Planning the practicals

I think we are all already experiencing shifts from our original plans to adapt to the reality on the ground.  This is why it is so difficult to plan out the whole course before we start teaching it.  Remember, none of us has any experience with it yet, so we will need to be flexible in planning the one or two-year experience.

Already, I have changed my mind about practicals.

As I wrap up my unit on research methods and start the unit on learning and cognition, I am getting ready to have them do their experimental practical.  That part of the plan will stay.  But the question I have is - how should the students document their research? 

For many years, my introductory unit “covered” all of the research methods.  I found that students never remembered very much about the methods because it was too much too fast. So, now I only focus on experiments and get better results.  So, the question is, how will they then answer these questions:

Question 3. Compare and contrast an experiment with another method (specified on the exam) for the topic you investigated.

Question 4. Design another study to investigate the same question you investigated in your practical. The exam will identify the method you must use.

This week, I spent some time looking into the Toddle Portfolio feature.  Students could also create a shared Google folder as a “portfolio” with you. The goal would be to have students complete question 1 (description of their study) and question 2 (discussing different concepts) to complete the draft of their experimental study.  

When I teach human relationships, we will then learn about interviews/focus groups.  They will then add an “interview” document to their portfolio.  Again, they will answer questions 1 and 2, but this time, also question 3.  They will also go back to the first document (experiment) and answer question 3 by comparing/contrasting with an interview.  When I teach the survey, they will then do the same, and then answer question 4. 

I think that this strategy will accomplish a few teaching objectives.  First, I won't do a lesson where we compare and contrast all of the methods at once. This has a high likelihood that students would not retain what they learn - and it could be as boring as watching paint dry.  Secondly, it allows us to revise the experiment (and other methods) throughout the course.  They could also revise/update question 2 as they learn more about the concepts over the two years. And as a portfolio, I will be able to see their work and give feedback - and they can directly comment on the docs to get clarification. 

I am sure that I will continue to learn and develop new strategies for organization and revision throughout the course. So, stay tuned!