Cardamone Carie, Linder Deborah A, Knoll Joyce S, Webster Cynthia R L, Murray Maureen, Frank Nicholas, Shorter Brittain, Heinze Cailin R, Schonhoff Christopher M
Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA.
Department of Clinical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA.
Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2023 Mar;51(2):164-170. doi: 10.1002/bmb.21705. Epub 2023 Jan 6.
Large lecture courses are an efficient way to convey material to many students but have potential limitations, most notably the tendency for them to promote passive learning opportunities rather than active pedagogies. The curriculum at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, like many veterinary schools, contains many large lecture courses in the pre-clinical curriculum. This objective of this study was to use two active pedagogical interventions in a first-year lecture course named Veterinary Biochemistry and Metabolism that drew connections between basic science and several veterinary diseases. The first intervention targeted increasing students' intrinsic motivation and their confidence with understanding biochemistry concepts using videos created via collaborations between students, staff, and clinical and basic science faculty. The second intervention targeted active and collaborative learning via the implementation of clinical case studies completed in groups to relate lecture content to clinical scenarios with the aim of further enhancing student confidence in their knowledge of the material. To assess the effectiveness of these two interventions, pre-and post-course surveys using Likert style questions were administered to evaluate student confidence in the targeted concepts. The post-survey included open-ended responses on students' perspectives on their most important takeaways from the activities and their suggestions for improvements. The data showed a positive impact of these interventions on student motivation and confidence in their knowledge. This study provides support that targeted interventions to increase active learning strategies increase student engagement and may improve learning efficacy in large lecture courses.
大型讲座课程是向众多学生传授知识的有效方式，但存在潜在局限性，最显著的是它们倾向于提供被动学习机会而非主动教学法。与许多兽医学院一样，塔夫茨大学卡明斯兽医学院的课程在临床前课程中包含许多大型讲座课程。本研究的目的是在一门名为《兽医生物化学与代谢》的一年级讲座课程中采用两种主动教学干预措施，该课程将基础科学与几种兽医疾病建立联系。第一种干预措施旨在通过学生、工作人员以及临床和基础科学教师合作制作的视频，提高学生的内在动力以及他们理解生物化学概念的信心。第二种干预措施旨在通过实施小组完成的临床案例研究来促进主动和协作学习，将讲座内容与临床场景联系起来，以进一步增强学生对所学知识的信心。为了评估这两种干预措施的有效性，使用李克特式问题进行了课程前后调查，以评估学生对目标概念的信心。课后调查包括关于学生对活动中最重要收获的看法以及改进建议的开放式回答。数据显示这些干预措施对学生的学习动机和知识信心产生了积极影响。本研究支持这样的观点，即旨在增加主动学习策略的针对性干预措施能够提高学生的参与度，并可能提高大型讲座课程的学习效果。
