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CPR-casting
A
process aimed at enhancing students' problem solving skills, while
providing a recording of performance competencies.
Background:
During the course of administering various STEM
projects at institutions in
New York
,
New Jersey
, and
Oklahoma
over a fourteen
(14) year period, systemic problems in STEM readiness were documented.
These problems almost always prevented institutions from achieving their
desired objectives – an increase in the number of STEM scholars entering into
and graduating from the institution and pursuing advanced STEM degrees. One such
problem was less than satisfactory performance on
ACS (American Chemical Society) exams and other national benchmark exams that
are tracked as performance measurements. Close
scrutiny of classroom performance uncovered what appears to be the underlying
cause of wide-spread poor performance on standardized tests – an inability to
work word problems and overall inadequate problem solving skills. Some
of the most common problems can be summarized as follows:
1.
Word problems appear to generate the greatest difficulty. Students
attempt to work them without taking the time to understand underlying concepts;
rather, they look for the quick answer and appear to be pleased to guess
correctly rather than derive the answer from knowledge.
2.
When studying, students seem to believe that they can concentrate
with multiple auditory distractions – music, chatter, games – and therefore
miss opportunities to fully engage in study. They seem unaware of the role a
quiet environment (absence of music) plays in aiding the
degree of concentration that is often required to thoroughly understand the
concept and application of the problem.
3.
Students have not
been trained to sketch a “visual representation” of a problem, and fail to
write down anything, preferring to rely on memory.
Therefore they fail to capitalize on an excellent tool for retaining
concepts.
4.
The process of reading and speaking a problem aloud is not commonly
practiced, yet it adds to the conceptualization and learning process.
5.
Students tend to be too impatient to spend the time necessary to
work through the problem solving process, or to spend the time required to do
repetitions necessary to cement
learning.
In response to the challenge, the CPR-Casting (Competency Performance
Recordings) system was devised and beta
tested. It is a three-step program
that exhibited a positive impact on General Chemistry I students' ability to
master course content and experience improvement in
problem solving skills. These activities can be replicated in other disciplines.
We
invite other faculty to share their core course concepts and rubrics.
Write to us at: info@cprcasting.com and
share your findings. We will gladly publish them here, under
"contributing Universities, and we'll also add your biography and project
name in the areas provided.
John
K. Coleman, PhD
Langston University
Department of Chemistry
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