Teaching Philosphy
and Practice

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Chemistry 101 Course Portfolio by Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt
| Home | Teaching Philosophy | Vita | Website | Syllabi | In-class Work | Homework | Writing Assignments |
| Exams | Laboratory | Assessment of Learning Gains | Evaluations | Pick-a-Prof
| Relationships between Learning Styles and Classroom Work |

My Teaching Philosophy and Practice

My teaching philosophy is straightforward:  teach your students as you would want to be taught - with enthusiasm, and with a passion for the subject combined with respect and understanding for the student.  My aim for each of the 20 years I've taught First Year Chemistry, instructing over 13,600 Chemistry 101 and 102 students since 1984, is to give each student every opportunity to do her or his best in learning chemistry despite the large classroom settings (200-300 students).  Chemistry is a subject that I have studied, practiced, taught and enjoyed over the last 35 years.  Effective teaching involves time, dedication, patience, understanding, firmness, and a sense of humor.  True learning incorporates active participation by the student, inside as well as outside the classroom.  

Guiding students through the maze of chemical symbols, equations and concepts can only be accomplished by giving the students the means and opportunity to take charge of their own learning reinforced by an appropriate reward system.  My main focus is to teach in a way that will reach all my students.  For the past several years, I have chosen to teach off-sequence, meaning I teach Chemistry 102 in the fall and Chemistry 101 in the spring.  These students are very heterogeneous in their backgrounds.  I enjoy the challenge of working not only with different learning styles, but very different chemistry backgrounds, from honors students to students who have taken the course unsuccessfully before.  The writing-intensive class is structured to encourage each student to be a lifetime learner, not only of chemistry but also of all subjects.  Chemistry is difficult for most students, therefore they must be able to make mistakes, learn from them, and in the end be rewarded for their efforts and the chemical knowledge they acquired.  The learning process begins with classroom lectures and demonstrations with in-class activities, such as quizzes during which the students can use their books, notes, and discuss their answers with their neighbors.  This active learning activity has a demonstrated success.  Student-to-student interactions increase dramatically as students teach each other the concepts of the day.  The quizzes are also used as a reward for class attendance, since new college students need to be gently reminded that coming to class is good for them and their education.  The quizzes are returned during the next class and discussed briefly to dispel any misconceptions and answer questions.  Outside the classroom, students are encouraged to work independently by giving homework assignments both from the textbook and electronic.  The assignments are due after exams so students can discover for themselves that assignments are not busy work, but a vital part of learning and should be used to prepare for the test.  In addition, the World Wide Web is a convenient and important content provider for the students and me.  Updated notes, old exams, sample exam questions, and math reviews are among the learning tools provided on the First Year Chemistry website.  Since I am the Webmaster for the program, I can be certain that what the students need is available.  To this end, I wrote the award-winning math review and the sample exam questions on the website (www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp).
In addition, I have helped instigate and am the faculty advisor for the use of Calibrated Peer Review (CPR © ) , , an instructional writing and peer assessment tool developed by the Molecular Science Project, an NSF-sponsored chemist ry reform project (DUE 95-55605) .  I am also the Master Administrator for CPR at TAMU - working with faculty across campus.  It is web-based software designed to increase the amount of writing done across the curriculum .  CPR involves much more than simply  writing about a chemistry topic; the student also practices how to evaluate other student's work, then grades their peers' work, and finally self-evaluates their own essay - totally on-line.  By writing and critiquing, our students are compelled to use hi g her-level thinking - a wonderful thing.  My position as CPR Administrator involves writing handouts, uploading rosters into the system, giving workshops for both faculty and students, and monitoring all Chem 101 and 102 instructors' assignments .  

At present, my 4 hour class is a writing-intensive class, with writing and critiquing making up about 27% of my course grade.  The writing/critiquing assignments are divided between the lecture and the lab.  The ability to think and write critically is fundamental to becoming a good chemist.  However, science students at the beginning of their university experience are rarely given opportunities to write in their science courses, since classes are large and resources are limited. I have transformed my sections of Chemistry 101 and 102 (entering freshman chemistry), with 250 students each, into writing intensive courses, with 1 credit hour of the 4 credit hour class devoted to developing writing skills.  Issues that I manage include: (1) fundamental instruction in writing as a chemist, (2) plagiarism education and prevention, and (3) combating poor student attitudes about writing in a chemistry class.  The two web-based tools to be used are Calibrated Peer Review™ (CPR™) and Turnitin.com, a well-known web site for plagiarism detection.  In a typical CPR assignment, a student will write an essay on a topic after reading primary literature utilizing a directed set of questions to guide the essay development.  The students then critique their peers and their own work after passing a calibration procedure where the students learn to recognize and rank essays of differing quality on the same topic.  Essays and other writing assignments will be submitted by the students to Turnitin.com to help the students check their work for plagiarism.  Opportunities are given to the students to resubmit work after this self-review.  All essays are scanned for compliance by the instructor and teaching assistants  an easy procedure using the existing website tools.  

In lecture:
·   A minimum of 10% of the grade for each exam includes 1 or 2 questions in which the students must explain a chemistry concept, graph or illustration, or describe how to solve a problem.  The grader is given thorough instructions on grading, and I double check all grades.
·   In-class quizzes have a no-cost writing component, e.g., “What concept in todays lecture did you find confusing?”
·   Four CPR assignments are included on such topics as plagiarism, significant figures and equilibrium.  Even though there is an excellent library of chemistry CPR assignments, historically students respond more positively to original assignments by the instructor. I have enjoyed writing most of my assignments.  I average the best 3 of the 4 assignments to be equivalent to an exam grade.
·   Instructions on how to write as a scientist  clearly and succinctly  are discussed in lecture and review sessions.

In laboratory:
·   Laboratory experiments are primarily guided and open inquiry labs, which already require written observations, explanations and conclusions.
·   Included in each laboratory report, worth 30 points, is be a lab summary and procedural outline written beforehand (3 points) and an abstract written afterwards (10 points).  To minimize plagiarism, the abstract is submitted by the student to Turnitin.com as well as being attached to the lab report.  The teaching assistant (TA)  scans it for compliance.  When a student realizes after submission that he or she plagiarized  the web site will immediately tell the student if there are phrases copied from other sources, including other students essays  he or she can resubmit without penalty.  I have found that students need to be trained in what constitutes plagiarism.  The TAs grade and make comments, after which the student will be allowed to resubmit for rescoring.  
·   Lab quizzes include questions that require short paragraphs for answers.
·   The TAs discuss pointers on writing summaries and abstracts in the weekly lab recitations and reviews.
·   Handouts are included in the syllabus that thoroughly explain what an abstract is and how to write a good one.  For each laboratory, the TA gives appropriate guiding questions to aid the student in preparing the abstract.

I discuss the importance of quality communication in science my class to address the issue of poor student acceptance of writing,.  To combat plagiarism, the syllabus directly addresses the issue; the first CPR assignment will cover plagiarism and Texas A&M Universitys (TAMU) new honor code; and Turnitin.com will be used extensively.  
I personally schedule 6-9 office hours per week and mentor 2-3 hour review sessions each Sunday afternoon.  My students also know that if they can find me in my office, I will always stop what I'm doing, if I can, and answer questions.  My office opens onto the Chemistry 101/102 Help Desk and Computer Lab and I am always helping students, my own and others.  At the weekly review sessions, I review and answer questions on topics from the previous week and help to bridge laboratory and lecture concepts.  Most students treat lab and lecture as two entirely separate entities.  The review is critical for poorer students - it allows them to keep pace with the class and even excel.  Working with smaller groups and getting acquainted with students is facilitated by the review sessions.  I also meet with my laboratory teaching assistants in weekly meetings to prepare them for teaching my students.  Mentoring them is as important as working directly with the students, because the TAs are my representatives in the laboratory.

Progress of student learning is regularly assessed in three ways.  Exams, quizzes and homework assess the students' ability to learn facts, scientific concepts and problem solving.  Laboratory reports and quizzes assess their ability to apply chemistry principles, and CPR assesses their ability to write on chemistry topics and critique their peers' writing.  For the class exams, students spend many hours studying; therefore it is essential that tests accurately reflect what they know.  The exams combine multiple choice (60%) and free response (40%) questions.  Partial credit is given on multiple-choice by allowing students to give two answers to a question.  If only one is correct, they receive half-credit for that question.  Students must know something to be able to discard the other three answers and therefore they are rewarded for what they do know.  The free response part allows me to assess the students' thought processes as they problem solve.  Although graders make a first review of the test, I examine every student's exam to verify that they were graded accurately and fairly.  Scores are changed as necessary and comments are added.  My makeup policy demonstrates the "safety net" I provide.  Students are allowed to take makeup exams provided that they write me an honest explanation of why they missed the regularly scheduled exam.  Acceptable reasons for missing exams include illness, death in the family, job conflicts, weddings, oversleeping, having 4 exams that week, etc.  Each student has the opportunity to do their best to demonstrate how much chemistry they have learned.  If giving them an extra week will accomplish that, I am satisfied.  The makeup exam is slightly more difficult and all free response, so the students think carefully before taking a makeup exam.  I feel strongly that my job is setting up a learning environment to encourage them to learn chemistry; for me, that entails among other things, more lenient makeup policies and deadlines to minimize in a manner that is fair to all, the effects of outside stresses that impinge upon our students, particularly when a large class is involved.

For a truly successful learning community, the importance of open two-way communication is emphasized in my classroom.  This only happens if there is mutual respect.  On the first day of class, we share stories.  I distribute index cards for students to write personal information and attach a picture for a quiz grade; I give my life history as well.  E-mail is a wonderful thing.  An early quiz involves the students taking a modified Kiersey Temperament Sorter on-line and e-mailing me their results with comments.  I personally reply to each one, and use the results to better understand the range of learning styles in my class.  My students learn that they can e-mail me and I always answer, usually within a day.  

My philosophy inextricably entwines my enthusiasm and passion for the subject of chemistry with my respect and high regard for all students irrespective of their grades.  It is particularly rewarding when students become chemistry majors or minors because of my class, which happens on occasion, or go on into professional school.  

Lastly, I also believe that it is important to work with students within the university outside of the classroom and in the community to promote scholarship and learning.  I always allow my students in the classes I teach to volunteer in my outreach projects, like Chemistry Open House and Science Exploration Gallery.