Hayward L1, Ventura S1, Donlan P1
1Northeastern University, Physical Therapy Movement and Rehabilitation Science, Boston, United States
Background: Faculty engage in “pedagogical solitude” where they plan, teach, and assess their work alone. Faculty want to optimize teaching environments and student learning outcomes, but resources available for evaluating instructor and course material effectiveness are limited or lack detail to inform action. Faculty interested in promoting student-centered instruction can collaborate with students and engage in a dialogue about the teaching- learning process. Intentional partnerships, such as student pedagogical teams (SPTs), enable students to provide formative feedback about pedagogical practice.
Purpose: Examine the impact of incorporating SPTs into a Psychosocial Aspects of Healthcare course. SPT are 3-5 students who act as pedagogical consultants to provide faculty with insight about classroom practice. Research questions:
(1) What will students experience while serving on a SPT?;
(2) What will faculty experience by collaborating with SPTs?
Hypothesis: Students in the sections of the course with the SPTs will experience greater motivation and interest as the semester progresses.
Methods: Mixed methods design. 106 (78 females) students in the first professional year (year 3) of a 6-year U.S. doctor of physical therapy program were conveniently sampled. Three professors participated, one had 19 years of experience teaching the course, a second had 2 years of experience, and one was teaching it for the first time.
A quantitative pretest-posttest design was employed with a Psychosocial Aspects course with 4 sections and identical curriculum. In the two experimental sections, faculty recruited 3-5 students for a SPT. Two sections, without SPTs, were controls. All 4 sections completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) pre and post semester. The MSLQ is a 44-question, self-report, Likert-scale instrument that measures: student motivation and self-regulated learning strategies in an individual course.
SPTs administered 5, two-minute papers to the experimental sections to obtain intermittent feedback for faculty. Feedback was shared at 3 points during the semester.
Qualitative data were:
1) SPTs midterm and final reflective papers about their experiences; and
2) faculty reflective papers after each SPT-faculty meeting.
Results: Serving on a SPT gave students a voice, increased their motivation for learning, appreciation for the complexity of teaching, and desire to communicate respectfully with faculty. Faculty gained a new perspective on classroom practice and used formative feedback to immediately improve instruction. Mann-Whitney U tests run on the MSLQ results indicated that test anxiety decreased in aggregate for the experimental groups, U=547, p=.00, α2 =0.05; and the more experienced professor´s experimental section demonstrated greater intrinsic value U=150, p=.04, α2 =0.05. The experimental groups in aggregate demonstrated greater self-regulation compared to the control groups U=664, p=.03, α2=0.05.
Conclusion(s): SPTs were a positive experience for students. Faculty used feedback to make pedagogical changes during the semester. Higher levels of self-efficacy are associated with deeper cognitive engagement and motivation. Intrinsically motivated learners typically display interest, engagement, and confidence, which facilitates persistence and performance.
Implications: Psychosocial skills are desired and critical for patient-centered treatment. These skills are subjective, ambiguous, difficult to teach and assess. Pedagogical strategies, such as SPTs, can foster learning environments that decrease test taking anxiety, increase self-regulation, interest, and motivation for learning.
Keywords: Scholarship of teaching and learning, Student Feedback Teams, Self-determination theory
Funding acknowledgements: Not applicable.
Purpose: Examine the impact of incorporating SPTs into a Psychosocial Aspects of Healthcare course. SPT are 3-5 students who act as pedagogical consultants to provide faculty with insight about classroom practice. Research questions:
(1) What will students experience while serving on a SPT?;
(2) What will faculty experience by collaborating with SPTs?
Hypothesis: Students in the sections of the course with the SPTs will experience greater motivation and interest as the semester progresses.
Methods: Mixed methods design. 106 (78 females) students in the first professional year (year 3) of a 6-year U.S. doctor of physical therapy program were conveniently sampled. Three professors participated, one had 19 years of experience teaching the course, a second had 2 years of experience, and one was teaching it for the first time.
A quantitative pretest-posttest design was employed with a Psychosocial Aspects course with 4 sections and identical curriculum. In the two experimental sections, faculty recruited 3-5 students for a SPT. Two sections, without SPTs, were controls. All 4 sections completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) pre and post semester. The MSLQ is a 44-question, self-report, Likert-scale instrument that measures: student motivation and self-regulated learning strategies in an individual course.
SPTs administered 5, two-minute papers to the experimental sections to obtain intermittent feedback for faculty. Feedback was shared at 3 points during the semester.
Qualitative data were:
1) SPTs midterm and final reflective papers about their experiences; and
2) faculty reflective papers after each SPT-faculty meeting.
Results: Serving on a SPT gave students a voice, increased their motivation for learning, appreciation for the complexity of teaching, and desire to communicate respectfully with faculty. Faculty gained a new perspective on classroom practice and used formative feedback to immediately improve instruction. Mann-Whitney U tests run on the MSLQ results indicated that test anxiety decreased in aggregate for the experimental groups, U=547, p=.00, α2 =0.05; and the more experienced professor´s experimental section demonstrated greater intrinsic value U=150, p=.04, α2 =0.05. The experimental groups in aggregate demonstrated greater self-regulation compared to the control groups U=664, p=.03, α2=0.05.
Conclusion(s): SPTs were a positive experience for students. Faculty used feedback to make pedagogical changes during the semester. Higher levels of self-efficacy are associated with deeper cognitive engagement and motivation. Intrinsically motivated learners typically display interest, engagement, and confidence, which facilitates persistence and performance.
Implications: Psychosocial skills are desired and critical for patient-centered treatment. These skills are subjective, ambiguous, difficult to teach and assess. Pedagogical strategies, such as SPTs, can foster learning environments that decrease test taking anxiety, increase self-regulation, interest, and motivation for learning.
Keywords: Scholarship of teaching and learning, Student Feedback Teams, Self-determination theory
Funding acknowledgements: Not applicable.
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning; Professional issues
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: Northeastern University
Ethics committee: Institutional Review Board
Ethics number: Exempt
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
