Sight, Sound, Touch: Addressing Sensory Learning

in a College Algebra Course

Jeremiah A. Gilbert, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mathematics

San Bernardino Valley College

BackgroundOver three Spring semesters, a college algebra course was taught by the same instructor with the same content and comparable assignments.Each successive term a new component was added to address the needs of sensory learners.Student success rates and course GPAs were compared.

Sensory LearnersVisual learners “see” information and mentally relate pictures or scenes in accommodating information.Auditory learners “hear” information via lecture, discussion, or debate and prefer discourse.Kinesthetic learners “feel” the information through concrete, hands-on experiences.

Three VersionsSpring 2008 – Lecture-based format involving no more than a whiteboard and a dry-erase pen. Spring 2009 – Interactive PowerPoint presentation replaced most of the whiteboard work.Spring 2010 – Partially completed handouts based upon the PowerPoint presentation added for students to follow in class and complete.

Success RateSuccess rate was measured as the number of students receiving a passing grade (A, B, C, or Credit) compared to all students receiving a grade.

Term Success RateSpring 2008 79.4%Spring 2009 91.7%Spring 2010 84.8%

Course GPAGPA was computed using a traditional four-point scale: A = 4 points, B = 3 points, C = 2 points, D = 1 points, and F = 0 points. Grades of W and I were excluded.

Term Course GPASpring 2008 2.53Spring 2009 2.81Spring 2010 2.67

Interactive PowerPointProvided visual learners with a presentation that allowed for the use of color, graphics, and animations not easily reproducible with a dry-erase pen.Not everything was revealed at once, providing auditory learners time to work out problems individually or in small groups before a step-by-step solution was revealed to them.

Interactive PowerPointSuccess rate saw a rise of 12.3%.

Course GPA saw an increase of 11.1%.

Students seemed to be more engaged and active in class.

HandoutsRather than requiring students to copy down everything presented in class, these handouts included complete definitions and properties, but left out solutions to examples and problems worked in class.The intent was to engage kinesthetic learners by giving them something to follow and interact with.

HandoutsWhile both success rate and course GPA were still above the whiteboard lecture-based format, both fell when compared to the PowerPoint only format.Imposing a fixed note-taking style may infringe upon a student’s own unique way of taking notes and provide less meaning in the process.

Questions?

Contact:

Jeremiah Gilbertjegilber@valleycollege.edu