Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom

In the biological sciences, students frequently equate understanding to compiling and memorizing information as a series of isolated facts. For this reason, they struggle to connect major concepts across course curriculums. In other disciplines, improvisation techniques have been introduced as a way...

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Autores principales:	Laura J. MacDonald, Amanda Solem, Verónica A. Segarra
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2016
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/19da90685651416bbd2860366812435d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:19da90685651416bbd2860366812435d2021-11-15T15:13:57ZUsing the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom10.1128/jmbe.v17i3.11781935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/19da90685651416bbd2860366812435d2016-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v17i3.1178https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885In the biological sciences, students frequently equate understanding to compiling and memorizing information as a series of isolated facts. For this reason, they struggle to connect major concepts across course curriculums. In other disciplines, improvisation techniques have been introduced as a way to engage with millenials, who learn best through inductive and experiential learning. Here we present an improvisational classroom activity called “Yes, and…” as a review technique that can be used throughout the semester and in multiple contexts to help students assimilate and integrate information. Students in small groups first review a major topic provided by the instructor (for example, DNA structure or DNA properties). Then, one student in the group contributes one sentence that starts a narrative about the topic being reviewed as learned in class. Additional members of the group then take turns, one at a time, to add additional layers of details to the narrative. The group dynamic continues until all of the students in the group have contributed at least one sentence to the narrative. Students are encouraged to listen carefully to their classmates’ contributions so that inaccurate ideas can be identified and tweaked through conversation at the end of one round of the exercise. The instructor moves between groups to continue to foster the learning experience. We find that the “Yes, and…” approach promotes deep student engagement with course material, collaboration among students of different backgrounds, and fosters development of oral communication skills.Laura J. MacDonaldAmanda SolemVerónica A. SegarraAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 17, Iss 3, Pp 482-484 (2016)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Laura J. MacDonald Amanda Solem Verónica A. Segarra Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom
description	In the biological sciences, students frequently equate understanding to compiling and memorizing information as a series of isolated facts. For this reason, they struggle to connect major concepts across course curriculums. In other disciplines, improvisation techniques have been introduced as a way to engage with millenials, who learn best through inductive and experiential learning. Here we present an improvisational classroom activity called “Yes, and…” as a review technique that can be used throughout the semester and in multiple contexts to help students assimilate and integrate information. Students in small groups first review a major topic provided by the instructor (for example, DNA structure or DNA properties). Then, one student in the group contributes one sentence that starts a narrative about the topic being reviewed as learned in class. Additional members of the group then take turns, one at a time, to add additional layers of details to the narrative. The group dynamic continues until all of the students in the group have contributed at least one sentence to the narrative. Students are encouraged to listen carefully to their classmates’ contributions so that inaccurate ideas can be identified and tweaked through conversation at the end of one round of the exercise. The instructor moves between groups to continue to foster the learning experience. We find that the “Yes, and…” approach promotes deep student engagement with course material, collaboration among students of different backgrounds, and fosters development of oral communication skills.
format	article
author	Laura J. MacDonald Amanda Solem Verónica A. Segarra
author_facet	Laura J. MacDonald Amanda Solem Verónica A. Segarra
author_sort	Laura J. MacDonald
title	Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom
title_short	Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom
title_full	Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom
title_fullStr	Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom
title_full_unstemmed	Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom
title_sort	using the improvisational “yes, and…” approach as a review technique in the student-centered biology classroom
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/19da90685651416bbd2860366812435d
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Using the Improvisational “Yes, and…” Approach as a Review Technique in the Student-Centered Biology Classroom

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