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Active learning strategies aim to increase student critical thinking and engagement. In this article I describe my biochemistry classroom switch from lecture-only to half lecture and half in-class activities, inspired by Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). Students in a first semester biochemistry course maintained the same ACS exam scores at the end of the course, continued to rate the course and its instruction highly, and class attendance significantly increased after the change in pedagogy. This format was also implemented in a second semester biochemistry course during a course redesign. The flexibility of in-class activities allowed an iterative addition of a bioinformatics themed course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). The Biochemistry II students report learning practical skills that are likely to benefit them in the future.
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Gaining Ground: Toward the Development of Critical Thinking Skills in a Social Problems Course
The purpose of this article is to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in sociology by examining a set of course redesign improvements made in a Social Problems course at the undergraduate level. These improvements center on increasing students’ critical thinking skills by integrating research-based, innovation-driven learning and student-centered strategies into a four-part course assessment redesign. Using a primarily case study approach, we examine quantitative data in the form of an interdisciplinary pre- and post- Critical thinking Assessment Test (CAT) from students enrolled in one iteration of the redesign for this particular course. Results from this analysis highlight the potential of these pedagogical improvements to foster the development of critical thinking skills and as an example of how assessment data can be used to guide further iterations of a course.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2152218
- PAR ID:
- 10608787
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Faculty Center at Georgia Southern University
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 01
- ISSN:
- 1931-4744
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 9
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Critical Thinking Sociology Inquiry-Guided Learning Assessment Undergraduate Education
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2024.180110
