ERIC Number: EJ1444894
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2766-8991
Can Students Learn to Use Textbooks Effectively?
Linda Prentice; Gideon Twum
Teaching and Learning Excellence through Scholarship, v1 p50-55 2021
Can a class assignment covering the reading help students do better in an introductory chemistry class for nonmajors? Two sections of the same course have been compared where one section had a reading assignment that "forced" the students to interact with the text while the other class had the typical homework, quiz assignments, and discussion posts. Both groups took 3 exams and the final exam. A t-test compared the means for each exam, the final exam, and the overall class average. The mean was higher for the group that had the reading assignment in each case. The mean for the class was 71.3% versus 66.7% (p value = 0.050). The mean for exam 1 was 73.0% versus 60.5% (p = 0.052). The mean for exam 2 was 73.3% versus 67.5% (p = 0.225). The mean for exam 3 was 76.9% versus 62.4% (p = 0.044). The final exam was 56.6% versus 55.3% (p = 0.445). The implication may be that students do not understand how to study or what is involved in effective studying. When reading the text is incentivized as an assignment, more students seemed to interact with the text, and more were likely to succeed in the class. This paper examines how interacting with the text for a class supports comprehension.
Descriptors: Community College Students, Chemistry, Science Instruction, Textbooks, Reading Assignments, Science Achievement, Homework, Test Results, Study Skills, Learning Strategies, Test Preparation, Teaching Methods, Comparative Testing
Board of Trustees of the Community College of Baltimore County. 7201 Rossville Boulevard, ADMN 101, Baltimore, MD 21237. Tel: 443-840-3756; e-mail: rminor@ccbcmd.edu; Web site: https://tales.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/tales
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Maryland (Baltimore)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A