Student Study Time Research Articles

Do Individualized Mastery and Traditional Instructional Systems Yield Different Course Effects in College Calculus?

The effects of an individualized mastery instructional system similar to the Keller plan was compared with a conventional lecture-discussion-recitation system in a variety of ways including mathematics achievement and fail rate in the comparison course and subsequent mathematics courses, mathematics reading comprehension, facilitation of performance in other disciplines, student study time, faculty time required for instructional system operation, preference of students and instructors, and student propensity for continued math-related studies. The comparisons spanned 2 years and were carried out under controlled conditions in a balanced, experimental design involving random assignments of 840 students and 12 instructors. In general, the superiority of achievement and attitude outcomes claimed for the Keller plan in many reports was not observed in this study.

Independent learning packages (audio tape/pamphlet) for a course in cell excitation: evidence that they can be at least as effective as conventional lectures.

Three tape/pamphlet independent learning packages have been constructed to serve the same learning objectives as three conventional lectures on the physiology of the nerve axon. The learning efficacy of each package was compared with that of its companion lecture with the co-operation of fifty first-year medical students in a controlled experiment. The packages were at least as effective as the lectures in generating both short- and long-term attainment of their intrinsic learning objectives. The findings are discussed in relation to learning efficacy, student study time, student acceptability, package preparation time and costing.

The Null Relationship Between Teaching and Research

Analysis of the data from a survey of members of a university faculty and of student attitudes toward this faculty indicate no relationship between student-rated adequacy of teaching and the extent of a teacher's scholarly activity. It appeared that student criteria for determining an instructor's adequacy consisted largely of evaluations of the instructor's style. Research activity by faculty was related to content variables such as course difficulty and student study time. The commonly-held view of a conflict between teaching and research found no support, although there may be some conflict when longer-run effects are explored.

A COMPARISON OF STUDENTS STUDYING‐BEHAVIOR PRODUCED BY DAILY, WEEKLY, AND THREE‐WEEK TESTING SCHEDULES1

Time spent in contact with academic course materials as a function of two testing schedules was measured using college undergraduates in an introductory educational psychology course. A within-subject (ABAB) design was employed with all subjects to allow for both individual and group analyses. A study room equipped with an adjacent observation room enabled visual and auditory monitoring of student study behavior. Academic materials were exclusively available to students in the study room and records of durations and distribution of student study time were made by an observer behind a one-way mirror. Daily testing produced consistent duration of study behavior with regular attendance at the study room; weekly and three-week testing produced sporadic bursts of study behavior and frequent instances of non-attendance. The amount of study behavior occurring in weekly and three-week testing conditions increased as the test time drew near (scalloping). Results suggest that daily testing supports more consistent study patterns than do the two larger intertest intervals investigated.

To learn to read you must read

From eighty-five to ninety-five of a student's study time is spent in reading, and no pains should be spared to develop his reading habits to the highest possible degree.' Concurring with Wrenn in this opinion, the Dean of the Senior College, the English Faculty, and the Director of the Reading Clinic at George Peabody College for Teachers initiated in December, 1944, a remedial reading program, involving the 196 members of the freshman English classes. These students were given screening tests: the Kuhlman-Anderson Tests of Mental Ability and the Iowa Silent Reading Tests, Form AM. On the basis of the resulting scores the freshmen were divided into sections-two regular sections and two remedial.