Promoting Students’ Active Participation and Distributed Learning in a Lecture Through Generating Comprehension Tasks

• In Event: Innovative Teaching and Mentoring in Educational Psychology

Abstract

This study aimed at promoting students‘ active participation and distributed learning in an Educational Psychology lecture by replacing the final summative exam with a portfolio component that required for each lecture session that students generate comprehension questions, and respond and provide feedback to them. Over a lecture period of seven weeks 125 – 104 students accomplished the assignments. By doing so they created and revised around 850 comprehension questions with their answers addressing seven different topics of Educational Psychology. Furthermore, they responded to seven questions generated by their peers and provided peer feedback. The survey and reflection data gathered throughout the semester showed that students valued very much the new portfolio component requiring their distributed active engagement with the lecture content.

Authors

• Susanne Narciss, Technische Universitaet Dresden

• Antje Proske, Technische Universitaet Dresden