Use of Consciousness Sampling to Study Teaching Methods

To compare effectiveness of seven teaching methods, the attention to the speaker, topic, course and college of 20 undergraduates’ (UG) and 22 graduate students’ (G) were measured by consciousness sampling in a classroom. Ss attention to topic averaged: (1.) problem solving 83 percent, (2.) movies 76 percent, (3.) discussion 75 percent, (4.) buzz session 70 percent, (5.) lecture 67 percent, (6.) student lead exercise 65 percent, and (7.) panel 63 percent with only clear superiority to problem solving over 5, 6, and 7 (chi-square p<.05). For course dimension order of preference changed to 2, 4, 5, 1, 3, 6 and 7. The only significant difference between UG and G appeared in their orientation to course and college work before class began (p.>01).