Transcript POGIL vs Traditional Lecture in Organic I

POGIL vs Traditional Lecture
in Organic I
Gary D. Anderson
Department of Chemistry
Marshall University
Huntington, WV
Numerous Previous Studies
• All other comparisons have involved comparing
results from two or more professors or from two
or more school terms
• This comparison involves three sections of
Organic I in the Fall of 2005. Sections 101 and
102 (84 total students) were taught using POGIL
approach, Section 103 (84 students) was taught
using traditional lecture approach.
• Students were informed of differences and given
chance to change sections
Professors
• Same professor taught all three sections
of Organic I
• Another professor taught both sections of
Organic II in Spring 2006 so both groups
of students had the same environment for
Organic II
Same for Both Groups
• Organic I Instructor
• Schedule
– Two 75 minute classes per week
• Textbook (Hornback 2nd Ed.)
• Order of topics
Same for Both Groups
• Problems assigned from text
• Computerized homework sets
– Vista and WebAssign
• Extra tutoring available
• Quizzes
– 5 minute quiz at the beginning of every class
Same for Both Groups
• Exams
– Same exam used in all three sections
– Students were instructed to put 9 digit student
ID number on paper but to not put name or
section information
– All exams were mixed together and graded
one question at a time
• Common Final Exam
Differences
• Time of Day
– POGIL at 2:00 or 3:30
– Lecture at 6:30
• Class Size
– Pogil, 2 sections with 45 and 39 students
– Lecture, 1 section with 84 students
Organic I Grades
Organic I Grades, Lecture
Organic I Grades, Pogil
A
W
A
B
W
B
C
F
C
F
D
D
Grade Distribution Organic I
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
A
B
C
D
lecture
pogil
F
W
Organic I
Final Exam Score Distribution
Over 95
86-90
75-80
66-70
56-60
50 or less
0
2
4
6
Lecture
8
Pogil
10
12
Grades for Repeaters, Organic I
Lecture
Pogil
A
W
W
A
B
B
F
C
F
D
D
C
Grades Distribution for Students
Repeating Organic I
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
A
B
C
D
Lecture
Pogil
F
W
Organic II Grades
Organic II Grades, Lecture
F
Organic II Grades, Pogil
W
D
A
F W
A
D
C
B
B
C
Grade Distribution Organic II
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
A
B
C
D
lecture
pogil
F
W
ACS Exam Scores
Organic II
61 or more
56-60
51-55
46-50
41-45
36-40
31-35
26-30
0
1
2
3
4
Lecture
5
Pogil
6
7
8
Is POGIL Better than Lecture?
• Results from Fall term were encouraging
enough to justify trying again in Spring but
high percentage of repeat students in
Spring
• Two sections (limit 35) using POGIL are
planned for Fall 2006 along with one
section using lecture
• POGIL group appeared to do significantly
better in Organic II
What Did the Students Think?
• Mixed Reaction
– Some love the POGIL approach
– Some hate it
– Highly dependent on motivation and work
ethic of the student
SALG Survey
• POGIL Group: I would have preferred that
this course be taught entirely using lecture
– 19% Strongly agree
– 25% Agree
– 25% Neutral
– 19% Disagree
– 11% Strongly Disagree
SALG Survey
• Lecture Group: I would have preferred that
this course be taught using the POGIL
guided learning approach used in the
other sections.
– 5% Strongly Agree
– 12 % Agree
– 59% Neutral
– 17% Disagree
– 7 % Strongly Disagree
SALG Survey
• I would recommend the method of
teaching used in my section to a person
taking this course next year.
– 12 % Strongly Agree, 35% Agree, 32%
Neutral, 12% Disagree, 8% Strongly Disagree
(N=40)
– 11% Strongly Agree, 33% Agree, 22%
Neutral, 19% Disagree, 14% Strongly
Disagree (N=36)
– First group above is lecture, second is POGIL
Student Comments (Good)
• This is my second attempt at Organic. I
liked POGil very much. I hope that it will
continue to be taught this way at Marshall
• I really enjoyed the POGIL approach. I
think it helped me a great deal understand
things a lot better than if I had just had a
teacher up there lecturing at me.
• I think this class made the complexities of
organic chemistry easier
Student Comments (and Bad)
• I think the POGIL approach has benifits,
but would be best coupled with a lecture
• I don't know that the POGIL style helped
me all that much because I felt that I
ended up trying to teach myself everything
from the book.
Name at Least One Strength
• Critical Thinking. Caused me to analyze
problems more carefully before attempting
a solution.
• Having students explain concepts really
helped out a lot.
• I plan on doing more group learning with
courses in the future
• One strength was the relaxed atmosphere
of the class.
Strengths
• Teaching one another and helping each
other with our weaknesses
• The instructor acknowledged the difficulty
of the course, which showed respect for
the students, yet he maintained that it
wasn't impossible to do well.
• This course helped me manage my time to
learn large quantities of material.
Name at least one area for
improvement
• Organic is not a class made to teach yourself. A
fair paced lecture would have provided a much
better learning enviroment
• Teach the whole class with the POGIL approach,
reaction part and all.
• I feel that for future classes using POGIL, it
needs to be STRESSED that the chemactivities
are only a part of the learning process
And I Didn’t Pay the Students Who
Said This
• For Improvements
– None, the class was fine
• organic chemistry seems easy and now I
believe I can do it
• One strength was the relaxed atmosphere
of the class and it positively impacted
learning by helping to alleviate some
stress
Other Factors
• Experience
– 30 years experience using lecture mode
– 0 experience using POGIL mode
– Hopefully I have learned something in 30
years
• Improved Lecture
– Working with two POGIL groups right before
lecture probably caused me to modify my
lecture a bit to answer the questions I had run
into in the POGIL groups
Conclusions
• Overall performance in Organic I appears
to be virtually same for both groups
• Overall performance in Organic II appears
to be somewhat better for the POGIL
group
• Not enough observations to be sure but
repeaters in POGIL group may have done
better than those in the lecture group
Acknowledgements
•
•
•
•
•
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Andrei Straumanis
Jim Spencer
Andy Bressette
Dan Libby
The entire POGIL team
Marshall administrators and colleagues