 |
PAGE 1 OF 2
Yet, like many of my colleagues, I may have tackled my teaching assignment from the wrong direction. I went forward when I should have been going backward—at least that's the conclusion I've drawn after reading a handbook on 'scientific teaching' written by an HHMI Professor.
As Jo Handelsman and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison point out in their handbook, Scientific Teaching: A Guide to Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education, the idea is deceptively simple: Decide what you want students to understand and determine how you will assess whether they do, in fact, understand the material before deciding how to teach it. In my experience, 'backward design'—Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe coined the memorable description in 1998—is rare. Certainly, I wasn't alone in first choosing a textbook, deciding the order in which to cover the chapters, and seeing when and where I could fit in some demonstrations or experiments to enhance the course—without considering the impact the course would have on the same students a year later.
Since the grants program commenced in 1988, HHMI has invested more than $1.4 billion in a variety of educational programs, among them the HHMI Professors initiative pioneered by Handelsman and 19 other teacher-scholars. Our efforts have ranged from research fellowships for medical students and new graduate training programs to research experiences for undergraduates and outreach programs for K-12 students. HHMI and its grantees now have considerable knowledge of what works and what doesn't, and we're placing a renewed emphasis on extending the reach of our programs.
Photo: Paul Fetters
|
|
|
