Thursday, November 12, 2015

Please send me your Intro BioAnth (PhysAnth, Human Origins/Evolution) syllabus

Dear colleagues,

I'm in the early stages of planning a study to determine the most effective approaches to teaching Introductory Biological/Physical Anthropology (also called "Human Origins" etc...) to undergraduates.

Mostly I'm interested in their evolutionary thinking and whether we can identify our best methods for bettering it over one semester.

This study would involve inviting students enrolled in this course at colleges and universities around North America to take pre- and post-tests on-line (which could earn them some form of extra credit on your end, if you do that sort of thing). All participation would be entirely anonymous except for the feedback about your own (anonymized first) students that you and I share, if you'd like to hear about it. The results of this study should benefit us all.

Before I get to any of it, though, it would help greatly to see your syllabi so that I can identify the major ways that our learning outcomes and our approaches vary. This will help me frame hypotheses and write survey questions.

So please, I'm begging you, please send me your most recent syllabus for Introduction to Biological Anthropology (aka Introduction to Physical Anthropology aka Introduction to Human Evolution/Origins) or the equivalent course at your institution, that you teach.

holly_dunsworth@uri.edu

If you want mine in return, I'll be happy to reciprocate!

If you do share, you have my word that I will keep your syllabus confidential and anonymous and will not share with anyone.

When you send it, would you please mention whether you'd be interested in participating in such a study in the near future?

Thank you so much in advance,
Holly

P.S. If you could share this with your colleagues who teach this course, I'd be forever grateful.

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