Cultivating Multiple Learning Styles in Fish 101

Fred Johnson, senior lecturer in the School of Fisheries, teaches the big one--Fish 101. Many of the 250 students who enroll in the course are non-majors seeking science distribution credits. With such a large number of students, Johnson strives to create an environment that teaches in multiple ways to address varied learning styles and levels of achievement.

"If you can teach a diverse group of students and have them learn at their different levels simultaneously--rather than having some bored and others over-challenged--then you are really pulling something off," smiles Johnson. "That is the high art of teaching."

In pursuing that art, Johnson has experimented with email, spreadsheets, Web pages, and multimedia, but finds it necessary to continually monitor and evaluate their use to be sure they actually help students reach the objectives of the course.

Enrich with Active Learning Options

"We have been tinkering with the 101 class to give students a richer educational experience with learning options that appeal to different learning styles," explains Johnson.

Not that his lectures lack richness. Johnson is well known for his dynamic style and his use of the unexpected to make his points.

To illustrate the concept of oxygen debt, he lifts weights while instruments display his brachial artery rate of blood flow on video screens and speakers amplify the sound. "I broke the mold of the old lecture model right from the start," admits Johnson.

After lifting weights as part of a demonstration of oxygen debt, Fred Johnson catches his breath and returns to a discussion of the Krebs cycle.

The impetus for creating the optional activities was the recognition that the conventional quiz sections "were simply parroting what was happening in lecture," says Johnson. He felt that these additional offerings would provide students with a more participatory, hands-on learning experience.

The first active learning option was offered in 1995 as part of a UWired project to experiment with the use of instructional technologies. Now Fish 101 offers ten optional activities, many of which involve using computers to:

• Analyze and graph data
• Find information on the World Wide Web
• Create presentations with PowerPoint software

Other learning options consist of discussions, studying specimens, and visiting sites such as the Seattle Aquarium and Fisherman's Terminal.

For Spring Quarter 1997, the number of lectures each week was reduced from five to four, leaving the Friday lecture time open. As many of the optional activities as possible were scheduled in that Friday time slot to help ensure that all students taking the class would be able to participate.

Hone the Content

"In bringing this new stuff in, I've got to be fair to all the students," says Johnson, "and not sacrifice content."

But how can he reduce the number of lectures and not reduce the amount of material covered? "I had to distill the content into a quickly digestible form--a good exercise for any instructor," replies Johnson.

Fred Johnson can use specimens from the extensive UW Fish Collection.

Design for Student Participation

"Education has been a static, linear process," Johnson says. "Instructors have gone through their material from one end to the other--sometimes embellishing it with chalkboard drawings, slides, or movies--while students just sat and waited until they were done.

"Now students can play just about any role, even co-teaching. Analyzing data with spreadsheets, making Web pages, and doing presentations are ways to create more spontaneous, more participatory educational experiences," adds Johnson. "When a student gets up in front of the whole class with me to make a presentation, the other students not only can better relate to the project, but they are more likely to feel that they could do one, too."

Overall, Johnson's experience is that the active learning options benefit his teaching because students:

• Take ownership of information, collecting and exploring it on their own rather than just cramming to get by the next test
• Are strongly motivated to keep up with the course content as it is presented in the lectures so that they can participate in the activities
• Develop transferable skills such as how to work with spreadsheets, make Web pages, and use email

Monitor Effectiveness

Monitoring the effectiveness of the activities gets at the heart of what the educator's role is all about, Johnson feels.

"Ask your students to tell you where you can do better, and be willing to change," he says. "See what excites your students, and give them as much of that as possible. Let your students know that you care about every one of them."

Keep Your Eye on the Goal

"In the long run, I don't think we will ever dispense with lectures," he concedes. "As technologies change, we will mix them in and continually re-evaluate their role. A hazard is that we will get distracted by the gadgets and not come up with the creative insights we need to spark our content." As an example, Johnson describes the use of spreadsheets in an activity exploring toxicological monitoring data.

"You could easily end up spending a lot of time working with the spreadsheet program and think that that's education," explains Johnson. "As an educator, however, you can't be method-oriented. You must be goal-oriented to be most effective, and the goal is for each student to have intellectual insight into the subject matter."