Effects of Different Teaching Modalities on Students’

Motivation & Academic Performance in

Human Anatomy & Physiology Class
David F. Boshra, Jason Huynh, Samantha Hasbum and Ammar Hafeez
Sanja Hinic-Frlog
1 Introduction Table 1. Chi-Square test involving number of pre/post students responses to
question 8 of the motivation survey, for each of the Likert scale category following
• Students are most engaged and motivated when Administration of pre- motivational video presentation as a teaching modality (respiratory unit).
they are personally committed to the pursuit of online survey at the beginning of the Inform students about Question 8: I do NOT think I will Number of Student Response
Lecture session of the week for benefit much from this respiratory Row Totals
educational goals (Gini-Newman, 2015). respiratory/urinary/reproductive system.
the upcoming teaching
system lesson
Pre-motivation- Post-motivation-
modality that will be Survey (Expected) Survey (Observed)
• Different teaching modalities allow instructors to presented in tutorial. Strongly Agree 1 0 1
Agree 2 5 7
motivate students by creating a balanced
Present teaching Neither Agree
environment where challenge of the task is just modality Likert Scale nor Disagree 9 12 21
(videos/case Administration of post-
above the skills of the students (Shernoff, 2003; studies/salient motivational survey at the end of
Disagree 47 48 95
Riener & Willingham, 2010). diseases) during the week’s Tutorial session. Strongly
Disagree
tutorial. 21 6 27
• Different teaching modalities are expected to Column Total 71 151 (Grand
80 Total)
improve student academic performance because 2
C (4, n=80, n=71)=17.24 p<0.05
they keep students engaged. • Same analyses were performed for case study (urinary system)
Collect the class Collect as well as compare pre and post
• The purpose of this study is to mean of term test survey data for each teaching modality, and salient disease (reproductive) teaching modalities
grades for and compare class means of term test • Case study – C2 (4, n=65, n=63)=9.77, p<0.05
examine the effects of various respiratory/urinary/re grades of 2016/17 academic year with
teaching modalities (videos, case productive system. those of 2015/16 academic years. • Salient Disease – C2 (4, n=60, n=115)=63.89, p<0.05
studies and salient diseases) on 4 Discussion
student motivation and academic Figure 1. Flowchart of methods for investigating the effect of various teaching modalities
There were statistically significant differences between
(videos, case studies, and salient diseases) on motivation and overall class average of
performance among students in Human Anatomy and Physiology (BIO210) students at University of Toronto Mississauga. student motivation before and after presenting any of the
BIO210Y5 (Human Anatomy and three teaching modalities (Table 1; Figure 2, p < 0.05).
Physiology) at the University of 3 Results I do NOT think I will benefit much from this lesson
For each teaching modality, there was a higher number of
Toronto Mississauga. Salient Disease Presentation (Pre Reproductive Strongly students that felt more motivated after a teaching modality
Unit) Agree
• We expect that multiple teaching modalities should was introduced (Table1, Figure 2).
positively influence student intrinsic motivation Salient Disease Presentation (Post Reproductive
The results confirmed our prediction that motivation would
Unit) Agree
towards the course material and that this may also increase after the presentation of a teaching modality.
Teaching Modality

be reflected in student academic performance. Possible explanations include:

2 Approach and Methodology
• Three different teaching modalities included: video
(respiratory), case study (urinary), and salient
disease (reproductive).
• Pre/post motivation surveys were administered
anonymously and motivation levels for each modality
measured with Course Interest Survey (Table 1)
• Mean grades of relevant content on term were
compared between 2015/2016 and 2016/2017
academic year.
• Pre/post motivation survey Likert
Email: scores were analyzed using chi-
david.boshra@utoronto.ca
square tests for each teaching
jason.huynh@mail.utoronto.ca
samantha.hasbum@mail.utoronto.ca modality.
ammar.hafeez@mail.utoronto.ca
sanja.hinic.frlog@mail.utoronto.ca
Case Study Presentation (Pre Urinary Unit)
Case Study Presentation (Post Urinary Unit)
Video Presentation (Pre Respiratory Unit)
Video Presentation (Post Respiratory Unit)
0% 20% 40% 60%
Proportion of Responses to Likert Scale Category
Figure 2. The distribution of pre/post student responses to the motivation survey, for each
of the Likert scale categories following each teaching modality (Videos = Respiratory Unit;
Case Study = Urinary System; Salient Disease = Reproductive System)
References
Gini-Newman, G., & Case, R. (2015). Creating thinking classrooms: leading Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The
educational change for a 21st century world. Vancouver, BC: The Critical Myth of Learning Styles. Change: The
Thinking Consortium. Magazine of Higher Learning, 42(5), 32-35.
Neither 1. A balance between task challenge and student skill level.
Agree nor
Disagree 2. Sufficient dedication of effort towards the pursuit of
educational goals after the modality was presented.
Disagre
3. The teaching modality introduced real world applications
that kept more students engaged, thus allowing them to
Strongly
apply their knowledge in open problem based teaching
Disagree modalities.
80% 100%
We found a notable increase across all teaching modalities
between the 2015/2016 and the 2016/2017 academic years.
The increased academic performance could be due to the
introduction of different teaching modalities that increased
student motivation (Figure 2).
Shernoff, D., M. Csikszentmihalyi, B. Schneider, & Shernoff, E. (2003)
“Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of
Flow Theory”. School Psychology Quarterly 18(3): 158-176.