Comparative analysis of two instructional strategies and their impacts on selected university engineering students' performances in particle technology

Abstract

This study examined the effects of active learning and traditional lecturing on the academic performance of Particle Technology students in order to identify the more effective teaching strategy. Two active learning models, namely, cooperative and collaborative learning were used. The population of the study consisted of thirty-eight third year students enrolled in the Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering program in one of the universities in one of the Caribbean Island. The post-test only control group experimental design was employed for the study while the instruments used to collect data were midterm tests and a final examination. The data collected was subjected to an independent t-test analysis (α = 0.05), using the SPSS statistical software application. The findings indicated that students taught with traditional lecturing performed significantly better (mean P = 0.01) than those taught using active learning strategies. Males and female participants taught with traditional lecturing also performed better than their counterparts taught with active learning. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that students be better sensitized about new teaching strategies being implemented, Particle Technology teachers recognize the value of traditional lecturing, appropriate measures be implemented to achieve comparable attendance among study groups and future studies should focus on understanding the characteristics of female students which results in them exhibiting enhanced learning compared to their male counterparts.