Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

An analysis of the effectiveness of a learner-centered teaching system compared to that of a conventional teaching of basic electricity to university students

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Accessible Version
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/8p58ph59h

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of a learner-centered teaching system and that of a conventional teaching of basic electricity to university students. For this study 65 students enrolled in basic electricity at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona were used, distributed in two fall semester classes as a control group, utilizing conventional teaching, and two spring semester classes as an experimental group, using the learner-centered teaching system. All students participating in this study were given the Bell Laboratories Electricity Examination as a pre-test and as a final test. The Otis Test of Mental Ability was given to insure that each group was comparable in mental ability. Conclusions The findings of this investigation supported the hypotheses that the experimental learner-centered teaching system was as effective as the conventional method used in teaching basic electricity. Furthermore, it was found that it proved to be significantly superior to the conventional method, both in the achievement of learning of electrical knowledge, and in the number of electrical experiments successfully completed by the students. A step-wise linear regression program provided the necessary information to conduct tests for strength of relationship between the control and the dependent variables. It was concluded that there was a relationship between the pretest and post-test scores for both groups and that this relationship was stronger for the experimental group. It was found that there was a strong negative correlation between the pre-test scores and gain in knowledge for both groups. The correlation between the post-test score and gain in learning was statistically significant for the control groups but not for the experimental group. In the prediction equation of the step-wise linear regression program it was determined that group membership contributed to the prediction of the correlation between predicted post-test score and observed post-test score. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the means of the experimental and control groups, and that pre-test scores contained predictive information while intelligence quotients did not. The F statistic obtained from the analysis of covariance was determined to be statistically significant indicating a significant difference between the adjusted post-test score of the two groups. The experimental group completed in excess of 20 percent more of the laboratory experiments than did the control group. Recommendations 1. Additional studies of this experimental method should be conducted by different instructors in controlled situations in order to determine that the effectiveness of the system is transferable to other instructors. 2. Variables within the experimental teaching system should be examined statistically in order to improve upon the existing system and to add to the existing knowledge of learning processes. 3. Because the learner-centered teaching system was more effective than the conventional teaching method, it is recommended that this method be adapted to other subject areas and evaluated statistically.
Resource Type
Date Available
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Academic Affiliation
Non-Academic Affiliation
Subject
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Digitization Specifications
  • File scanned at 300 ppi (Monochrome) using ScandAll PRO 1.8.1 on a Fi-6770A in PDF format. CVista PdfCompressor 5.0 was used for pdf compression and textual OCR.
Replaces
Accessibility Feature

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details RuiterWilliamW1971.pdf 2017-08-17 Public Download