The Benefits and Drawbacks to an Interactive Learning Environment
One of the greatest challenges in the pursuit of teaching is providing an engaging environment in which students can learn and retain the knowledge gained. In the Stansbury and Munro (2013) experiment, as well as the research conducted by Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013), the goal of each study was to identify the most beneficial of interactive instruction. However, as there is the possibility for improvement in any experiment, there is also the potential for drawbacks and flaws in the design. Therefore, it is important to dissect each element of the studies in order to gauge the effectiveness of the given treatments.
Among the greatest of the aspects to observe …show more content…
Looking at Stansbury and Munro (2013), there is strong construct validity. By using the combination of instructional condition and time of test administration, the researchers are able to show the obvious differences between the experimental, standard treatment, and no treatment control groups. The use of each of these measures is designed to assess content knowledge as evidenced by test scores. The most obvious proof of the difference in conditions is the between pretest and posttest data, specifically for the video game with lecture condition. Next, when reading through the study of Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013), there is shown to be moderate construct validity. By using the scaffolding approach to teaching, the students are given building blocks to their information and extra guidance, then as they became more familiar with the study, they were given more independence. However, problems arise because of the inability to do random assignment and using multiple measures at the same time (one …show more content…
In this case, the validity is weak because of one major confound in the independent variable of instructional condition due to the fact that there are different instructors for each condition. It could be the case that the instructors for the assigned condition, while described as experienced, may not be suited for instructing a regular lecture, or a class with video games implemented in instruction. Also present in the Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013) study is weak internal validity. Considering this experiment utilized self-report measures and took those measures at the end of the semester, students were likely to be overwhelmed and preoccupied by exams. In this case, they were more likely to have a lowered sense of ability and skill regarding research, which makes self-report a dangerous
One of the greatest challenges in the pursuit of teaching is providing an engaging environment in which students can learn and retain the knowledge gained. In the Stansbury and Munro (2013) experiment, as well as the research conducted by Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013), the goal of each study was to identify the most beneficial of interactive instruction. However, as there is the possibility for improvement in any experiment, there is also the potential for drawbacks and flaws in the design. Therefore, it is important to dissect each element of the studies in order to gauge the effectiveness of the given treatments.
Among the greatest of the aspects to observe …show more content…
Looking at Stansbury and Munro (2013), there is strong construct validity. By using the combination of instructional condition and time of test administration, the researchers are able to show the obvious differences between the experimental, standard treatment, and no treatment control groups. The use of each of these measures is designed to assess content knowledge as evidenced by test scores. The most obvious proof of the difference in conditions is the between pretest and posttest data, specifically for the video game with lecture condition. Next, when reading through the study of Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013), there is shown to be moderate construct validity. By using the scaffolding approach to teaching, the students are given building blocks to their information and extra guidance, then as they became more familiar with the study, they were given more independence. However, problems arise because of the inability to do random assignment and using multiple measures at the same time (one …show more content…
In this case, the validity is weak because of one major confound in the independent variable of instructional condition due to the fact that there are different instructors for each condition. It could be the case that the instructors for the assigned condition, while described as experienced, may not be suited for instructing a regular lecture, or a class with video games implemented in instruction. Also present in the Ciarocco, Lewandowski, and Van Volkom (2013) study is weak internal validity. Considering this experiment utilized self-report measures and took those measures at the end of the semester, students were likely to be overwhelmed and preoccupied by exams. In this case, they were more likely to have a lowered sense of ability and skill regarding research, which makes self-report a dangerous