Studio Structure Improves Student Performance in an Undergraduate Introductory Soil Science Course

Andrews, Sarah; Frey, Serita D.

doi:10.4195/nse2014.12.0026

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The student response in this study supports previous research that showed field activities or active learning are favored by students and are better for engaging students than lectures alone (Freeman et al, 2007; Andrews and Frey, 2015; Krzic et al, 2015). The generally high rating of the field practicals suggests that students were engaged in the material and want to learn more about the topic and additional soil tests.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Teaching Undergraduate Soil Management to Diverse Majors: Linking Lectures with Field Practicals

Blanco‐Canqui

Ruis

Speth

et al. 2018

Natural Sciences Education

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Core Ideas Undergraduate students favored field activities related to soil management to enhance their learning. Most students indicated that field tests connected lecture with reality. Field activities can improve learning of soil management, particularly for non‐soils major students. Pairing lectures with field activities can be an effective strategy to teach large (>75) undergraduate soil courses with a wide variety of majors. Enhancing student learning of soil management demands effective teaching strategies. Devoting some lecture periods to field activities could provide a hands‐on learning experience, but studies on this approach—particularly in lecture‐only, diverse‐major, and large undergraduate courses—are not available. We assessed this approach for 3 years in a soil management course for a total of 211 undergraduate students with diverse but related majors. About 23 to 37% of the students were non‐soils or non‐agronomy majors each year. We included two field sessions in fall semester of each year to illustrate how management affects soil processes and properties. Student surveys (21 questions), using ratings on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), showed that students favored field practicals (>4). Students perceived that the written report regarding the field activities further aided their learning (mean of 3.25 across 3 years). Field tests connected lectures with real‐world application, especially for non‐soils/agronomy majors. Some challenges with lecture–field activity teaching approach for large classes (>75 students) include providing opportunities for each student to conduct field measurements, limited time during field tests, and compromising lecture material coverage with in‐depth learning material, among others. Overall, connecting lectures with field activities can improve student perception of increased learning of soil management, particularly for non‐soils major students.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Teaching Undergraduate Soil Management to Diverse Majors: Linking Lectures with Field Practicals

Blanco‐Canqui

Ruis

Speth

et al. 2018

Natural Sciences Education

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“…Introductory soil science courses have been recently assessed by Turk (2016), who reported on the development and use of lecture tutorials, Sandall et al (2014) who studied metacognitive activities, Mikhailova et al (2014) who used e-portfolios for assessment of student performance, and Andrews and Frey (2015) who delivered an introductory soil science course in a studio structure instead of the traditional lecture classroom. In addition, Hartemink et al (2014) outlined in 15 interviews with experienced soil science instructors from nine countries the unique aspects and challenges in teaching soil science.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To overcome this issue, a change in how laboratories are incorporated in the introductory soil science courses might be considered. Several universities in the United States have developed a "studio format" concept in which lecture and laboratory time are integrated such that discussion topics transition directly into connected laboratory activities (Andrews and Frey 2015). It has been reported that students taking the studio format course obtained higher final grades and that the fail rate was significantly lower than those taking the traditional course.…”

Section: The Instructors Of Introductory Soil Science Courses In Canadamentioning

confidence: 99%

Introductory soil courses: a frontier of soil science education in Canada

et al. 2018

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As the focus of soil science education in Canada and elsewhere has shifted towards nonsoil science majors, it is important to understand if and how this has affected the scope of introductory soil science courses. The objectives of this study were to inventory Canadian postsecondary units that offer introductory soil science courses and to document attributes of instructors, students, and teaching approaches in these courses. We surveyed 58% of the instructors of introductory soil science courses across Canada, and most of these courses were offered by geography and environmental science units. The majority of instructors followed a traditional lecture (86%) and laboratory (76%) delivery format, whereas 36% used online teaching resources. Introductory courses were delivered by primarily one instructor, who held a Ph.D. in a tenure track position and in most cases developed the course themselves. Over half of the instructors surveyed used either a required or a recommended textbook, pointing to the need for creation of a Canadian-authored soil science textbook. Several follow-up studies are needed to evaluate teaching methods used in the upper level soil science courses, students' perceptions of teaching in soil science, and instructors' knowledge of resources available for online and (or) blended learning.

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“…There has been much less research on the approach in the earth sciences, with a single paper finding positive perceptions in a studio‐style petrology class (Perkins, 2005), and one study in an introductory soil science course that found positive educational outcomes from the approach, especially for male and lower‐performing students (Andrews & Frey, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparable outcomes in studio vs. traditional delivery of an introductory soil science course

Rees

Winberry

2020

Natural Sciences Education

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Studio‐style course delivery involves the integration of laboratory activities with lecture elements of the course, with the goal of increasing student learning and satisfaction through directly linking laboratory and lecture concepts while focusing on active learning. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of studio delivery of an introductory soil science class at California Polytechnic State University, we first redesigned the course to integrate appropriate technology and to align lectures with laboratory activities. We then offered multiple test sections of the course, including concurrent studio and traditional lecture/laboratory sections taught by the same instructor using the same materials and activities. Student learning was measured at the end of the course with exam questions, including sets with or without direct connection to laboratory activities. Student attitudes were evaluated with a survey. Few significant differences were found between studio and traditional sections, gender, grade point average, or major. Some students seemed to struggle with the extended time commitment for each meeting of the studio‐style section, but overall, results were very positive for both styles of delivery. Careful design and delivery of the course, including aligning lecture and laboratory materials and incorporating active‐learning strategies, resulted in a high degree of satisfaction with the course, with or without integration of the laboratory and lecture components.

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Studio Structure Improves Student Performance in an Undergraduate Introductory Soil Science Course

Cited by 6 publications

References 55 publications

Teaching Undergraduate Soil Management to Diverse Majors: Linking Lectures with Field Practicals

Teaching Undergraduate Soil Management to Diverse Majors: Linking Lectures with Field Practicals

Introductory soil courses: a frontier of soil science education in Canada

Comparable outcomes in studio vs. traditional delivery of an introductory soil science course

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