Academic responses and attitudes engendered by a programmed course in child development.

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Higher Education Pedagogy

Background:

• Traditional course structures often face challenges in ensuring student mastery of material.
• Assessing student learning requires effective methods that align with performance outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of large versus small course sections on student mastery of weekly units.
• To evaluate different instructional methods (tutorial interview, group discussion, written assignment) within a large course setting.
• To analyze the relationship between student attitudes and actual academic performance.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a mastery-based learning system with weekly tests for both small and large course sections.
• Voluntary lecture attendance with no testing on lecture material.
• Comparative analysis of tutorial interviews, group discussions, and written assignments for test preparation in the large section.

Main Results:

• Students in the large course section demonstrated superior performance on weekly tests and achieved fewer failing grades (Fs) compared to the small section.
• Within the large course, tutorial interviews and written assignments proved more effective for test preparation than group discussions.
• Student ratings of method enjoyability and perceived effectiveness were inversely correlated with actual performance outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Large course sections, when employing a mastery-based approach, can lead to improved student performance and reduced failure rates.
• Instructional methods' perceived value by students may not accurately reflect their actual impact on learning and test preparation.
• Discrepancies between student attitudes and performance metrics highlight the need for careful evaluation of educational strategies.