Adrienne G. Hampton '09 compared the effectiveness of different methods of sequencing teaching examples on student learning for her senior directed research project in psychology. She found that a new technique called “structural sequencing” led to significantly better learning and holds promise to improve teaching methods.
Dr. Stephen Chew, her research supervisor on the project, presented the findings at the National Institute for the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP) in January. The research project, entitled “Designed Sequences of Examples Facilitate Learning of Statistical Concepts”, was the unanimous choice to receive the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award, chosen by “the NITOP conference committee to be outstanding in terms of (a) the importance of the research question addressed, (b) the soundness of the research methodology employed, (c) the use of appropriate qualitative and/or statistical analyses, and (d) the clarity with which the implications of the research findings for teaching and learning are expressed.” NITOP featured over 100 research presentations from faculty across the country.