Presenting Nationwide Professional Development

Presenting Nationwide Professional Development

At his first Knowles cohort meeting, Stephen was introduced to the Understanding by Design® framework. Over the five years of the Fellowship, he explored this framework further through lesson study with other Fellows. Stephen shared the Understanding by Design® framework with his wife—Julie Minbiole, a biology professor—who began using it to improve learning in her courses at Columbia College. The two shared the insights they gained from implementing Understanding by Design® during a workshop—Improving Course Coherence, Assessment, and Student Engagement using Understanding by Design Planning—at the 2015 National Association of Biology Teachers Annual Meeting. The goal of their presentation (and her accompanying paper) was to foster conversation between high school science teachers and undergraduate-level science professors to facilitate the sharing of pedagogy and practice.