Scientific Teaching is a framework for teaching science incorporating the nature of science: experimental, rigorous, and based on evidence about how people learn. It incorporates active learning, assessment and diversity.
Teachable units are designed by first identifying the learning outcomes (what will the students be able to do?), then determining the evidence for students reaching those outcomes (exams, projects, etc). The learning experiences are planned, and then aligned with the assessments to help students achieve the learning outcomes.
What does this look like in practice? What happens in the classroom? The picture below shows the typical use of time in a 50 minute “lecture-style” class developed in a teaching fellows program at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The majority of class time is active learning rather than lecturing.
Examples of teaching units are posted by the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching Digital Library. How does your course compare?
A group of Duke faculty in Biology are currently redesigning their courses to use the principles of Scientific Teaching, with the help of a CIT faculty fellowship.