were to them. A general approach was not going to work and the best option was to make them as applied as possible. However, the typical diversity of the student population had to be considered and how best to overcome the fragmented standing of these units was high in the evaluation process going on. It appeared that some form of integration was possible but the difficulty was how best to make it meaningful to all students. An Integrated Project grew out of this. It appeared a good solution for part of the content in SCIM 101 that was not working well and it would give students an ideal opportunity to investigate an area important to them. However, it also meant that such issues as teaching, content, tutorials and assessment had to be examined more closely. Change though was faced with opposition from traditional academics who felt that content was the important factor in the subject rather than the skills.
Integrated Project
Described Perhaps the most critical step in the process of change was the initial realisation that the treatment of some units of work in SCIM 101 was not working. Thus, it was essential to devise a method of delivering and assessing material which would give greater meaning to all students regardless of their field of study. This was achieved by having students nominate a science topic that they wanted to focus on and would be willing to put a great deal of energy into. This was called a 'theme' and it became the central feature of an Integrated Project towards which all modules were directed to. In other words, the theme dominated the design of the Integrated Project, assessment requirements and the supporting tutorial work done by students in the computer laboratories.
The Integrated Project was accorded 35% of the total assessment weighting of the subject which was considered substantial. It was decided to make the central focus of the Integrated Project to be a theme that students would nominate themselves. The idea was that students would identify an area they wanted to concentrate on with the expectation that they would take ownership of the project immediately. In fact, during the introduction period, it was suggested to students that this was an opportunity for them to choose something of special interest and investigate it in some reasonable depth. Further, they were made aware that this was also an invitation to check out an area which they might later wish to specialise in and it would help them make up their minds whether to take this further during later years of study.
The student-nominated theme became the focus point of the entire project and it dictated applications for the software that students would use. Essentially students were being asked to investigate, collect, report, present and computerise information on a topic of their choosing. Students received a detailed handout on the requirements and every aspect was explained in detail during one of their mass lectures. In simple terms, students were tasked with researching information (library), preparing a report (word processing), creating a database of appropriate resources (database), developing an on-screen computer slide show (presentations) and finally uploading some of this detail to a campus fileserver for assessment. To support the overall requirements, mass lectures dealt with scientific writing, understanding database systems, the relevance to the world of work, reasons why a slide show presentation is applicable today and the marking criteria that would be used to assessed the project. Several full-time staff were involved (including staff from the library) and several hand-picked tutors performed a vital part in the servicing of the tutorial work.
Assessment Procedure
Critical to the development of the Integrated Project was assessment. The question of appropriateness to all students was paramount and issues such as actual requirements of the Integrated Project, marking criteria and who would assess the work had to be accommodated. To assist in meeting these challenges, the requirements of the Project were couched in a scenario centred on preparing the Project for an uninformed group of people called the target audience.
In a detail handout given to students and elaborated on during a mass lecture, the target audience was described as being uninformed lay people who did not have any appreciation of the topics chosen by students. Students were asked to think about the target audience as being a group of people interested in the nominated theme but not having any expertise in that area. This practice is seen as a core skill for many professional people and occupations. In other words, finding a way to communicate effectively to an audience who will pass judgement on what is being said but who do not have a full appreciation of the field of study is a common workplace scenario. It was stressed to students that they should pitch their project at the target audience and any specialised or highly technical detail would be treated as a weakness in their submissions. It was clearly stated in guidelines to students and later in discussions that the marking criteria would most particularly reflect this requirement.
In brief, assessment consisted of a set of related tasks. A report had to be written, a database had to be created, a slide show had to be prepared and all had to be compiled in a certain way with written work having to conform to the principles of scientific writing. A carefully devised marking scale was developed that took into account the different objectives central to the Integrated Project. In summary, students received marks for their computing skills, their information resourcing and retrieval skills, the quality of the content of what they wrote about, the suitability to the target audience, how well it was presented and the application of scientific writing.
Marking was an issue from the beginning and was always considered during the development of the Project. The selection of markers who were not specialists in all fields of study could be used to measure if the requirements of the project had been met. In other words, students were being asked to prepare work that was informative and meaningful to an uninformed audience and since markers fell into this category, they were in a good position to decide how well this criteria had been met. Marking was based on a purpose-devised marking scale, briefings, discussion, pilot marking, review of marking and a check across submissions for consistency. Importantly, the whole process was open and transparent to students such that it was explained in detail as a major topic in one mass lecture. As well, the marking criteria and the allocation of marks were made known to students before submissions were required and a downloadable copy was available to them. Students knew from the beginning what the requirements were, who would be assessing the work, about the system to be employed and what the marking criteria and scale would be.
Student Evaluation
Feedback from students regarding the Integrated Project has always been encouraging and this comes through in all the different types of evaluations used. They appear to appreciate the opportunity to nominate and focus on a theme and become quite informed about the topic they chose. They appear to embrace the concept of channelling different computing applications toward the theme and they comment favourably on this applied approach to computing. To provide a guide to how students have responded most recently, the table below indicates how the Integrated Project was received during semester one of this year. Note that this evaluation was purpose-designed using a Likert Scale for each question but the detail below is simplified to make interpretation easier.
Table 1
Conclusion
The results from the mixture of student evaluations are encouraging and clearly justify the decisions to change the curriculum for the respective units to one of integration focused on a central theme. They also appear to support the notion that learning takes on a different meaning if the approach is applied and student-centred with an indication that deeper understanding is occurring rather than surface learning.
Vital to success appears to be the collaborative approach to teaching and this perhaps starts at the coordination level. First the concept has to be promoted which is normally followed by liaison, compromise and timeliness at various staff levels. After this, the required impetus for success depends entirely on teamwork and the commitment of staff. The coordinator's role is critical at all stages who must remain committed to the concept.
The success of the Integrated Project in SCIM 101 has provided the incentive to extend the concept further to other units in the course. The units involving spreadsheets and statistical software were in need of some attention because of problems of relevance and difficulties being experienced by students. The concepts reported here have been adapted to these areas and grouped into a module called data management and this was implemented during semester one of this year.
References
ATSE, 1997, Employment and Skills in the New Economy
Dearing, R. (1997). Higher education in the learning society. (Great Britain. National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education). [Leeds]: The Committee.
Tucker, A.(Chair), 1997. Report for the Technical Review Panel for Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA.