Assessing Undergraduate Student Learning with Pre- and Post-Reading of Class Material for a Soil Fertility Laboratory Class.

A well-managed and motivating classroom, conducted using interactive teaching methods, could enhance student learning and motivate them to read class material more actively. Lectures facilitate a deeper understanding of reading materials and key subject principles. Furthermore, lectures develop the students’ interest and excitement by framing topical concepts in the context of real-life examples and challenges. In-class discussions transform the lecture from a passive one-way knowledge transmission into a two-way interactive conversation that encourages active engagement in and critical thinking of the taught material. In a soil fertility laboratory course, our goal was to compare two different learning techniques by comparing the quiz scores of students that pre-read the course material (before the lecture) with those that read them post-lecture. Twelve students were randomly divided into two groups (A and B): group A read the material before the lecture and then took a quiz before the start of the lecture; whereas group B attended the lecture, read the material, and took the quiz after the lecture. A comparison of quiz scores between the two groups allowed us to assess the benefits of student learning in an interactive lecture setting. Additionally, students were asked to complete a survey, with multiple choice and open-ended questions, designed to extract student feedback regarding which learning techniques they found more beneficial and preferable. Quiz scores were statistically the same between the pre-reading and post-lecture reading groups, indicating no significant difference between these two teaching techniques. The survey indicated student preference for pre-reading and conducting quiz assessments before the lectures. In conclusion, despite predicting higher scores in the post-reading assessment group, there was no difference in the outcomes between the two tested teaching methods.