Concept: The Female Reproductive System
What is the menstrual cycle?
What causes it?
What are hormones?
Are there different phases?
What occurs in each phase?
When is a woman most fertile?
What happens in the ovary after ovulation?
Which hormones are present at which times of the cycle?
What happens to the lining of the uterus during the cycle?
What hormone is increased in order to maintain pregnancy?
Do all women get their period at the same time of the month?
Margot,
ReplyDeleteI like your lines of questioning. It is leading the student to delve and really ask themselves what they know. I really like your last question, I think it will really get to the bottom of some student misconceptions. I wonder though, if you planted a question similar to that earlier in the interview, if it would force them to chew on it (and most likely-their erroneous answer) throughout the rest of the interview and realize they were wrong about it by the time they reached the end? One question I am wondering is how other interviewers are going to gauge the confidence your student has in the material? For my interview, I am struggling with this aspect, because just simply gauging by whether the student gets the question right or wrong does not uncover their confidence in what they are saying. They could be dead wrong, but feel like they are giving the 100% most correct answer that ever existed. Also, have you thought about something open ended...such as, "extrapolate what would happen if there was a maximized level of progesterone during the wrong portion of the cycle..etc.?" A question like this might help uncover how deep the student understanding really goes? Also, do you feel that your answers could be biased if you interviewed a male vs. a female student?
You posted somewhere you are worried about the interviewee gettin stuck on question one. I think you are save if you interview a woman above 12 years of age. For a man, i think your interview fulfilled its purpose if it reveals that a college boy has no clue about a menstrual cycle. Another issue might be that a guy doesnt feel comfortable with the topic and "refuses" to think about it. Maybe directly referring to mammals or even specifically to cows for instance might help a little. On that note: I am an innercity kid, was in my 20's when I had a bitch and it actually surprised me for a moment when i saw red circles on the hardwood floor.
ReplyDeleteMargot, I also read your trepidation about what to do if a student gets stuck. I think it is a very valid concern. Remember that we aren't trying to validate their factual recall, but rather their conceptual understanding of how ideas relate to one another. I think that your topic is perfect for an interview because you can ask several real-world questions that would get at these ideas. So perhaps you could write a 3-4 sentence narrative about a couple who is trying to get pregnant, and they know that it isn't a problem with sperm count or motility. You could ask the student how to advise a woman to increase the likelihood that she get pregnant. In their explanation, you could then gently probe about specifics. I also like Shanda's suggestion about "extrapolate" as a way of creating a more open-ended question.
ReplyDeleteMargot, I too was planning on looking into the female reproductive system in a little different way. I think it's intersting since EVERYONE has heard/experienced/been affected by female reproduction in some way. Are you planning to interview male and female students? Also, I was wondering what you will be doing if a student doesn't understnad the vocabulary used in the questions, like ovulation for example? Are you addressing menopouse at all?
ReplyDeleteMargo,
DeleteI am with Stephan when it come to interviewing a male student who just may not be comfortable with the subject matter. I don't think you will have a huge problem with your students being able to answer question #1. I like your question on hormones that are involved in the menstrual cycle. You could definitely go in that direction and probe their understanding of what each hormone actually does. There can be many misconceptions there and maybe probe into the students' thoughts when it comes to "PMSing" and blow some of those myths out of the water.
I think the questioning is good but I too will have to agree with Stephan. A male subject would be age dependent, and since most males minds dont mature until 30 or 40 sometimes then it would be a tough call. I like the suggestion of utilizing a scenario to ask the same questions, this could also probe deeper thinking and bring misconceptions to the surface.
ReplyDelete