Job talk: Expert-Novice Research: A Pathway to More Effective Teaching and Learning

Julie Libarkin
Department of Geological Sciences
Michigan State University

Investigations of student cognition, affect, and behavior abound in higher education. These studies provide evidence of the novice condition, and suggest solutions for remediation and development of more effective teaching environments. Studies of experts are also quite common, particularly in learning and cognitive science. Comparison of novices and experts is less common in higher education science, although cutting edge research in most science disciplines has existed for several decades. Expertise studies allow testing of fundamental hypotheses about the upper stages of learning, suggesting fundamental limits on how much we can reasonably expect novices to learn and understand. Unpacking how experts behave in complex situations, including strategies used to work around individual limitations, can offer insights into how best to scaffold students towards greater understanding and eventual expertise.

This talk will cover three distinct expert-novice studies conducted with a wide range of interdisciplinary colleagues. The first study focuses on early career undergraduate geoscience majors through advanced professional geologists, and investigates geocognitive strategies and behaviors employed during field mapping. This work utilizes a diverse data set, including GPS tracking, interviews, audio logs, and map analysis. The second study addresses mental models of the greenhouse effect brought into the classroom by non-science majors, with comparison to models held by faculty teaching general science courses. This work resulted in validation of a novel approach to analyzing and interpreting student drawings. The final study considers how novices, from the general public to university students, engage with visualizations used to convey science, and considers differences between these novices and scientists. This work utilizes both eye tracking and crowd sourcing approaches to collect information about how individuals interact with visuals, and considers design elements that can facilitate expert-like viewing behavior in novices. All three studies will: 1) Analyze differences in expert and novice cognition or behavior; 2) Provide new approaches for using visuals in teaching or assessing learning; and 3) Challenge basic assumptions and provide suggestions for improving field, classroom or informal education.

Professor Libarkin is a candidate for the Tomlinson Chair in Science Education. Her biography follows:

Julie Libarkin is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University with a joint appointment in the Department of Geological Sciences and the Division of Science and Mathematics Education (DSME). She is also affiliated with the Center for Research on College Science Teaching and Learning (CRCSTL), MSU's Cognitive Science Program, and MSU’s Environmental Science and Policy Program.

Ultimately, she hopes to develop an empirical and theoretically consistent model for geocognition, a description of both the mechanisms by which novices gain understanding of geologic phenomena and the nature of working geological expertise.