A COMPARISON OF TWO DIFFERENT TEACHING STYLES AND THEIR EFFECT ON LEARNING DNA RESTRICTION IN DIFFERENT STUDENT POPULATIONS

Abstract

The relative effectiveness of two different teaching styles, teacher-directed and student-directed, was tested using a DNA restriction exercise. The exercise provided college students with the basics of plasmid biology, restriction endonuclease cleavage and agarose gel electrophoresis. The same DNA restriction exercise was used to compare the performance of a selected group of students from Hood College and non-selected groups of students from Montgomery College (MC). Selected and non-selected designations were determined by entrance requirements at each college. Student learning was quantified by administering a ten point quiz during the following lab period and by scoring gel successes and failures. Observations suggested that there was no difference in student success relative to teaching style. A statistical analysis of the data confirmed that there was no significant difference in student success between the two teaching methods used. There was also no statistically significant difference in performance between the students at Hood College and Montgomery College and among the different classes of MC students in these trials. The second phase of the thesis was to test whether a more sophisticated DNA restriction mapping exercise could be completed in a 2 hour and 30 minute period. It was possible to complete this mapping exercise in 2 hours and 30 minutes but it was not possible to analyze the data in class.