Proposed schedule

Sep 2 and 16 discussion of problem-solving assessment.
Oct 7 and 21 Oct people from this group to present some of their work, with the goal of helping everyone know what others are doing
Nov 4: an update on thinkSpace capabilities and early adoption reports
Nov 18: brainstorming session on whether/how it makes sense for this faculty learning community to partner/see other FLCs at other universities

Meeting Notes:

September 2, 2010

1) We discussed the need for more problem-solving assessment. Various members of our group have worked on this before, Jared on student performance in exams/similar cases, John Jackman on ability to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant info, Craig on attitudes, etc. But all felt that we would benefit from having a clearer set of assessment tools

so we and students know where and what is needed to improve
provide evidence of student learning for accountability, grants, colleagues etc.

2) General consensus was that problem-solving is deeply embedded in each content area and requires both solid content understanding as well as metacognitive skills. For example students who struggle to solve complex problems (e.g. that involve more than one concept) might fall into three groups

those who did not understand one or more of the concepts
those who did not have a structured understanding of how each concept relates to each other
those who were not strong at being able to approach complex problems, e.g. with qualitative analysis, schematic diagrams, ongoing monitoring etc. (metacognitive skills)

3) In each of our subjects we do not know the numbers of students who fall into each category

4) We discussed the need for students to do multiple complex cases, but we do not know which category above shifts, i.e. do students develop a stronger understanding of each idea, or more structure, or better analysis skills (or all three), and at what rate

The homework that we decided on to be done by Sep 16 meeting is for each of our disciplines

1) find/write a complex case/problem that students could work on

2) for each idea in that problem, write a single-concept question that assesses whether students understand that concept

3) choose a way how you assess whether students know the relationships between the ideas in the problem.

4) if applicable/possible, choose a way to assess whether students demonstrate metacognitive skills in the problem