Study of Lecture Delivery Effectiveness by 1st Year Lecturers from Biomedical Science
Department, Faculty of Allied Health Science, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Campus
( Kajian Keberkesanan Penyampaian Kuliah oleh Pensyarah Tahun Satu Jabatan Sains
Bioperubatan, Fakulti Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kampus
Kuala Lumpur)
ISMARULYUSDA ISHAK, RIFINA ARLIN DRS. HAJI ZAINAL ARIFIN, AHMAD ROHI
GHAZALI, NANTHA KUMAR JEYAPRAKASAM, TAN HUAN HUAN, NURHAFIZA
SALLEH HUDIN, TAN BOON PHIAU, WAN MARAHAINI WAN RAZALI, CHIN YI
CHAO, NORIDAYU ZAKARIA, KWEK WEN HUA, NOR ZALILAH MOHD NORDIN,
CHOI JANE RU, BAHARUDIN JUSUP
ABSTRACT
The lecture effectiveness by first year lecturers from Biomedical Science Department, Faculty of
Allied Health Science, UKM were studied among first, second, third year biomedical science
students and biomedical science’s lecturer from first semester in first year in Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia. In total, 166 people comprising of 7 lecturers and 159 students
(34% first year students, 34% second year students 34% third year students and 4% lecturers)
were given questionnaires that consist of four sections which incorporate the student
understanding level after lecture being delivered, different type of teaching methods that may
affect the understanding level of students, lecturer’s preparation for lecture delivery and
association of the effectiveness of lecture and student academic performance during first year for
first semester. Most of the students (52.41 %) have a good level of understanding after lecture
delivery. Most of the students and lecturers (mean value of 3.69), think that case study and
problem base learning (PBL) are the effective method of teaching. There is a weak correlation
coefficient of population between students’ understanding level and lecturers’ self-preparation.
There is no correlation between the effectiveness of lecture and students’ academic performance
during first year for first semester. In conclusion, there is no correlation between students’
understanding level and lecturers’ self-preparation.
Keywords: lecture; teaching method; academic; effectiveness; biomedical science student
ABSTRAK
Keberkesanan pengajaran pensyarah oleh pensyarah-pensyarah tahun pertama dari Jabatan
Sains Bioperubatan, Fakulti Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia telah
dikaji diantara pelajar program sains bioperubatan tahun pertama, kedua, ketiga dan pensyarah
sains bioperubatan bagi semester pertama, tahun pertama di Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Sebanyak 166 orang yang melibatkan 7 orang pensyarah dan 159 orang pelajar (32% pelajar
tahun satu, 32% pelajar tahun dua dan 32% pelajar tahun tiga dan 4% pensyarah), telah
diberikan borang soal - selidik yang mengandungi empat bahagian dimana ia dicirikan dengan
tahap kefahaman para pelajar setelah syarahan diberikan oleh pensyarah, pelbagai jenis kaedah
pengajaran yang mungkin memberi kesan terhadap tahap kefahaman para pelajar, persediaan
pensyarah sebelum memberikan syarahan dan hubungan antara keberkesanan pengajaran
dengan pencapaian akademik pelajar pada semester pertama, tahun pertama. Kebanyakan
pelajar (54.21%), mempunyai tahap kefahaman yang baik setelah syarahan diberikan.
Kebanyakan pensyarah dan pelajar (nilai min ialah 3.69), berpendapat bahawa kajian kes dan
kaedah pembelajaran berasaskan masalah (PBL) adalah kaedah pengajaran yang paling sesuai.
Terdapat korelasi koefesien bagi populasi yang lemah antara tahap kefahaman pelajar dan
persediaan pensyarah untuk mengajar. Tidak terdapat sebarang korelasi antara keberkesanan
pengajaran dan pencapaian akademik pelajar semasa semester pertama bagi tahun pertama.
Sebagai kesimpulannya, tidak terdapat sebarang korelasi di antara tahap kefahaman pelajar
dan persediaan pensyarah untuk mengajar.
Kata Kunci: syarahan; kaedah pengajaran; akademik; keberkesanan ; pelajar sains
bioperubatan
INTRODUCTION
In writing about the lecture method in medical education, Vella (1992) defines the lecture as the
formal presentation of content by the educator (as subject matter expert) for the subsequent
learning and recall in examinations by students. Ruyle (1995) describes the lecture simply as an
oral presentation of instructional material. Thus, to see the effectiveness of the lecture delivery
by the lecturers, few studies had been carried out where they will be looking into different
sources of rating (Berk 2005). The three main parts of a lecture are the introduction, body and
summary. Hence, the study of the effectiveness of the lecturers in delivering the lecture can be
done to look into all these criteria (Sullivan 1996).
The sample subjects selected are students and self (lecturer). Students are chosen because
they are the subjects who attend the lectures, thus they can directly evaluate the effectiveness of
the lecture while lecturers are chosen to evaluate themselves so that their self evaluation is
coherent with evaluation by others. Some of the research issues that have initiated this study are
that most of the studies on lecture delivery effectiveness are only based on student ratings (eg:
SPPK). Using only one source of information is inadequate and can create bias and unreliability.
Therefore our study is to look into other sources to complement the unreliability.
The objectives of this study were to determine students’ understanding level, determine
the effectiveness of various teaching methods, to associate the lecturers self-preparation with
lecture delivery effectiveness, to determine the association between the effectiveness of lectures
and students’ academic performance among students first, second and third year Biomedical
Science undergraduates 2010/2011 and also first year lecturers of FSKB, UKM, KKL. For the
future study, the results obtained from this study can be compared with that of the other lecturers
in other universities locally or maybe with international lecturers as well so as to increase our
university’s competency level in order for our university to achieve the ranking of one the top
universities in Malaysia, or perhaps worldwide.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross- sectional study was conducted among first, second, third year students and also first
year lecturers of biomedical science in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. A name list of the
student was taken and the respondents were selected using stratified simple random sampling
method while the lecturers were selected using universal sampling. A total of 31` male and 135
female of respondents were selected and from the 166 respondent, there are 112 Malays, 40
Chinese, 10 Indians and 4 Others students involved in this study.
Characteristics
Gender
Races
Respondents
Number
Percent (%)
Male
31
18.7
Female
135
81.3
Malay
112
67.5
Chinese
40
24.1
Indian
10
6.0
Others
4
2.4
1st
53
32.0
2nd
53
32.0
3rd
53
32.0
Lecturers
7
4.0
166
100.0
Total
TABLE 1:
Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (n = 166)
A structural questionnaire was used consists of respondent’s demographic information.
The demographic information requested included name, gender, races and year of study. Part A
was created based on first objective, students’ understanding level after lecture delivered.
Meanwhile, part B was regarding on second objective which is to determine the effectiveness of
various teaching methods and part C based on third objective, to determine the association
between lecturers self-preparation with students’ understanding. The answers for part A, B and C
are using rating scale from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree). For forth objective, the
association between effectiveness of lecture and students’ academic performance during 1st year
1st semester is being determined by GPA 1st year 1st Sem.
For part B, the various teaching methods that been evaluated included lecture notes alone,
assignment, case study, individual/ group presentation, e-SPIN, tutorial and problem base
learning. While for part C, the questions asked were to identify lecturers’ preparation that may
influence the quality of lectures, such as uses flow chart and diagrams for teaching purposes.
Data analysis was conducted using SPSS for Windows (version 17.0). The first objectives
which is to determine students’ understanding level was described in percentage based on the
answers in questionnaires. The second objective which is to determine the effectiveness of
various teaching methods was described Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney test since the data is
not normally distributed. The third objective in the meanwhile is to determine the association
between lecturers self-preparation with lecture delivery effectiveness. These were described by
Spearman Correlation test. The fourth objective, which is meant to find out the relationship
between effectiveness of lecture and students’ academic performance during 1st year 1st semester,
was described using the Spearman Correlation test. A p- value of less than 0.0005 was
considered to have significant difference.
RESULTS
The findings for students’ understanding level after lecture delivery shows 87 (52.4%) of the 166
respondents have good understanding level. Only 69 (41.6%) have moderate, 7 (4.2%) have very
good and 3 (1.8%) have poor understanding level.
Level of knowledge
Percent (%)
N
Poor
1.8
3
Moderate
41.6
69
Good
52.4
87
Very Good
4.2
7
Total
100.0
166
Students’ Understanding Level
TABLE 2:
Effectiveness of teaching
N
Degree of freedom
Significant value
996
5
0.000
methods
TABLE 3:
Kruskal-Wallis test for effectiveness of teaching methods
From Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, it shown the data is not normally distributed. By using
Kruskal-Wallis test, at degree of freedom, F (5, 990), significant value, p is less than 0.0005. As
p <0.05, this indicates that there is a highly significant difference between the 6 groups of
teaching methods. In order to know where the significance lies, comparisons between groups of
teaching methods are done by the use of nonparametric Mann-Whitney Test.
Assignment
Assignment
-
Case study
0.677
Individual/
e-SPIN
tutorial
Problem
Group
Base
presentation
Learning
0.223
<0.001
0.198
0.801
0.085
0.832
0.858
0.102
**
Case study
0.677
-
0.079
<0.001
**
Individual/
0.223
0.079
-
Group
<0.001
**
presentation
e-SPIN
<0.001**
<0.001**
<0.001**
-
<0.001**
<0.001**
Tutorial
0.198
0.085
0.858
<0.001
-
0.109
0.109
-
**
Problem
0.801
Base
0.832
0.102
<0.001
**
Learning
TABLE 4:
Significant differences between the teaching methods
From the table 4, there are significantly different between teaching method of using eSPIN with other teaching methods like assignment, case study, individual /group presentation,
tutorial and problem base learning where the p value is less than 0.0005. On the other hand, there
is no significant difference among teaching methods like assignment, case study,
individual/group presentation, tutorial and problem base learning.
Teaching Methods
Median
Assignment
22
Tutorial
18
Case Study
17
PBL
14
Individual / Group presentation
13
e-SPIN
2
TABLE 5:
Median value for each teaching method
Based on the table above, assignment has highest median of 22 among the rest of the
teaching methods. While e-SPIN gives the lowest value, which is 2. Hence, assignments are the
most effective teaching method while e-SPIN is the least effective teaching method.
Lecturers’ self preparation
TABLE 6:
Sig. Value (2-tailed)
r value
<0.0005**
0.263**
Spearman Correlation between lecturers’ self preparation and lecture delivery
effectiveness
The r value is positive with 0.263 and p<0.0005. The p value is <0.05, hence null
hypothesis is rejected where there is a correlation coefficient of population between students’
understanding level and lecturers’ self-preparation. There is a positive correlation between
students’ understanding level and lecturers’ self-preparation. The strength of correlation is weak
(r = 0.263).
Effectiveness of lecture delivery
TABLE 7:
Sig. Value (2-tailed)
r value
0.819
0.018
Spearman Correlation between effectiveness of lecture and students’ academic
performance during1st year 1st semester
From the table above, the finding for association between effectiveness of lecture and
students’ academic performance shows that r value is positive with 0.018 and p = 0.819. Since p
>0.05, it is not significant different between effectiveness of lecture and students’ academic
performance during 1st year 1st semester. So, there is no correlation between effectiveness of
lecture and students’ academic performance during 1st year 1st semester.
DISCUSSION
Based on the bar chart, for objective 1 which is to determine students’ understanding level after
lecture delivery, it shows that most of the students have good understanding after the lecture
delivery and there is none of the students with very poor understanding of lectures. This proves
that students have the perception that the lecturer’s delivery of lecture is effective.
Eble (1971) pointed out that there are five components of effective teaching as perceived
by the students. They include teacher must use an analytic/synthetic approach, well organized,
teacher-group interaction, teacher-individual students interaction and dynamism/enthusiasm
manner. Smith (1980) contributed a checklist for good teaching by including test prerequisite
skills, provides feedback to the teacher, adopts to individual differences, provide feedback to the
students, flexible, promotes active student learning, motivates students and clear and wellorganized. All these factors are vital for the understanding of students towards lectures delivered.
From the Kruskal Wallis test performed for objective 2, there are highly significant
differences between the six groups of teaching methods. From the Mann Whitney test performed,
there is a significant difference between e-SPIN and the other five groups of teaching methods.
From the median value obtained to determine the effectiveness of various teaching methods,
students and lecturers think that assignment is the most effective method of teaching. However,
the lecturers and students think that e-SPIN is not an effective method of teaching.
Assignment prepares students to become effective and efficient life-long learners which
is an absolute essential in a profession where new types of problems and new information
surfaces with almost logarithmic expansion. The old educational truism states that half of what
the students learn in school will be wrong or outdated by the time they are in the real world, and
no one knows which half that is. This means that the teachers working with the students should
not provide the students with what they feel is the information students need in their studies nor
give them reading or study assignments. The students must learn how to decide on what they
need to learn and to seek out appropriate learning resources, using the faculty as consultants
(often called "resource faculty" in problem-based learning) as well as books, journals, online
resources and other experts. This means that assignment is not teacher-centered, the teacher does
not direct what students should learn or what resources they should use. Instead the teacher
designs and provides the problem simulations and problem experiences that challenge the
students to learn what is expected in the curriculum. Using facilitatory teaching skills, the teacher
guides them in their work with the problem as they develop problem-solving skills, identify what
they need to learn and develop self-directed learning skills. The teacher in this role is usually
referred to as a "tutor" and needs to be well trained for this role.
In addition, they must reflect on how their new learning relates to prior problems and
prepares them for future problems. This important step helps convert procedural knowledge
gained through problem solving into declarative knowledge for use and recall with other
problems in the future.
Through assignments, students are able to access, study and integrate information from
all the disciplines that might be related to understanding and resolving the particular problem
they are working with, just as people in the real world must recall and apply information
integrated from diverse sources in their work. This allows the problem to be the organizing focus
for student learning better ensuring the recall and application of that information from various
relevant fields in their subsequent work with problems in their life and careers. Assignments
require that students are active learners, responsible for their own learning and have adequate
time for self-directed learning. Assignments also enable students to work in groups and improve
in their social, interactive and leadership skills.
Besides, assignments give life sciences graduate students direct practice in the statistical
reasoning skills needed to choose appropriate procedures for analyzing data from their research
studies. The course gives students practical experience by focusing on the analysis of data from
actual biomedical research studies. Student evaluations indicated that this course improved the
students' ability to understand and apply statistical methods in their research. Written
assignments help in organization of knowledge, assimilation of facts and better preparation of
examinations. It emphasizes on individual pupil work and the method that helps both teaching
and learning processes (Kochhar 2000). Fully explain assignments are given so that students
know how to best prepare. When the inevitable question, "Will we be tested on this?" arises,
students are able to include not only a "yes" or "no," but a "because" (Shea A 2009).
However through online learning such as e-SPIN, student assessment and feedback is
limited. Many, if not most, of today's web-based training programs are too static, with little if
any interactivity. e-SPIN also contain potential for the lack of interaction with classmates and
lecturer. Online learning limits the amount of public speaking practice gained from in-class
presentations and discussions, something that is naturally built into a traditionally structured
class. e-SPIN also has limited access to lecturer which involves sitting down with lecturer to
discuss a topic from class or reasons for a certain grade . Through online learning, students tend
to miss out on non-verbal communication which is is as important, if not more important than
verbal communication, and it’s hard to see non-verbal communication online. Similar to the need
for face-to-face conversations with a teacher, non-verbal cues are impossible online, and can be
just as communicative as actual words.
Overall, e-SPIN is not an effective teaching method as perceived by the lecturers and
students as unmotivated learners or those with poor study habits may fall behind. The lack of
familiar structure and routine may take getting used to and students may feel isolated or miss
social interaction. Besides, instructor may not always be available on demand. Slow or unreliable
Internet connections can be frustrating and some courses such as traditional hands-on courses
can be difficult to simulate.
For objective 3, based on Spearman Correlation test performed to determine association
between lecturers’ self-preparation and lecture delivery effectiveness, there is a weak positive
correlation between lecturers’ self-preparation and lecture delivery effectiveness. Self
preparation of lecturers involves many aspects either emotionally, theoretically or practically.
Lewis, et al. (1988) discussed about the characteristics of effective large-class instructors which
include enthusiasm about the subject, knowledge of the subject and the ability to communicate
this knowledge, cares about the progress and welfare of the students, dares to discipline (govern)
to eliminate unnecessary talking, has a sense of humour, uses a variety of instructional strategies,
interacts with students during, as well as before and after class, and has confidence in him/herself
and what he/she is doing. These are all examples of self preparation that is done by an effective
lecturer. Colker (2008) reported that teachers claimed there were four characteristics of an
effective teacher which include having a sound knowledge of subject matter, take personal
interest in each student, establish a caring or loving or warm atmosphere and finally to show
enthusiasm with students. Colker (2008) identified the twelve characteristics of teachers that
children believe are integral factors to effective teaching. There are passion, perseverance
willingness to take risks, pragmatism, patience, flexibility, respect creativity, authenticity, love
of learning, high energy and sense of humour.
Self-preparation of teachers in US tends to increase personal teaching efficacy (Hoy &
Woolfolk 1990, Wenner 2001). Cox and Rogers (2005) described a well-prepared lecture as an
interactive experience that actively engages students in the process of learning and can support
diverse student learning. When the objective is to communicate basic facts, introduce intitial
concepts or convey passion about a topic, a well prepared lecture is very useful (Cox & Rogers
2005, Gleitman 2006). Horngren (1963), pointed out that good teachers possess three crucial
characteristics. These are knowledge of the subject matter, adequate preparation and enthusiasm.
He defines preparation as being “always ready”. Sheffield (1974) listed out the characteristics of
effective teachers most often mentioned which include master of his/her subject or competent,
lectures well prepared and orderly, subject related to life or practical, students’ questions and
opinions encouraged, enthusiastic about his/her subject, approachable, friendly or available,
concerned for students’ progress, has a sense of humour or amusing, warm, kind, sympathetic,
and teaching aids used effectively.
Based on another Spearman Correlation test carried out for the last objective which is to
determine the association between effectiveness of lecture and students’ academic performance
during 1st year 1st semester, there is no correlation between effectiveness of lecture and students’
academic performance during first year first semester. Effectiveness of lecture delivery does not
influence students’ academic performance during the first year first semester study. This might
be due to students not depending solely on the lecturer’s lecture delivery and lecture notes.
Students may find other sources to perform academically besides lecture note only which is also
known as active learning. Active learning refers to situations where students are involved in the
educational process instead of passively listening to lectures (Hermanson 1994).
Besides, it might be the students responsibility if they do not perform well in their
academics even if the lecturer had delivered their lectures effectively, for example the students
not paying full attention during lecture or being absent for a particular lecture. Cox (1994)
suggests that, ideally lectures are only there to lay foundations, show the way, and ease the
passage, as the student works through the subject.
Since the result obtained proves that problem based learning is an effective teaching
method, there tend to be a difference between PBL and non-PBL students in their academic
performance which is not dependant on lecture effectiveness solely. Nolte et al. (1988) found
that use of reserve material went up. Blumberg and Michael (1992) found that PBL students
were more likely to use textbooks and other books and informal discussion with peers than did
non-PBL students, who were more likely to rely on lecture notes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank all biostatistics lecturers particularly Puan Rifina Arlin binti Drs. Haji
Zainal Arifin as our supervisor and Associate Professor Dr Rohi bin Ghazali as our co-supervisor
that had guide and help us a lot in doing our project. We also want to convey our gratitude to all
first year lecturers in first semester and biomedical science students from first, second to third
years that had gladly participated in finishing the questionnaires. Your help is highly appreciated.
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