The connection between course materials and teaching approaches

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether there was a connection between postsecondary instructors’ course material use and their teaching approach. The research was gathered through an online survey. The study focused on two approaches to teaching, teacher-focused and student-focused, with the Approaches to Teaching Inventory-Revised (ATI-R), and examined the use of open educational resources (OER) versus commercial materials. The theoretical framework that guided the study was constructivism, and the Relational 3P conceptual framework was applied to analyse the process stage of teaching. The results of the one-way MANOVA (n = 337) revealed that the effect of course material type on instructional approaches was statistically significant (F(2, 334) = 3.40, p = .034, η2p = .02). Specifically, a statistically significant difference was found for conceptual change/ student-focused (CCSF) instructional approach (F(1, 335) = 5.72, p = .017, η2p = .02), but not for the information transmission/teacher-focused instructional approach (ITTF) (F(1, 335) = 1.17, p = .281, η2p = .003). These findings have important implications for understanding the impact of course materials on teaching approaches and student learning outcomes in postsecondary education. Instructors who reported using OER scored higher on the more robust CCSF instructional approach than those who used commercial materials.