Colthorpe, Kay - University of Queensland - School of Biomedical Sciences

研究领域

As I am a teaching-focussed academic, my research interests centre on teaching and learning. Specifically, I want to understand how students learn in a conceptually challenging discipline like physiology. However, the primary purpose of any T&L research is not simply to improve our knowledge and disseminate findings, although that is important. Instead, the primary aim of our research must always be to improve student learning outcomes. It is essential not only that we do research in T&L, but that we also incorporate those research findings into our teaching and curriculum design, and encourage others to do so too. Currently my research is pursuing two major themes: (1) how we promote the development of undergraduate science students ‘scientific’ skills, encompassing science communication, scientific reasoning and critical thinking; and (2) innovations in assessment and feedback to support student learning. Scientific skill development It is clear that undergraduate students need to develop a variety of skills to successfully complete their programs of study, to improve their employability and to develop into lifelong learners. For science students these include the information literacy skills that will allow them to develop the ability to access, manage and integrate multimodal information, the skills to create, understand and communicate scientifically reasoned arguments, and the critical thinking skills that enable them to become adept problem-solvers. Throughout our science courses we have introduced multiple opportunities for students to develop these ‘generic’ skills. I am actively involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of many of these activities, many of which are based on the active-learning strategies of my earlier research. In addition, I believe that inquiry-based laboratory classes are particularly vital to facilitate the development of students’ research and problem-solving skills. These classes are the basis for a number of aspects of my research. We have been extensively evaluating their impact, both overall (Zimbardi et al, 2013) and specifically, including the evaluation of undergraduate science students development of (i) scientific argument skills in oral presentations (Bugarcic et al, 2014); (ii) understanding of the nature of science (Zimbardi et al 2015); (iii) scientific literacy (Colthorpe et al 2015); and (iv) use of evidence (Colthorpe et al, in preparation). We developed methodologies to measure the quality of students’ scientific argument, in both spoken and written forms, allowing us to identify key problem areas in students’ scientific arguments and epistemologies of science. This has led to the development and implementation of evidence-based educational interventions to address these key problems, which have subsequently been evaluated. My research group continues to examine these themes in ongoing research on inquiry-based laboratory classes. Assessment and feedback Recently there has been strong impetus to encourage all students studying biomedical science to develop the attributes of scientific thinking, through the development of skills such as critical thinking, information literacy and problem-solving skills, and an ability to create and communicate scientific arguments. My research has focused on development and evaluation of innovative assessment tasks and feedback practices which both encourage and provide an evidence base for the achievement of those outcomes. This research area has developed down two specific pathways. The first of these is the focus on feedback, with a multi-faceted view on the ways in which feedback are provided (including from both academics and peers), the value of that feedback, and the students’ responses to feedback. This work has identified the type and nature of effective feedback (Colthorpe et al 2013), and has encompassed the extensive use of feedback analytics (in the ‘UQMarkup’ project; Zimbardi et al 2016) to identify patterns of effective feedback provision and use. In addition, the value of feedback to and from peers, and its contribution to the development of students’ abilities to critique their work and that of others has been investigated (Colthorpe et al, 2014). The second aspect, and current major focus of my research group, is the development and evaluation of ‘meta-learning’ assessment tasks. These tasks have enabled us to identify (i) the self-regulation of learning that undergraduate students perform; (ii) the relationships between the self-regulatory strategies used by students, learning outcomes and academic resilience; (iii) the conceptually challenging aspects of physiology and students’ approaches to dealing with those difficult concepts. Collectively, this work has been the basis of multiple honours and undergraduate research projects. The findings have been fed back into curriculum design (with inclusion into nine courses to date), with meta-learning tasks now specifically designed as educational interventions, to prompt students to develop their metacognitive skills and to undertake more advanced forms of self-regulation. To date, this work has been published in the Journal of Learning Analytics (Colthorpe et al 2015), is the subject of a manuscript currently in review, and further manuscripts are in preparation.

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Good, Jonathon, Colthorpe, Kay, Zimbardi, Kirsten and Kafer, Georgia (2015) The roles of mentoring and motivation in student teaching assistant interactions and in improving experience in first-Year biology laboratory classes. Journal of College Science Teaching, 44 4: 88-98. Colthorpe, Kay, Zimbardi, Kirsten, Ainscough, Louise and Anderson, Stephen (2015) Know thy student! combining learning analytics and critical reflections to increase understanding of students’ self-regulated learning in an authentic setting. Journal of Learning Analytics, 2 1: 134-155. Colthorpe, Kay, Zimbardi, Kirsten, Bugarcic, Andrea and Smith, Aaron (2015) Progressive development of scientific literacy through assessment in inquiry-based biomedical science curricula. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, 23 5: 52-64. Bugarcic, Andrea, Colthorpe, Kay, Farrand, Kirsten, Su, Hing Wee and Jackson, Kelly (2014) The development of undergraduate science students’ scientific argument skills in oral presentations. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematice Education, 22 5: 43-60. Colthorpe, Kay, Chen, Xuebin and Zimbardi, Kirsten (2014) Peer feedback enhances a "journal club" for undergraduate science students that develops oral communication and critical evaluation skills. Journal of Learning Design, 7 2: 105-119. doi:10.5204/jld.v7i2.198 Chunduri, Prasad, Lluka, Lesley, Kinna, Genevieve, Good, Jonathan, Zimbardi, Kirsten and Colthorpe, Kay (2014) A simple way to cultivate referencing habits in first year biology students. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, 22 2: 75-84. Zimbardi, Kirsten, Bugarcic, Andrea, Colthorpe, Kay, Good, Jonathon P and Lluka, Lesley (2013) A set of vertically integrated inquiry-based practical curricula that develop scientific thinking skills for large cohorts of undergraduate students. Advances In Physiology Education, 37 4: 303-315. doi:10.1152/advan.00082.2012 Colthorpe, Kay, Rowland, Susan and Leach, Joan Threshold learning outcome 4: communication. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), 2013. Colthorpe, Kay, Liang, Shaohong and Zimbardi, Kisten (2013) Facilitating timely feedback in the biomedical sciences. International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education (formerly CAL-Laborate International), 21 3: 60-74. Ernst, Hardy, Harrison, John and Colthorpe, Kay (2012) Mobile learning materials as a 'prompt' for participation in physiology practical classes. International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 6 1: 25-37. doi:10.1504/IJMLO.2012.046880 Colthorpe, Kay L., Farrand-Zimbardi, Kirsten and Kibedi, Judit (2010). Using oral assessment tasks to guide the development of scientific reasoning skills in undergraduate science students. In: 2010 Annual Conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL 2010), Liverpool, U.K., (). 19 - 22 October 2010. Farrand-Zimbardi, Kirsten, Colthorpe, Kay L., Good, Jon P. and Lluka, Lesley J. (2010). Becoming a scientist: The development of students’ skills in scientific investigation and communication through a vertically integrated model of inquiry-based practical curricula. In: 2010 Annual Conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL 2010), Liverpool, U.K., (). 19 - 22 October. Ernst, Hardy and Colthorpe, Kay (2008) Expanding voluntary active-learning opportunities for pharmacy students in a respiratory physiology module. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 72 2: Article Number: 28. Ernst, H and Colthorpe, K (2007) The efficacy of interactive lecturing for students with diverse science backgrounds. Advances In Physiology Education, 31 1: 41-44. doi:10.1152/advan.00107.2006 Colthorpe, K. L. and Ernst, H. G. G. (2005). Using Increased interactivity and student presentations during Physiology laboratory sessions to improve active learning and conceptual understanding. In: Gay Crebert, Lynda Davies and Susan Phillips, Proceedings of the Effective Teaching and Learning Conference. Effective Teaching and Learning Conference, Logan Campus, (1-6). 4-5 Nov. 2004.