Reading Reflection:

This will be due to the D2L Assignments Box

labeled Reading Reflection by Sunday, November 20th at 11:55 pm.
Instructions:
You should read the articles first, then attempt to answer the questions
outlined for each article. The answers to these questions should fit in ~1
page of 11-point, Times New Roman text with 1 margins. Use complete
sentences with appropriate grammar and punctuation. These will be graded
on a 1-3 scale as described in the Grading Policy section.
The Articles:
http://languages.oberlin.edu/blogs/ctie/2012/09/23/size-matters-howmuch-reading-to-assign-and-other-imponderables/
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teachingstrategies/effective-teaching-strategies-the-importance-of-marryingcontent-and-process/
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/coursecontent-can-fulfill-multiple-roles/
The Reflection Question:
1. In your previous experience as a student what did you view the role of
content as?
2. In your new experience as a preceptor has this view been changed or
altered? Why or Why not?
3. When/how do you think the labs effectively use content? Give me
specific examples of labs or activities you feel really exemplify
effective use of content.
4. When/how do you think the labs do not effectively use content? Give
me specific examples of labs or activities you feel really exemplify this
ineffective use of content.
5. Is there any content you would add to the course? How do you think it
would benefit students and TAs?
6. Is there any content you would remove from the course? How do you
think it would benefit students and TAs?

Jen Pimentel
Reading Reflection
In my previous experience as a student, I viewed content as something presented to me
by the professor and by the textbook for me to know. It was the backbone of the course because
thats what we were tested on, thats where our grade comes from. It didnt matter how we
acquired the content--and there were many ways to do this--we just had to do it.
Now, in my new experience as a preceptor this semester, content has taken a bit of a
bigger role than just knowledge acquisition. A lot hasnt changed about my perspective--content
still matters a lot, its still the backbone of every course, and it is what we are tested on in the end.
But now, from the work the labs put into critical thinking and guiding questions for the students, I
see that content also helps in determining course design as well as acquisition methods. For
example, introductory courses may talk more about the field itself, and allow for more discussion
and critical thinking among its students due to the presentation of completely new information.
Then in more advanced courses a teacher may go more in depth about what happens within the
field, and allow for more integrative work and application so that students can take what they
already know and use it to solve real-world problems. Knowledge acquisition is done through
several methods depending on the learner, so this has to be considered by everyone involved in
the learning process. In my previous learning experience, I believed that taking notes and
reviewing them before the exams was the best way for knowledge acquisition, and mostly
because our notes were the only resources my professor gave me. With a little more experience, I
realized that I learn things best through discussion, answering guiding questions, and
summarization, while other students may learn best through real-life examples, visualization, or
simply just reading the textbook.
In many ways, the lab is able to use content effectively to include many if not all
knowledge acquisition methods. For example, towards the beginning of the semester, lesson plans
were structured around old concepts and reviews. So the lab taught straight out of the textbook
most of the time. Then as the semester came along and new concepts were introduced, the labs
included more discussions and guiding questions throughout the lesson, which secured every bit
of information in students brains before moving on to the next bit of information. Then the
activities that were planned with the lesson do really well to solidify and summarize the lesson.
For example, for the Hemoglobin lab, a lot of the content was new information, so throughout the
lecture there are a lot of guiding questions to help keep the students on track. Then the online
simulation and linkage demo really helped the students visualize where and how the different
hemoglobin subunits bind to oxygen and take its two different conformations. Towards the end of
the semester there are visibly less guiding questions in the lecture, but the activities are geared
more towards applying the concepts to real life. For example, the Genetic Disease lab had near to
no guiding questions in the lesson plan--instead it gave students a patient with a list of symptoms,
and then asked them to diagnose their patient based on what symptoms they observed. This has
an application to the real world in that it shows what symptoms may be relevant in the diagnosis
of genetic diseases as well as how a change in genotype may affect someones phenotype. I dont
recall any ways in which the lab ineffectively uses content.
I think that these labs try their best to apply the range of learning methods possible for the
lesson. Its understandable that some labs are a bit more difficult to translate from lecture-style to
interactive methods--for example, the mitosis and meiosis lessons. This is obvious considering we
cannot observe a real live cell performing cell division in front of our eyes, and most online
simulations are merely informative, and replicates of the lecture power point slides. The
photosynthetic wavelengths lab relied on observation of color dyes as opposed to the electron
transport system itself. Its difficult because the students are unable to see the process itself
happening, and instead use indicators, which might be tripped by a number of other factors, to
determine activity. The lesson plan might be able to make up for this by incorporating more

guiding questions or an interactive activity based around a diagram of the electron transport
system. As for taking things out of the lesson plan, I believe that every activity has its own
contribution towards understanding a specific concept or the general idea of the topic for the
week.