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Effects of In‐Class Discussion with Pre and Post Lecture Quizzing on Retention
Author(s) -
Akers Clare E.,
Flann Kyle
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.776.13
Subject(s) - class (philosophy) , psychology , mathematics education , incentive , computer science , artificial intelligence , economics , microeconomics
Studies have encouraged science educators to stray away from the traditional class structure of lecture and lean towards active learning in order to promote student learning and retention of material. Previous research has emphasized student discussion, pretesting and quizzing, various testing formats, and classroom activities as avenues to promote student learning and retention. This study focused on gaining a better understanding of what combinations of classroom activities best promotes student learning and retention of subject material in an undergraduate human physiology class. All class sections analyzed for this study had the same instructor, assigned readings and in class discussions. The variable teaching activities that were analyzed included control sections where no pre or post‐lecture quizzing occurred (CON), pre‐lecture quiz sections where quizzes were given at the beginning of class which covered reading material and previous in‐class discussion content (PRE), and post‐lecture quiz sections where the quizzes were given at the end of class and covered only the in‐class discussion content of that lecture (POST). The results of the study found that the PRE group had a significant increase in learning outcomes compared to the CON group. Interestingly, student surveys reported that the students in the POST sections felt an increased incentive to prepare for lecture as compared to the PRE group. However, there was no statistical significance between the PRE and POST group as measured in student's learning outcomes. In conclusion, students’ active participation in class increases student learning outcomes, which are further increased with PRE quizzing. In addition, PRE quizzing promotes students’ preparation for class and therefore likely also promotes better class discussions. While attempts to increase incentive to participate in in‐class discussions through POST quizzing did not directly impact in discussions, the POST quizzing did incentivize students’ preparation for class.