In a study spanning several years and including more than 1600 students, lab attendance was strongly correlated with lab grades (r = 0.64), lecture attendance (r = 0.49), and course grades (r = 0.60) in an introductory biology course. Regardless of the semester, lab attendance was lowest during the first week of the semester, and students who…

In our Fundamentals of Genetics lab, students perform a wide variety of labs to reinforce and extend the topics covered in lecture. I developed an active-learning lab to augment the lecture topic of mutagenesis. In this lab exercise, students determine if a compound they bring from home is a mutagen. Students are required to read extensive…

We evaluated the effectiveness of an e-learning tutorial (iPOMA) as a supplement to traditional teaching of the Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment. Second-year medical students (137) completed the iPOMA, in preparation for a session on fall risk assessment consisting of a lecture, practice with elder volunteers and small group debriefing.…

In this study, the authors explore the "apparent gulf between professionals' advice and actual teachers' practices." Their study recognizes the imperviousness of teacher practice to the efforts of researchers and curricular reformers. For over a century, the authors argue, "best practices" in social studies have always included…

What is the effect of small-group learning on student learning outcomes in economic instruction? In spring 2002 and fall 2004, the author applied cooperative learning to one section of intermediate macroeconomics and taught another section using a traditional lecture format. He identified and then tracked measures of student learning outcomes.…

Undergraduate students (N = 47), enrolled in 2 separate psychology research methods classes, evaluated a power analysis lab demonstration and homework assignment. Students attended 1 of 2 lectures that included a basic introduction to power analysis and sample size analysis. One lecture included a demonstration of how to use a computer-based power…

We compared an electronic audience response system (clickers) to standard lecture, hand-raising, and response card methods of student feedback in simulated introductory psychology classes. After hearing the same 30-min psychology lecture, participants in the clicker group had the highest classroom participation, followed by the response card…

Speech pathology students enrolled in a lecture-based gross human anatomy program completed two out of nine topics in self-directed mode. Student performance in quizzes was compared for the two modes, and the students completed questionnaires on their perceptions of the self-directed mode of delivery. Students performed as well in the first…

Ensuring that students spend time preparing for class has always been one of the challenges of teaching. Indeed, when students are given an assignment that they are required to do before coming to the next lecture--whether it be written exercises or just studying--one wonders how often they are actually doing it. There are many ways in which…

In this work, we describe the use of several strategies employing the philosophies of active learning and problem-based learning (PBL) that may be used to improve the teaching of metabolic biochemistry to medical and nutritional undergraduate students. The main activities are as follows: 1) a seminar/poster system in a mini-congress format (using…

National stakeholders are becoming increasingly concerned about the inability of college graduates to think critically. Research shows that, while both faculty and students deem critical thinking essential, only a small fraction of graduates can demonstrate the thinking skills necessary for academic and professional success. Many faculty are…

Lectures can present barriers to learning for many students and although online multimedia materials have become technically easier to create and offer many benefits for learning and teaching, they can be difficult to access, manage, and exploit. This article considers how research on interacting with multimedia can inform developments in using…

Teacher educators may have different views on what constitutes knowledge base for teacher education. Most of them, however, would agree that field experiences are indispensable for shaping and maintaining high-quality teachers. Unlike teacher training courses in the UK and US, fieldwork components are not always an option in Taiwan. This study,…

One-hundred seventy-five students enrolled in either a traditional classroom lecture section of General Psychology or in an online section of the same course were compared on exam performance. When covariates of high school grade point average and SAT composite scores were entered into the analysis, students enrolled in the classroom based lecture…

We compared the effects of guided lecture notes versus completed lecture notes on pre- to postlecture improvements in quiz performance across two sections of a college course. The results of a counterbalanced multielement design did not reveal consistent differences between the two note formats on students' mean quiz scores. However, fewer errors…