Context

Small regional campus in rural Utah

Diverse student body

Poor recruitment and retention of biology majors

Redesigning intro biology majors course:

Course objectives

Regular clicker questions

Emphasis of metacognition using Bloom’s

Questions

In my introductory biology course (~15 students):

1. Does improvement in HOCS clicker questions correlate with improvement of HOCS exam questions?

2. Does metacognition of Bloom’s levels influence student attitudes toward biology or learning?

Study Design

bloom clicker and exam questionsand track performance of individual students

Question 1: Does improvement in HOCS clicker questions correlate with improvement of HOCS exam questions?

focus questions on Bloom’s and studying attitudes - 3 times in semester

pre/post biology attitude survey (eg. BioCLASS)

study process questionnaire survey ofsurface vs deep learning (eg. RSPQ)

compare retention data to previous semesters

Question 2: Does metacognition of Bloom’s levels influence student attitudes toward biology or learning?

Significance

identify useful learning skills in biology

21st century skills (higher order thinking)

segue to further questions

do students retain this metacognition in future courses?

does this metacognition help students stay in the major?