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Campbell & Taylor_TBL & Transfer of Learning 2019.doc
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology (2019)
  • Cynthia G. Campbell
  • Teresa Z Taylor, Boise State University
Abstract
Undergraduate psychology students enrolled in an introductory statistics course often experience difficulty due to math anxiety, insufficient preparation, and large impersonal classes, all of which threaten their ability to pass the course and acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in the subsequent research methods class. This research compared the performance of 296 students taking an introductory statistics course that incorporated Team-Based Learning (TBL) and other evidence-based instructional practices with that of 153 students taking other sections of the same course without these modifications. We assessed students’ learning experience, statistical knowledge performance, and transfer of learning to a later research methods course using both quantitative and qualitative data. Data included students’ experience in the TBL statistics course, their final grades, and the results of a Pre-Semester Knowledge Assessment completed at the beginning of the research methods course. Students who took introductory statistics with TBL and connecting bridge assignments demonstrated better performance in statistics, t(447) = 2.19, p = .03,Cohen’s d = 0.22, and a higher transfer of learning in the research methods course, t(112) = 2.50, p = .01, Cohen’s d = 0.48, than students who took the course using standard methods. Although these results were modest, students in the TBL course also identified TBL activities as having a positive effect on their learning. Based on these results, we encourage educators to consider employing the methods identified in this study in their teaching of introductory statistics and research methods.
Keywords
  • Statistics Education,
  • Team-Based Learning,
  • Knowledge Transfer,
  • Collaborative Learning,
  • Student Accountability for Learning
Publication Date
September, 2019
DOI
10.1037/stl0000167
Citation Information
Cynthia G. Campbell and Teresa Z Taylor. "Campbell & Taylor_TBL & Transfer of Learning 2019.doc" Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology (2019)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/cynthia_g_campbell/9/