6. August 13, 2002.

Theresa Winchester-Seeto (Macquarie University)

Problem Based Learning : Is it possible with first year undergraduate science students?

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Macquarie University has designed and implemented a version of Problem Based Learning that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of first year undergraduate geoscience students. The process involves the students working in small groups to investigate case studies of real life problems, with an integrated series of lectures and more conventional lab-based activities. Students and staff have responded very well to the new approach and it is currently being extended to include other units of study at the first year and higher levels.

7. September 10, 2002.

Mike King (Faculty of Education)

The Chinese Science Scholars Program.

Mike King (Sesquicentenary Associate Professor in Science Education in the Faculty of Education) is the Coordinator of the Teaching Sciences in English Project for visiting scholars from the People's Republic of China. In his talk he will address why the scholars are here, what the program sets out to do, how far it is achievable and early reactions/early problems.

8. October 1, 2002.

Professor David Boud (Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney)

How can our assessment practices provide what students require for lifelong learning? Towards sustainable assessment.

Lifelong learning requires the development of assessment skills that can be deployed by learners in the very many situations they face after leaving university. What are we doing to promote the development of them? Do our present assessment practices help or hinder the development of the capabilities students need in this area? Are we inadvertently de-skilling our students in a vital area of their development? The seminar will explore these issues and suggest some directions we might take if we wished to pursue the goal of providing a foundation for lifelong assessment. It will introduce the notion of sustainable assessment. Sustainable assessment practices are those which meet the assessment needs of the present without compromising the ability of students to meet future learning needs. They equip students to engage in the assessment processes that are a necessary part of being a lifelong learner after graduation.

David Boud is Professor of Adult Education and Associate Dean (Research and Development) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has written extensively on teaching, learning and assessment in higher and professional education. His books include 'Enhancing Learning through Self Assessment' (Kogan Page). 'Peer Learning in Higher Education: Learning From and With Each Other' (Kogan Page) and 'Work-Based Learning: A New Higher Education?' (SRHE and the Open University Press) were published in 2001.

9a. October 22, 2002.

Peter New

Benefits from Peer Marking using Negotiated Criteria

Peer assessment has the potential to improve the learning process, sharpen critical abilities and increase student autonomy. In a several step procedure, students are trained in using criteria to mark reports. They then produce their own criteria lists to aid in writing a report as well as for later marking of fellow students' reports. I will discuss problems encountered and safeguards that have been incorporated to ensure fairness and to defuse student hostility to the idea of having their work assessed by a fellow student.

9b. October 22, 2002.

Sue Franklin, Simon Hudson, Mary Peat and Rosanne Quinnell (*)

Pathways to becoming a professional biologist: empowering first year students.

One of our challenges in the tertiary sector is to be able to show students how to plot a degree course that will result in their becoming a professional scientist in their chosen discipline area. The pathways program can be seen as an extension of the First Year Experience conference discussions and proposes a simple program of events, across second semester, that will introduce our current first year, second year and third year biology students to the requirements and milestones of becoming a professional biologist. The program is relatively simple, being made up of four lunchtime meetings for student speakers at the next level to articulate some of the avenues open to students and the decisions students will need to make to become a biologist.

(*) Speaker

10a. November 12, 2002.

Rosanne Quinnell

Improving Laboratory Report Writing.

The laboratory report has been the one of the most popular writing genres to assess the communication and data handling skills of science students. This project focused on updating an existing on-line resource - how to write a report in biology - and developing a strategy to align this resource more closely to one of the units of study where writing a report features.

10b. November 12, 2002.

Clare Wilson

Development of a statistical website.

First year statistics in psychology is taught to over 1500 students, and these students vary greatly in their understanding of both maths and statistics. Some students show a deep aversion to both topics. Therefore, the website was developed not only to give the students the lecture notes but to provide an alternative learning environment. The lecture notes were developed into a story narrative (a murder mystery) to give the web information a richer context, thus the students have the opportunity to learn about statistics, demonstrate their knowledge and solve the crime at the same time.

Back to SciFER Program for 2002