Hi,
How many of you have assigned scientific papers to the class to read?
I have done this many times, and I can remember many times having
professors who required it of me.
Typically, each student has a paper that must be presented on their
assigned day.
Each student is supposed to also read the paper, and then be ready
with questions to ask.
However, from my days as a student and as a professor it is obvious
that most students hardly ever
read or the papers unless they are presenting. they will scan through
the abstract or maybe a specific
area of the paper and then have a question if it is required,
otherwise, these activities seldom materialize
into a true discussion, except among a few of the most dedicated students.
I altered the usual approach and it worked really well. Feel free to
emulate, copy, morph or ignore!
1) I assign the paper either at the beginning of class, or the class prior.
2) no more than two students get the same paper and they are all on
virtually the same topic.
* for example, when I was going over the section on critical thermal
maxima, I printed off all of Victor Hutchison's papers on the topic,
and the review article.
If you are familiar with his work in that area, there must be a dozen
papers on "critical thermal maxima in the _____."
3) Then, I just randomly ask one of the students to, in five minutes,
give the take home message from the paper. I may ask them a question
or two to get them going.
4) Then, I ask the next student to compare their paper, to the one
that was just discussed.
5) Then the third student is asked to compare their paper to the first one.
6) then the second student is asked to compare their paper to the second.
7) and it goes on. usually, the students are discussing the topic
pretty quick.
8) the last student should be the one with the review article and they
are asked to sum up what they have discussed and how it compares to
what the review article said.
9) then everyone is asked if they agree with the review student's assessment.
10) I try not to directly comment on any student comments, but rather
ask others "is that right" or "what do you think about what that
person just said."' However, I do this sometimes with comments where
the student has given perfect commentary so that the other students
must evaluate the comments rather than just assume they are wrong
because I am asking for clarification!
This was one of those "walk into the class and try it" moments in
teaching, and it worked really well. First, the students ended up
actually discussing the paper. Second, when the test came along even
the least talented ones seemed to have some grasp of the ideas of
critical thermal maxima, optima, minima, thermo-regulationg, etc.
I was so impressed with this technique I was going to write it up as a
case study and send it somewhere. But, then I thought about it and
realized that few biology faculty would ever see such a publication
because (at least it is my impression) that few of us read teaching
methods journals. I am certain that others have tried a similar
approach and that this isn't novel, but I certainly never had a prof
do it this way, and I am not aware of anyone who did. So, if your
having trouble with students participating causing the paper
discussions to be boring, slow and frankly a virtual waste, give this
a try. I hope it helps some folks out!
Malcolm
--
Malcolm L. McCallum
Associate Professor of Biology
Managing Editor,
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
Texas A&M University-Texarkana
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