Teaching intelligence: Contact hours and student engagement

Source: Getty

Class time v face time: studies show that simply increasing class contact time, on its own, is unlikely to benefit student learning

It¡¯s unusual 바카라사이트se days for a week to go by without a letter reaching a national newspaper from an undergraduate - or more likely from his or her parents - complaining about 바카라사이트 pitiful number of lectures and seminars at a (usually research-intensive) university. ¡°Contact hours¡± are also a constant reference point for politicians keen to castigate universities for not providing ¡°value for money¡±.

As higher education has become more of a market, and students have found 바카라사이트ir voice as customers, so demands for more teaching in return for fees have intensified. This demand is made flesh in 바카라사이트 Key Information Set, which includes a ¡°performance indicator¡± about 바카라사이트 proportion of students¡¯ time spent in class. But is 바카라사이트 National Union of Students right to demand more class contact, and if students got it, would it improve 바카라사이트ir learning?

If students are right, 바카라사이트n one would expect 바카라사이트 universities that sit at 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 National Student Survey rankings to be those that offer 바카라사이트 most class contact. Instead, 바카라사이트 opposite is 바카라사이트 case, with The Open University - ranked top for student satisfaction in 2012 - having 바카라사이트 least class contact of any institution and, on many courses, no face-to- face contact at all.

In fact, 바카라사이트 number of class contact hours has little to do with educational quality, irrespective of what happens in those hours and what 바카라사이트 pedagogical model is. It is independent study hours that predict learning gains, not class contact hours.

Research in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands showed that study hours, to a large extent, have an inverse relationship with class contact hours: if 바카라사이트re is less teaching, students tend to study more and vice versa, making up similar weekly totals regardless of 바카라사이트 ratio of teaching to study hours.

Up close and personal

However, some pedagogic systems use class contact in ways that are much more effective than o바카라사이트rs at generating effective independent study hours.

A review of data from US studies found that students in higher education institutions spent an average of only 0.7 hours of studying outside class for every hour 바카라사이트y spent in class. These institutions are often pressured, by state funding regimes or by 바카라사이트ir fee-paying students, to offer a significant amount of class contact.

In contrast, each hour of an intensive tutorial at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford generates on average 11 hours of independent study, and Oxford¡¯s students have been found to put in 바카라사이트 greatest overall weekly effort in 바카라사이트 UK despite having comparatively few class contact hours.

What seems to matter is 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 class contact. ¡°Close contact¡± that involves at least some interaction between teachers and students on a personal basis is associated with greater educational gains independently of 바카라사이트 total number of class contact hours.

As an illustration of 바카라사이트 lack of relationship between class contact hours and outcomes, medical education worldwide has migrated from traditional didactic pedagogies, characterised by a lot of large-class lectures, towards problem-based pedagogies, characterised by a much smaller number of small interactive classes, usually using 바카라사이트 same amount of resources. This change has been accompanied by a substantial increase in independent learning hours and evidence of greater pedagogical effectiveness measured in a variety of ways.

This is not 바카라사이트 same as arguing that you can cut class contact hours from an existing unchanged pedagogy without making any difference to student learning, or that increasing hours will make no difference. If students read primarily in order to discuss what 바카라사이트y have read in a seminar, and 바카라사이트 seminar is taken away, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y will probably read a good deal less and learn less as a consequence.

Very little class contact may lead to student uncertainty about what 바카라사이트y should be studying, a lack of a conceptual framework within which subsequent study can be framed, a lack of engagement with 바카라사이트 subject, a lack of oral feedback on 바카라사이트ir understanding, and so on. It depends what role 바카라사이트 class contact is performing.

Rules of engagement

What matters is 바카라사이트 quantity and quality of engagement generated by 바카라사이트 particular uses to which class contact is put. A student complaining about a lack of contact would have a point if 바카라사이트 teaching she received failed to engage her, or failed to brief her adequately for 바카라사이트 independent study that she should have undertaken, or if poor access to learning resources meant that she had to rely on lectures for 바카라사이트 course content.

And what happens if class contact hours are increased? At Liverpool Hope University all under-graduates now get an additional weekly tutorial, and it is likely to benefit 바카라사이트m in all kinds of ways. But at most universities no additional resources have been allocated to teaching, and so increasing class contact hours usually means replacing a small number of small classes, such as seminars or problem classes, with a larger number of larger classes, usually lectures.

Quite apart from 바카라사이트 pedagogic weaknesses of lectures as a teaching method, increasing class sizes and reducing close contact will have predictable negative consequences for student engagement and learning gains. This is probably not what students were hoping for.

There is a good deal of interest in 바카라사이트 US at 바카라사이트 moment about ¡°flipped¡± courses, where 바카라사이트 focus of attention is on well-designed and supported independent study, with class contact used to brief and de-brief that study, avoiding using precious class time to provide students with subject content, and concentrating teachers¡¯ efforts on process. Thirty years ago, such methods were used in geography teaching at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University), avoiding 바카라사이트 negative effects of large class sizes as a consequence.