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Project Summary How do students read literary texts in a lit course that emphasizes Problem-Based Learning? That's the question I set out to answer in my project. Problem-based learning requires students to work in groups to solve problems from the course discipline. "Problem" can be defined as "any situation that inspires a goal for which there is no clear path to reach it. Within this context, the term problem can refer to creative challenges as well as difficulties to be resolved." (Kelson and Distlehorst). My course in historical fiction posed this problem: "When reading a book set in the past, how are readers supposed to know what to trust or believe, especially when on some occasions they encounter actual persons, places, events from history and on other occasions are reading about cultures with which they are unfamiliar?" My goal was to answer the question "What are the processes at work and the learning outcomes in a PBL literature course?" I hoped to find that my students were engaged in critical reading responses to the course literature.
English 124 Course Objectives
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Angela Polachek, Undergraduate Teaching Associate, Miami University Middletown, coding student exams.
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Gathering Data Student essay exams provided the primary source of data about critical reading responses The research team coded exams and created student profiles. Student interviews, student on-line discussions, teacher's log, attitude survey all provided secondary sources of data.
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Dr, Helane Adams, English, Miami University Middletown, coding student exams.
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Code Levels 0=no instance of the behavior 1=an instance of the behavior but in a superficial or undeveloped way 2=an instance of the behavior that formed the basis for developing a substantial argument or interpretation of the student's novel, with substantial meaning sustained for a full-length paragraph or more or referred to more than once as a touchstone for the developing argument 3=more than one instance of Level 2 behavior
A Coded Student Essay Exam
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Results Students wrote exams that demonstrated significant critical reading response. Largest percentage of responses were at the highest level of achievement (see pie chart below). No significant performance differences by gender or previous experience in literature courses. Signficant statistical differences in the exams of first-year, second-year, and third/fourth year students (see bar graph below).
A Student Reading Response Profile
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A Completed Student Profile of Coded Results
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The Good News When we looked at all 10 coded exams, we found that 45% of the coded domains were at Level 3, the highest of the levels.
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The interesting news When we looked at the overall performance of students by academic standing (first-year, second-year, third/fourth-year), we found significant statistical differences in the lower achievement of the first year students, an outcome that requires further research. Are the implications that PBL is best suited for advanced students? Other recent PBL research shows mixed results as well.
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Why the scholarship of teaching and learning? As a two-year campus instructor, I am expected to focus my energies on teaching--and I do. But I have benefited greatly by learning from other two-year campus instructors who have shared their research into teaching and learning, and joining that ongoing conversation has become a goal for me.
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Implications The results of this study suggest that students enrolled in a PBL-based literature course show evidence of critical reading skills. While the study did not attempt to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the pedagogy and the learning outcomes, it does offer evidence that such learning occurs in a nontraditionally taught literature course. In addition, some of the data about the students' atttiudes toward the course and their reading strategies suggests that the PBL approach may have influenced their learning.
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Ellenmarie Wahlrab, Director of Communicating Across the Curriculum, Miami University Middletown, coding student exams.
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Implications
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The Future Analyzing the student work through the lens of intellectual development schema (e.g. Perry, Belenky et al) Developing cases studies of individual learners Exploring self-directed learning (SDL) and PBL in literature courses Coding the exams by using an established critical thinking rubric
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Dr. Sam Sommers, Psychology, Tufts University, statistical consultant.
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Why use PBL in a literature course? In literature, the "real-world" problems of a PBL approach inevitably are problems related to reading: how do we read a certain kind of literature? why do we read in certain ways? what should we read in a given literature course? In solving the course problem, students are asked to engage in reading with a purpose, reading that advances the possibilities of finding viable solutions. However, the nature of the problems in a literature course guarantees that these solutions will be at best provisional because they are truly open-ended questions. The possibilities not only for critical reading but also for critical thinking are exciting enough to balance the challenges of implementing this unfamiliar approach.
Samford University PBL Links
University of Delaware PBL Links
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Jeff Sommers, English, Miami University Middletown
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Email address: [email protected] Phone: 513 727-3260
Final Carnegie Project Report
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