Conceptions of teaching and learning held by University Science Professors

Methods Section

Participants

          The questionnaire was administered to one-hundred university science professors from the National University from Mar del Plata who agreed to take part voluntarily in the project research.  The parameter used for the election of the participants was made following a probabilistic sample method (Sampieri, Collado & Fernandez, 2006) Thus, twenty participants from science careers corresponding to different faculties were chosen for this research study.  As regards faculties, participants from humanities, health, engineering and formal science faculties were asked to take part and they were selected according to their experience working in high education settings. 

Materials

            Participants were administered a multiple choice questionnaire posing twelve dilemmas which dealt with issues related to different conceptions of teaching and learning.  Participants had to respond to dilemmas choosing from three possible options which were related to different teaching and learning theories.  Questionnaire options described different points of view and solutions to dilemmas following different conceptions related to behaviorist and constructivist theories about learning and teaching.  Dilemmas presented in the questionnaire included issues such as what learning is, how learning takes place, what assessment is, how it is carried out in everyday practice.  As regards the analysis of the results, qualitative and quantitative methods were used to report the results.

Procedure

            Participants were sent e-mails communications where they were asked to participate in the research study.  Once they agreed to take part in it, they were sent the questionnaires and had a week to respond them through electronic medium (e-mail questionnaires).  Questionnaires were analyzed through the use qualitative and quantitative method to describe the different views held by university science professors. The qualitative method was used to analyze the points of view as regards learning theories implicit in the responses chosen by the participants.  In turn, quantitative methods were used to analyze the level of occurrence of the different views in terms of percentages. Both methods provided a wide picture of the stance held by the participants in this research study. 

 

References

 

   Hernández Sampieri, R., Fernández Collado, C. y Baptista Lucio, P (2006).

   Capitulo 8: Selección de la muestra. Metodología de la Investigación. Mexico: Ed.Mc-Graw Hill.