Are students’ impressions of improved learning through active learning methods reflected by improved test scores?
Section snippets
Background
There has been a push to move away from traditional classroom lectures towards more active learning pedagogies. Benner et al. (2009) described a gap between nursing education and practice. Their recommendations included integration of classroom and clinical teaching techniques, moving from an emphasis on critical thinking to an emphasis on clinical reasoning, and to develop teaching methods that are focused on patient care, such as simulations, unfolding cases, and live interviews. Mikol (2005)
Process of change
This junior level (third year) baccalaureate maternal and newborn nursing course historically utilized traditional lecture methods in the classroom. I recognized the following problems: students generally did not prepare for class in advance by reading or reviewing materials outside class time; students struggled to apply what they were learning; and lecture does not generally improve student critical thinking skills and application of knowledge. In order to address these concerns and in an
Methods
Students in the Spring 2010 semester (n = 44), the control group, received traditional lecture in the classroom. Students in the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters (n = 95), referred to as the test group, received the lecture content via pre-recorded Tegrity (http://www.tegrity.com) and/or Adobe Breeze (http://www.adobe.com) lectures and active-learning methods were used during class time. Students were expected to review the pre-recorded lectures, read their texts, and utilize other information
Student survey
There were 95 students enrolled in the two test semesters, therefore to yield a ± 5% precision level with a confidence level of 95% and p = 0.5, we needed a minimum sample size of 48; for a ± 10% precision level, we needed a sample size of 77 (Isreal, 2011). Fifty-one (51) (54% response rate) participants completed the voluntary student survey. See Table 1 for a summary of survey results. Eighty percent (80%, n = 41) of the responding students strongly agreed or agreed with liking the small group
Discussion
As only fifty-four percent (54%) of the students completed the voluntary survey, one cannot be sure of all students’ opinions. There were no course points given for completing the survey which could have contributed to the low response rate. However, based on the minimum sample size needed, one can estimate that 70 to 90% of students in this population preferred the active learning methods. The majority of students’ responses to the survey were favorable and the verbal comments made by students
Conclusions
This article adds to the growing research base for evidence based teaching regarding active learning techniques in the classroom. In this study, student reflection of improved learning is supported by improved test scores. These findings give support to other studies where only students’ reflections were measured. These findings also give more support for active-learning and application-based teaching methods. Additional studies are still needed to strengthen and confirm these findings.
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