Case Study: Feedback in Practical Classes
Aaron Coutts, School of Leisure Sport & Tourism
There are 69 students in the third year exercise physiology subject, "Human Efficiency 1". These students examine the physiological responses of the body to different types of exercise and apply their understanding of these responses to sport, health and physical activity. As third years they are motivated to learn the skills they see as relevant to them when they are working in sport or exercise related fields. The lecturer has the students for both a one-hour lecture and a two-hour tutorial each week. The tutorials are held in the laboratory where the students collect and analyse exercise and human movement data taking in account the theoretical concepts discussed in lectures to formulate exercise programs or make recommendations based on the measurements they take.
The laboratories each have a comprehensive lab guide that clearly states what the student are expected to understand and do in each laboratory session. Before the students leave the tutorial they need to demonstrate to the lecturer that they can meet those key objectives. The objectives include both a skill and knowledge component. Practical skills are demonstrated within the tutorials and each laboratory exercise has between 3 or 5 questions to test their conceptual understanding at the end of the laboratory. A key to the success of this is that the topic of the lecture is also the topic of the laboratory, so the tutorial questions relate back to the theory that we developed in the lecture.
There are 3 or 4 tutorial groups of between 15 to 25 students in each laboratory group. Each tutorial begins with a recap of the theoretical background, followed by a demonstration of the procedure used to successfully complete the laboratory exercise. The lecturer demonstrates the process first himself, outlining 2 or 3 key things to remember and then the students demonstrate it to him.
Students typically use the same data set, working through the activity as a group but analysing and write the report individually. Students are encouraged to work in small groups so that they can learn off each other. Being in smaller groups also makes it easier to ensures all the student can perform the necessary tasks and for the lecturer to see the students who are struggling but don't ask for help.
While the students are undertaking the laboratory exercise and as they complete this exercise, the lecturer checks whether they can perform the tasks required. The emphasis is on how to do something better rather than highlighting what the student is doing wrong. Those struggling with the task are corrected on their technique or shown a better technique for that procedure. Discussion of any problems with an activity is handled informally during the laboratory sessions. This advice is typically delivered one-on-one or within a group. If students continue to have difficulty they see the lecturer after the laboratory when they go back over the laboratory data and discuss the appropriate approach to different techniques.
To ensure that all the objectives of the laboratory exercise have been met, the lecturer has to observe the students successfully using the skills before they leave the practical. Their understanding of the key concepts is assessed through the questions at the end of each laboratory exercise. After collecting the data whole tutorial comes back as a large group, each present its group data and then answer the tutorial questions. With between 3 and 5 questions each group usually answers one of the tutorial questions. Feedback on these answers is given to the whole class, where the lecturer compares their answer with one that he has pre-prepared. It is then discuss why one answer is preferred over another. This is also an opportunity for the lecturer to link the exercises back to the lecture material or reading.