Table Of Content.,
RESUME
DOCUMENT
HE 000 655
ED 026 966
24
By-Dubin, Robert; Taveggia, Thomas C.
Teaching Methods.
The Teaching-Learning Paradox: A Comparative Analysis of College
Administration.
Oregon Univ., Eugene. Center for Advanced Study of Educational
Bureau of Research.
Spons Agency-Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C.
Bureau No- BR -5-0217
Pub Date Dec 68
Contract- OEC -4 -10-163
Note-85p.
EDRS Price MF-$0.50 HC7$4.35.
*Research, *Teaching Methods, Teaching
Descriptors-*Comparative Analysis, *Higher Education, *Learning,
Models, Tests
of the data of almost 100
The results of a careful and systematic reanalysis
teaching methods are reported. No shred of
comparative studies of different college
for preferring one teaching method over
evidence was found to indicate any basis
of students on course examinations.
another as measured by the performance
of one teaching method over another
Underlying all theories concerning the efficacy
and learning are linked. However, we really do not
is an implicit model of how teaching
The need for establishing clear and unequivocal
!inks
know what the linkage
is.
of teaching is a vital one. To answer this
between a theory of learning and a theory
teaching methods has to move in new
need, research on comparative college
distinctive college teaching
the commonalities among all
find
to
directions:
(1)
teaching-learning situation. Nothing new
methods; and (2) to develop models of the
methods until new questions are asked and
will be discovered about college teaching
significantly different from that purtued in
their answers sought in research that is
conclusions were reached. A Bibliography is
the past. The Appendices expain how
included. (Author/US)
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE
OFFICE OF EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE
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POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS
STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION
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The
Teaching-Learning
Paradox
11011011111111111111
The
Teaching-Learning
Paradox
A Comparative Analysis of
College Teaching Methods
Robert Dubin
Thomas C. Taveggia
Administration
Center for the Advanced Study of Educational
Eugene, Oregon
University of Oregon
1968
The Center for the Advanced Study of Educational Administration
at
the University of Oregon is
a national research and development center
which was established under the provisions of the Cooperative
Research
Program of the United States Office of Education. The research
and
development reported herein
was Performed pursuant to a contract with
the Division of Educational Laboratories of the Office of Education.
No
federal funds were used in the publication of this
report.
Printed in the United States of America at the
University of Oregon Press, Eugene, Oregon
Designed and edited by Joanne M. Kitchel
The text of this book is set in Bodoni type
on Simpson's eggshell text
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG NUMBER 68-66809
The activities of teaching, learning and examining
in higher education have received remarkably
little attention from experimentalists. The
suggestion that belief, however hallowed, stands in
need of empirical support is often met with
incredulous opposition, and men whose academic
work is based upon a rigorous testing of accepted
ideas, tend to think it somehow indecent to apply
the same standard of inquiry to their own
teaching and examing practices. Few university
teachers are even aware that many of their in-
structional problems have alzeady been investigated
experimentally, and only a tiny minority take
the trouble to acquaint themselves with the results.
J. P. POWELL
"Experimentation and Teaching in
Higher Education," Educational Research,
6, (1964), p. 179.
Foreword
This is a polemical tract in the best sense of the term. We feel that
the proper use of scientific knowledge is (1) to be the foundation for
future additions to knowledge, and (2) to be the knowledge base for
policy in the practical affairs of men.
We do not hesitate to demand that future research on college teaching
methods be guided by new theory. The old ideas about pedagogy at the
college level are simply wrong. We have assembled in this monograph
the data base to make this conclusion incontrovertible. We, therefore,
adopt the stance that it is our responsibility to challenge researchers on
comparative college teaching methods to start anew from better theory.
Any further replication of the four decades of research here reanalyzed
has an almost zero probability of changing the conclusions that speak so
loudly from these data.
We are equally unhesitant in suggesting that policy-makers who decide
about college teaching methods either use their prejudices as a basis for
decision (which will produce policy no better than that grounded on other
people's prejudices), or feel free to determine policy decisions on grounds
other than allegations about pedagogy and learning (e.g. cost, space,
time, convenience criteria)
.
So, we are polemical in charging our research colleagues to make a
marked shift in the strategy of doing their research on pedagogy; and in
urging academic policy-makers to broaden the grounds for their decisions
on college teaching methods.
We think the weight of ol,,z conclusions have the special merit of being
data-based. We are not polemical by arguing a preferred position against
all alternatives. We turned to a voluminous research literature on com-
VII
4111411WINIUWWWIPMAINAWNWINI
Foreword
VIII
add up?"
parative college teaching methods and asked: "How do the facts
be-
The answ -1rs are astonishingly clear, (indeed almost unique among
havioral science data in this respect) : We cannot claim superiority for
methods used to convey subject content to
any among different teaching
the student.
ROBERT DUBIN
THOMAS C. TAVEGGIA
September, 1968
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, Eugene, Oregon
I.
Contents
vli
Foreword
The Issues Posed
1
1
Teaching Versus Learning
2
Measuring the Results of Teaching
3
The Teaching-Learning Black Box
6
The "Other Results" Conclusions
8
SummaryThe Problem Posed
9
2
The Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing
1 1
The Persistence of Hope
12
Ideological Roots of Comparative Research
16
3
There Are No Differences
24
24
How It Was Done
26
It Pays to Study
27
Teaching Method Comparisons
Face-to-Face Instruction
27
Independent Study
29
If There Is No Difference, It Makes No Difference
31
Varieties of Face-to-Face Instruction
31
Varieties of Independent Study
32
The Final Blow
34
In a WordNothing
35
4
The Past Is Not Prologue
45
New Directions
45
Commonalities Among Teaching Methods
46
Models of Teaching-Learning
48
What About Here and Now 48
Cost-Benefit Analysis
49
Radical Innovations
50
Other Educational Goals
51
The Launching Pad
51
APPENDIX A Methods of Analysis
53
54
Source and Nature of Data
Research Design
55
11
Data Presented
56
Comb'ning Results of Different Studies
57
58
Statistical Procedures
Using All the Data
58
Increasing Precision
59
62
Discussion
Reducing Redundancy
62
Additional Data on Comparative Analysis
APPENDIX B
of College Teaching Methods
65
Bibliography
69
69
Studies FuHy Utilized
Studies Partial ly Utilized
74
Studies Examined But Not Utilized
75
76
Reviews of Research
Illustrations
Figure 1
There is No Difference Between Lecture and
Discussion in Face-to-Face Teaching
36
%me 2
Lecturing or Lecturing and Discussing Make
37
No Difference in Face-to-Face Teaching
Figure 3
Discussion Makes No Difference Compared to
Lecture and Discussion in Face-to-Face Teaching
38
Figure 4
Supervised Independent Study and Face-to-Face
39
Instruction Produce the Same Results
Supervised Independent Study and Lecturing Are
Figure 5
Not Different in Examination Results
40
Supervised Independent Study and Discussion
Figure 6
Method Produce No Differences
41
Figure 7
Supervised Independent Study and Lecture-Discussion
Instruction Produce No Differences in Examination Scores
42
Figure 8
Even Unsupervised Independent Study Is No
Different From Face-to-Face Instruction
43
Figure 9
Independent Study, Supervised or Unsupervised,
Produces No Differences
44
Description:The Teaching-Learning Paradox: A Comparative Analysis of College Teaching Methods. Oregon Univ The Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing.
