Comparative Teaching Techniques: Do Different Professors Emphasize the Same Material?
The purpose of this study is to understand whether or not different teaching styles have an effect on students’ learning experience. The method used was an experiment, which observed two different sections of students enrolled in the same introductory Psychological Statistics class.
The two classes were randomly selected out of eight sections enrolled. While both classes are taught by two different professors, the curriculum is identical including the same books as well. In addition, both classes began on the same date and met during the same timeslot. Both classes have the same required readings and were given the identical first test on the same date. The results are as follows:
From the first class a sample of n=11 was taken labeling students from A to K. The minimum score was 27 and the maximum score was 53. The mean score was 37 with a standard deviation of 8.41. The estimated standard error of mean is 2.54. The findings show that the distribution is a negative skew. When the scores are transformed into new scores, the z-scores obtained show that of course the mean=0 with a standard deviation= 1. The minimum score is -1.19 and the maximum score is 1.90 with a standard error of .30. This distribution shows a more normal curve. The second class had a sample of n=12 with students labeled Z to N. Their original score results showed a minimum of 25, a maximum of 42 with a mean of 35 and a standard deviation =6.12. The standard error of mean for this class’ original scores is 1.77. This distribution is a normal curve. In the conversion to new z-scores, the minimum transformed score is -1.63 and the maximum transformed score is 1.14. The mean=0 with a standard deviation of 1. The new distribution shows a normal curve as did the z-scores of class 1. With these new scores for both classes, it shows that because the standard deviation for both classes is 1, class one had a higher minimum score with a favor of .44 points. The maximum score was higher by .76 points.
These results show that in a comparison of the two classes, the professor of class one had a greater impact. Granted more research must be performed to make sure that there were no other factors involved in the learning experience that created the learning curve.
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