Validity Paper:
Teaching Methods That Promote Student Engagement
Kaneenah Abdul Qadir
Psych 3530 Advance Research Design
A Carrington
Georgia State University
April 27th, 2018
Researchers have conducted various studies that examine the effects of incorporating active teaching methods in many college courses. Some of these methods are compared to basic teaching methods in two specific experiments conducted to promote student appreciation for research and research methods. Stansbury and Munro (2013) make the causal claim that video games enhance student’s interests in factorial designs. The other article, Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013) makes a casual claim that complex techniques are effective in teaching students research-based knowledge. As we analyze these two research articles, it is essential to evaluate the validity of each experiment for strengths and weaknesses.
To support the theory of video games being an effective teaching technique, Stansbury and Munro (2013) hypothesized that introducing virtual simulations to students in addition to lectures will increase their effort and ability to learn factorial designs. This is proved using an experiment that consisted of 65 undergraduates within five research method psychology course sections divided into two conditions. The control condition was conducted as a lecture only directive conducted by two instructors to a group of students combined from two sections. The video game condition was taught to two sections of students by one instructor. The last section of students was not exposed to any content, which was conducted by a fourth instructor. All students were instructed to read the textbook chapter. All students were instructed to take a pre-test and post-test made up of 14 identical questions using a likert-type scale that measured their comprehension of factorial designs. Both test equate to a time scale for the relevance of calculations. Students incorporated 2 x 2 mixed factorial designs and were randomly assigned to in between-group phases of the experiment. The experiment results were calculated using an ANOVA F-test that concluded a significant condition and time main effect. It also showed and significant interaction between condition and time. The students that experienced the video game significantly surpassed the lecture only group and the no content group so it is safe to say that video games did enhance student engagement in factorial designs.
This experiment establishes internal validity because according to Morling (2012) “the extent to which variable A, rather than some other variable C, is responsible for the effect on variable B” (p.69) is substantial. In other words, researchers significantly proved that playing video games caused the enhancement of students interests of factorial designs and not some other reason. The study reports that students were randomly assigned to different exposures of playing the video game and lecturing then given a post test we can assume that this is an experiment. Since students playing the video game came to be before the enhancement of interest in factorial designs the study has temporal precedence. The groups only differed in the amounts of video gaming and lecturing they were exposed to so internal validity appears acceptable. The experiment establishes statistical validity because the researcher proved their to be, as stated by Morling (2012) “statistically significant difference between groups and establishes an effect size” (p.71). The article reports that the presence of video gaming resulted in a higher average of positive post-test responses on student engagement. The effect was large and statistically significant.
Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013) predicted that complex techniques of teaching would increase student’s interest and capabilities in research/statistics. Researchers use seventy psychology majors, thirty-three assigned to the control group and thirty-seven assigned to the experiment group. The control group was tested in spring of 2009 and the experiment group was tested fall of 2009. The control group was given basic textbook readings while the experiment group was given scaffolding methodized assignments. Both groups were exposed to a demographic questionnaire, a survey about student’s perceptions related to research, and a survey on course effectiveness. Both surveys used a seven point likert scale. After analyzing the results using independent sample t-test it was concluded that students experienced increased engagement using the multifaceted approach. The survey on student’s attitudes was the only portion of the experiment that did not produce substantial results.
This experiment establishes internal validity because researchers were able to prove that teaching multifaceted methods is responsible for the effect on student’s survey responses and not some other reason. We can infer that this study is an experiment because the research reports that students were exposed to different levels of teaching then given various test making it safe to say that the teaching techniques were manipulated. Since teaching multifaceted methods occurred before student’s survey responses the study has temporal precedence. The groups differed in the type of lessons they were exposed to so internal validity appears acceptable. The experiment also establishes statistical validity because the groups are substantially different and have an effect size. The article reports that teaching multifaceted methods resulted in a higher average of students who responded positively for increased engagement. Similar to the previous article the effect was large and statistically significant which implies there is a strong relationship between variables.
The study on video gaming had stronger validity. The article on multifaceted approach to teaching did not establish how its participants were assigned to each condition. Though a control group was used in this experiment history threatens internal validity because the study was conducted during the final week of the semester when students also experience high stress from finals. This could have affected student’s attitudes and perceptions towards the topics. The only threat to validity in the video game study is design confound. Having different instructors teach the lessons gives researchers a decreased ability to ensure that the way the lectures were taught remained constant across conditions. Overall the researchers from the video game study did a great job minimizing threats as much as possible.
All in all, these two experiments have proved that there are effective ways to stimulate teaching methods to increase student engagement. This allows researchers to further assess the effectiveness of different methods using more teaching styles or course topics. This research may also be the beginning or studies that explore the problems of many methods of teaching.
References
Sainsbury, J.A., & Munro, G.D. (2013). Gaming in the Classroom: An Innovative Way to
Teach Factorial Designs. Teaching of Psychology, 40(2), 148-152.
Ciarocco, J.N., Lewandowski, G.W., & Volkom, M.V. (2013). The Impact of a
Multifaceted Approach to Teaching Research Methods on Students’ Attitudes.
Teaching of Psychology, 40(1) 20-25
Morling, B. (2012) Evaluating A World of Information: Research methods in
Psychology. New York, NY: W.W. Norton Company Inc.