The shift to competency-based education expands the role of the teacher from that of a provider of information and into a shaper of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These roles are facilitated by establishing a social contract between the instructor and learner, a contract that clearly defines the rights and duties of each. Adopting greater…

Four different methods for attending to a lecture were studied: listening, listening with an outline, note-taking, and note-taking with an outline. Each method was designed to influence the learner's level of processing and, therefore, to effect the encoding and retrieval of information from a lecture. In addition, the effects of no review or…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of student learning style and presentation mode on student learning in an introduction to computer science class. The learning styles studied were sensing and intuiting, as identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The presentation mode was either traditional lecture or hypermedia.…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary examination of the efficacy of two teaching methodologies: traditional lecture versus cooperative learning. A sample of 50 students was taken from a mid-size, southern, metropolitan university. The subjects were divided into 2 groups: 27 who learned course material via the traditional lecture…

The study examined the encoding function in student note taking in relationship to learning from a university lecture. It was expected that note taking effectiveness would be positively related to learning; and, that the notes of high and low effective note takers would differ significantly. After pretesting, a 551-word lecture on research methods…

The usefulness of taking notes to enhance recall was assessed, based on reviewing the research literature using the techniques of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows for both the computation of the strength of an effect within studies and the determination of mean effect sizes averaged across related studies. Fourteen studies that maintained…

Note-taking at college lectures is believed to provide an external memory device for review and to require the student to encode the learning material into a personally meaningful form. A closer examination of the kinds of notes made and used by students may help to explain the relationship between the note-taking process and individual…

Three variables (verbal aptitude, listening ability, and notetaking) that may mediate how much college students learn from a lecture were studied. Verbal aptitude was operationalized as a Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (VSAT) score. Listening ability was measured as the score on an auditory short-term memory task, using the serial running memory…

A study was undertaken to assess the efficacy of the spaced lecture as a possible alternative to the traditional lecture method. The spaced lecture separates note-taking from intensive listening. Two hundred male and female freshman and sophomore students at a junior college in Georgia in fall 1978, in intact classes, were administered three main…

Three methods of teaching--traditional lecture, Socratic, and radical humanist-- are examined as they are used at the college level of instruction. It is argued that these methods are based on teaching theories that differ from one another in terms of assumptions about the teacher-student relationship, the nature of knowledge and truth, the…

This study was designed to demonstrate whether students attain a higher level of learning when they are required to synthesize information through a process of inquiry and believe they will be evaluated with essay questions. The control section of an introductory educational psychology class was taught about accommodating student differences,…

Prompted by the lack of research on learning in large college classes in terms of the cognitive processes and strategies students use, an experimental, preliminary study implemented generative activities in an undergraduate educational psychology class of approximately 70 students. The activities involved such things as stopping in the middle of a…

The research on effectiveness of college teachers, college teaching, and what is known about how learning takes place is summarized. From the research on what is known about the characteristics of effective college teachers, effective teaching methods, and how students learn, four teaching strategies that college teachers can use are identified.…

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of ethnicity and course structure on academic achievement at the college level. The sample consisted of 298 undergraduate students: 65% white, 12.5% Asian, 9.5% Hispanic, 9% black, and 4% other racial/ethnic groups. Students were randomly assigned to one of two introductory sociology sections. The…