Miranda Harris; School of Allied Heath and Community
Teaching is a set of activities, carefully fashioned to facilitate learning (HEA, 2018b) with success typically measured by Student Satisfaction (Office for Students, 2018). By responding directly to student feedback three years ago, on how students engaged with quantitative methodology in Research Methods, I was presented with an opportunity for innovation and transformation using a more student-centred approach in order to prepare students effectively for their dissertations.
Interactive workshop approach:
Drawbacks of the traditional lecture may be lack of active participation, a potential obstacle to deeper learning (Tofade et al. 2013), and from the Higher Education Provider’s (HEP’s) perspective, difficulty in ascertaining student comprehension, as students may be reluctant to voice queries or areas of misunderstanding. Through evidence-informed approaches I have moved away from the dry and uninspiring lecture to a more interactive, workshop approach using an example of an on-line health and behaviour questionnaire, which has led to greater engagement and equality of opportunity for students.
According to Macinnes (2012), quantitative methods can be made both rewarding and exciting, although it requires innovation and creation in teaching methods. Deeper learning is more likely to take place when students are actively engaged as identified by student feedback,
Miranda’s teaching made statistics simple, doable and even humorous at times, and I was able to easily translate what I had learnt from her statistic lectures into my dissertation study without a hitch.
On-line questionnaire:
The Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour (KAB) questionnaire was based on a reliable and validated tool, which I adapted for my Nutritional Therapy (NT) dissertation (Harris 2012). Students have found questionnaire design challenging and time consuming, so offering this questionnaire, which can be used in any quantitative dissertation study, facilitates the understanding of research methods, reduces supervision time, produces higher module grades and enhances student satisfaction.
Miranda has provided terrific support throughout, particularly during the stages I found most intellectually challenging of questionnaire re-design, mapping questionnaire questions to research questions and objectives, and designing and enacting validation and verification activities.
Contributing to Policy Change:
Research into health behaviour is a popular subject for students. As identified by Public Health England (2018), contributions from health science research help to understand behaviour and the significant impact it has on the nation’s health and well-being. Findings may contribute to policy change and Government Guideline updates as well as add value to NT.
On reflection, this significant change to my teaching style, arose from assessing methods to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and a deeper understanding of how students learn. Confidence in technology, as well as research methodology through continuing professional development, has led to live demonstrations of questionnaire design, data collection and statistical analysis, thus breathing life in to what was a dull subject;
On reflection, she provided a ‘goldilocks’ level of encouragement to draw the best out of me, challenging me to do my best but, at every step, in a way I felt was achievable and not too daunting. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the whole course, but had my best moment of ‘flow’ (immersion, absorption and focus – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) on a memorably rewarding day re-designing the questionnaire after guidance from Miranda.
Evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of the initiative has been supported with improved module grades and positive feedback in the 2018 External Examiner’s report.
References
Harris M D (2012) Nutritional Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour in non-elite competitive cyclists in the West Midlands.
HEA (2018b) Teaching Excellence? Let’s hear it for good education. [Online]. Available from:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/blog-entry/teaching-excellence-lets-hear-it-good-education (Accessed August 10 2018)
Macinnes J (2012) Quantitative Methods teaching in UK Higher Education: the state of the field and how it might be improved. Available from:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/quantitative-methods-teaching-uk-higher-education-state-field-and-how-it-might-be (Accessed March 22 2019)
Office for Students (2018) National Student Survey 2018. [Online]. Available from:
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/student-information-and-data/national-student-survey-nss/ [Accessed November 24 2018]
Public Health England (2018) Improving people’s health: Applying behavioural and social sciences to improve population health and wellbeing in England. Online]. Available from:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/744672/Improving_Peoples_Health_Behavioural_Strategy.pdf [Accessed November 24 2018]
Tofade T, Elsner J & Haines S (2013) Best Practice Strategies for Effective Use of Questions as a Teaching Tool. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education; 77(7): 155.