Use of Frameworks in Skills-Based Learning :: Graduate College Admissions Essays

Use of Frameworks in Skills-Based Learning    During the 1990s, many science programs across the country replaced concepts-based learning with skills-based learning. Many teachers, however, have experienced difficulties in making the transition. Moreover, they have noted that some students do not seem to benefit from the skills-based learning. One reason for this is that in many skills-based courses, students are not given a conceptual framework in which they can situate the skills that the course emphasizes. Instead, many instructors are simply asking their students to practice the skills, without giving them the conceptual structures that give those skills meaning. In my experience, no matter how much students practice whatever skills, few are able to develop a clear conceptual matrix for those skills without significant guidance from the instructor. A direct approach to this problem means that the instructor first provides students with the scaffolding of concepts for each skill. In this essay, I describe an exercise that can be used to develop a framework for students to evaluate what they observe in their laboratory exercises.    During a course, I dedicate portions of several class meetings to the development of a conceptual framework for evaluating explanations of observations. A week in advance of each session, I distribute two questions that we will discuss in class the following week. In the next class meeting I divide students into small groups and brainstorm answers for about fifteen minutes. For the next ten minutes, I moderate as each group shares their ideas with the entire class and I record the consensus position derived from the views the groups have presented. As soon as is practical, I distribute a statement of this consensus position. In this way, in the minds of the students, the work of the session is extended over two or three weeks even though the session itself lasts for only part of a class meeting.    In each session, I pose two questions for discussion that address either one key issue that helps the students work towards the larger goal of creating a conceptual framework for explanation of observations. I don't reveal the goal to the students before they brainstorm because focusing on the goal itself may short-circuit their thinking in the crucial early stages of the process. The goals are arranged so that each session's work builds on the work of the previous session.    Goal of the first session: identify different types of explanation.