The effect of directive tutor guidance on students' conceptual understanding of statistics in problem-based learning.
Br J Educ Psychol
; 81(Pt 2): 309-24, 2011 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-21542821
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Education is aimed at students reaching conceptual understanding of the subject matter, because this leads to better performance and application of knowledge. Conceptual understanding depends on coherent and error-free knowledge structures. The construction of such knowledge structures can only be accomplished through active learning and when new knowledge can be integrated into prior knowledge.AIMS:
The intervention in this study was directed at both the activation of students as well as the integration of knowledge. SAMPLE Undergraduate university students from an introductory statistics course, in an authentic problem-based learning (PBL) environment, were randomly assigned to conditions and measurement time points.METHOD:
In the PBL tutorial meetings, half of the tutors guided the discussions of the students in a traditional way. The other half guided the discussions more actively by asking directive and activating questions. To gauge conceptual understanding, the students answered open-ended questions asking them to explain and relate important statistical concepts. RESULTS ANDCONCLUSIONS:
Results of the quantitative analysis show that providing directive tutor guidance improved understanding. Qualitative data of students' misconceptions seem to support this finding. Long-term retention of the subject matter seemed to be inadequate.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Achievement
/
Teaching
/
Statistics as Topic
/
Problem-Based Learning
/
Concept Formation
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Guideline
/
Incidence_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Br J Educ Psychol
Year:
2011
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Países Bajos