The Procedure
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wo classes of preservice elementary school teachers enrolled,during the spring semester of 1969, in the four-credit mathematicscourse required of all elementary education majors at Wisconsin StateUniversity - Stevens Point participated in the study. There were23 students in one section and 27 in the other. Both classes were taught by the same instructor and studied from the same set of instructor-prepared notes. . Approximately 30% of the 50 minute class period in thelecture-class discussion (LCD) section was devoted to instructor-dominated activities including review of previously discussedmaterial and introduction of new topics. The remainder of theclass period was an instructor-led class discussion of topicsjntroduced in the lecture and development of new concepts. In the lecture-small group discussion (LSGD) section, theinitial time segment of ten minutes was an instructor-dominatedlecture period. The following 30 minutes was devoted to small-groupdiscussion of concepts related to the lecture and new material. Thestudents were given no direct assistance by the instructor. The lastten minutes of the period was spent in a class discussion of topicsand problems encountered by the individual discussion groups. The sizes of the discussion groups alternated weekly betweenthree and four students. Group composition was randomly determined.Group leadership was on 4 rotating basis daily. Mean scores on the following criterion measures were analyzedby an analysis of covariance: (1) computational skills, (2) achieve-ment on examinations of independent reading ability in mathematics,(3) attitude toward mathematics, and (4) overall course achievement. A t-test was used to compare within-group mean scores on pre= and posttest computational skills and attitude toward mathematics.
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