Organization
Simon Fraser University
Joan Sharp
Profile
-
-
ORCID0000-0002-2365-9217
-
Biography
I received my BA and BSc from McGill University and my MSc from the University of British Columbia. This fall, I will be promoted to Teaching Professor at Simon Fraser University, where I teach Introduction to Biology, General Biology, Ecology, and Vertebrate and Invertebrate Biology. My teaching and research interests include a number of areas: (1) Prior or newly acquired misconceptions interfere with student success in building meaningful biological understanding. It is important to understand common misconceptions and to develop activities that allow students to address and correct their misconceptions. Concept inventories can be used to measure students’ learning gains to assess the success of teaching strategies targeting student misconceptions. (2) Students’ written work can serve as a starting point to address areas of misunderstanding and to help students refine and express biological ideas. (3) Case studies engage students with key concepts by using meaningful real world scenarios. Clicker–case studies allow the implementation of case studies in large lecture courses, facilitating small group discussion and increasing student learning. (4) Argumentation is a key component of critical thinking and scientific reasoning. Effective argumentation requires the selection and evaluation of evidence in order to articulate and defend a carefully thought-out position. Development of this essential scientific skill benefits from a supportive learning environment in which students are prompted with a controversial question and provided with explicit instruction on argumentation.