Use of interactive lecture demonstrations: A ten year study

The widely held constructivist view of learning advocates student engagement via interactivity. Within the physics education research community, several specific interactive strategies have been developed to enhance conceptual understanding. One such strategy, the Interactive Lecture Demonstration (ILD) is designed for large lecture classes and, if measured using specific conceptual surveys, is purported to provide learning gains of up to 80%. This paper reports on learning gains for two different Projects over ten years. In Project 1, the ILDs were implemented from 1999 to 2001 with students who had successfully completed senior high school physics. The learning gains for students not exposed to the ILDs were in the range 13% to 16% while those for students exposed to the ILDs was 31% to 50%. In Project 2, the ILDs were implemented from 2007 to 2009 with students who had not studied senior high school physics. Since the use of ILDs in Project 1 had produced positive results, ethical considerations dictated that all students be exposed to ILDs. The learning gains were from 28% to 42%. On the one hand it is pleasing to note that there is an increase in learning gains, yet on the other, we note that the gains are nowhere near the claimed 80%. This paper also reports on teacher experiences of using the ILDs, in Project 2.

Figure 1

Preinstruction scores according to the topics covered by the test for the Fundamentals, Regular, and Advanced students in 1995.

Figure 2

Average correct responses for the Regular students, preinstruction, in 1995, and from 1999 to 2002.

Figure 3

Postinstruction scores for Regular students, exposed to ILD methods of instruction, 1999–2001.

Figure 4

Raw gains vs preinstruction score, (a) from Hake [9] measured by the FCI, and (b) for the current project, measured by the FMCE.

Figure 5

Average correct responses for Fundamentals students preinstruction from 2007 to 2009.

Figure 6

Postinstruction scores for Fundamentals students, exposed to ILD methods of instruction, 2007–2009.

Figure 7

Raw gains vs preinstruction scores for Fundamentals students, measured by the FMCE, 2007–9.