Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Series: “Watching Students Discuss: A multimedia approach to assessing seminar skills”
Wednesday, March 21
José Alfonso Feito, Associate Professor of Psychology, Saint Mary’s College of California
José Feito was a Carnegie Scholar during 2001 and 2003. During both periods he worked on ways of understanding undergraduate participation in seminar discussions, and how we can teach our students skills that contribute to successful discussions.
Feito’s presentation for this conversation reports on the development and implementation of an innovative video-based assessment tool that explores students’ understanding of discussion-style learning. This conversation should be of value to all faculty interested in improving student discussions in their classes.
As part of a larger effort to understand learning within their general education “Great Books” seminars, a group of Saint Mary’s College faculty worked in conjunction with videographers and information technology specialists to create a meaningful way of tapping students’ evolving perceptions of seminar processes. Our students observed video segments of classroom discussions and rated individual student behaviors with regard to discussion-related learning outcomes such as clear expression, textual support, logical reasoning, and collaboration. We asked ourselves: Can students accurately distinguish quality seminar participation along the criteria emphasized in our learning outcomes? This presentation examines some of the conceptual issues that arose during the development phase of this project, demonstrates the finished video assessment tool and reports on some initial findings.
