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Use of Educational Technology to Transform the 50-Minute Lecture: Is Student Response Dependent on Learning Style?

Chrysanthe Demetry Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Abstract

Educational technologies like web-deployed assessments and student response systems provide opportunities for formative assessment that would be expected to enhance student learning and help create a more active classroom environment. These technologies can be used in ways that might help or hinder particular types of learners, yet not much research has been done in this area. This paper describes student response to BlackboardTM-delivered “preparation assessments” and use of the Classroom Performance SystemTM in two offerings of a large-enrollment introductory materials science course. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used as a measure of learning style, and pre- and post-course questionnaires probed students’ reactions. Initial findings indicate that Judging and Perceiving students respond differently to both technologies, and that students with Extroversion preferences tend to react in particular ways to use of CPS. Effects of gender, however, are as or more pervasive than effects of type, and gender and type interact in complex ways.

Introduction and Background

Recent syntheses of the science of learning and assessment of learning have argued for the key role that formative assessment plays in enhancing student learning.1,2 In this context, formative assessment refers to providing feedback to students for learning, versus a summative assessment of learning. Increasingly, educational technologies are making it feasible to provide more formative assessment to students in a relatively efficient manner, even in large enrollment courses. This paper describes ongoing experiments in the use of educational technologies in an introductory materials science course. Students are asked to prepare for class by reading the textbook and/or lecture notes and then taking a daily “preparation assessment” via BlackboardTM. The questions in these assessments are designed to reveal student misconceptions at a formative stage in the learning process. Fifty-minute class periods are then planned “just in time”3,4 to bring these misconceptions to the forefront. Short “mini-lectures” are interspersed with frequent use of the Classroom Performance System,5 a feedback/voting technology or “student response system” that enables instructors to pose questions and problems to students and provide them with immediate feedback on their understanding.

This type of active/interactive classroom experience, along with the expectation to start the learning process on their own via preparation assessments, is novel to most science and engineering students. The dominant model on our campus and many others is still the 50-minute lecture with an expectation of listening and note-taking. While in general students respond well to a more active classroom, there is clearly a spectrum of reactions. This research addresses the question of whether there are patterns in student response according to learning style.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Demetry, C. (2005, June), Use Of Educational Technology To Transform The 50 Minute Lecture: Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14425