Introduction & Observation:

The topic observed involved methods of teaching (hands on & lecture) and how well children,
age range 9-11, learn. The tool used to measure student learning was a ten question quiz used
before and after each lesson to show a comparative figure for each method type. The school used
for the observations was Peralta Elementary School located on 71
st
avenue & Encanto Rd in the
Cartwright School District. The schools demographic is 4% White, 3% Black, 3% Other and
90% Hispanic. Additionally the classroom that I observed in was a 5
th
grade ELL class. The
school is a Title 1 Elementary School, which is defined as improving the academic achievement
of the disadvantaged, and is performing plus. I was approved to observe by the Principal of the
school after a photo copy of my picture ID and my Fingerprint Clearance card were taken.
Overall for the class to be completely organized for the entire week into subject blocks along
with time for P.E., Art and Music, the classroom that I was observing in was behind schedule on
the days that I visited. Which consequently limited the time I was able to observe the class
during their Math time. I arrived on March 26th of my first observation at 10:00am with the
Math block scheduled to begin at 10:15am. When I spoke with the instructor via email prior to
the day of observation I was told that he would be teaching the students about line graphs and bar
graphs, however once I arrived the instructor advised that he would need to make a lesson. Due
to the class running behind the pre-test for the line graphs was not given out until 10:25am, graph
1.1-1.4 show the results of this pre-test compared with their post-test. And also it is to be noted
that this was planned to be a test done at their desk, however due to copy issues the test had to be
shown on a projector and the question read out to the students. After the pre-test the instructor
had his students get out their white board for what he called Mountain Math which took 10
minutes of the Math block. The hands on lesson for line graphs began at 10:40am. Which the
students following along with their textbook and by observing what the instructor via the
projector they made a single line graph. At times during the lesson there was up to a third or
more of the class not paying attention. Table 1.1 & 1.2 denotes the amount of students by
observation in three minute intervals who were participating in an alternative stimulus (looking
around, head down, talking or moving around). Their next block requiring them to go to different
classrooms, therefor they had to stop right at 11:00am. The classroom demographics for this day
were ten boys and fourteen girls. While the students were traveling to their other class I spoke
with the instructor informing him that for the next lesson I would need for him to strictly give a
lecture lesson, advising that along with speaking he could also accommodate it with examples on
the white board. My next day of observation was Friday March 28
th
, again I arrived at 10:00am
to ensure that the instructor was clear on what was needed. Math block began right on time at
10:15am with the students doing their Mountain Math, which took 15 minutes. Copies of the
bar graph pre-test were handed out at 10:30am, and were given 15 minutes to complete. The
instructor officially began his lecture at 10:45am, it is to be noted that during this last 15 minutes
of the Math block the classroom received numerous phone interruptions which took students out
of the class. The instructor used his projector to enlarge the terms for bar graphs from the
textbook while he circled the classroom reading them aloud and having the students take them
down as notes. What I noticed was that the students appeared to be more frustrated and required
the instructor to repeat his statements often. This frustration was also apparent by the observation
table with looking around increasing in both the boys and the girls. I also noticed that the terms
that they were writing notes for where the same terms that had learned previously with the line
graph lesson. With it reaching 11:00am and only the terms for a bar graph given out the lesson
had to be stopped. The classroom demographic for this day was ten boys and sixteen girls. With
the lesson being incomplete I requested that the instructor allow me to observe again the
following Monday, which was approved however when I arrived they were getting ready for
their Physical Education class.
Data Collection and Instruments
The instrument used to measure the amount that the children learned from each method of
teaching were two five question quiz made for each lesson and given before and after the lesson.
During both the pre-test and the post-test the students were advised that if they did not know the
answer they were allowed the leave the question blank. Additionally the data was also collected
by gender to see if one favored a method of teaching that the other did not. Graph 1.1 & 2.1
show the results by question for the girls line graph test.

Graph 1.1 line graph test results part 1, girls
0 0
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15
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Line graph results Pt1 (girls)
How much does Mr. Joness savings account increase each month?
Which account starts with the most money?
What is the balance of Mr. Joness checking account in May?
Do Mr. Joness accounts ever end with the same balance?
Which account ends with the most money?

Graph 2.1 line graph test results part 2, girls
Graph 3.1&4.1 show the results by question for the boys line graph test.

Graph 3.1 line graph test results part 1, boys

1
0
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Line graph results Pt2 (girls)
How much did they make off Chocolate sales? How much did they make off Chip sales?
How much did they make total? How much did the band make in chip sales in January?
Did the band reach their goal of $1,000?
1
3
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1 1
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Line graph results Pt1 (boys)
How much does Mr. Joness savings account increase each month?
Which account starts with the most money?
What is the balance of Mr. Joness checking account in May?
Do Mr. Joness accounts ever end with the same balance?
Which account ends with the most money?

Graph 4.1 line graph test results part 2, boys
Graphs 5.1 & 6.1 show the combined results of part 1 and part 2 for the girls and the boys

Graph 5.1 combined answers for line graph test, girls
2
1
8 8
0
2 2
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10
1 1
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Line graph results Pt2 (boys)
How much did they make off Chocolate sales? How much did they make off Chip sales?
How much did they make total? How much did the band make in chip sales in January?
Did the band reach their goal of $1,000?
54
40
69
112
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Combined line graph results (girls)

Graph 6.1 combined answers for line graph test, boys
Graphs 7.1 & 8.1 show the results by question for the girls bar graph test.

Graph 7.1 Bar graph test results part 1, girls
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Combined line graph results (boys)
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Bar graph results Pt1 (girls)
Which state has the highest price per gallon for gasoline?
Which state has the lowest price per gallon for gasoline?
What is a possible reason for the highest gas price?
What is the average price based on the above states?
What is the price difference between the highest and the lowest?

Graph 8.1 Bar graph test results part 2, girls
Graphs 9.1 & 10.1 show the results by question for the boys bar graph test.

Graph 9.1 Bar graph test results part 1, boys
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3
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Bar graph results Pt2 (girls)
What year had the most average visitors? Which month had the highest amount of visitors?
Which month had the lowest amount of visitors? Why might the low months have less visitors?
Why might the high months have more visitors?
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10
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Bar graph results Pt1 (boys)
Which state has the highest price per gallon for gasoline?
Which state has the lowest price per gallon for gasoline?
What is a possible reason for the highest gas price?
What is the average price based on the above states?
What is the price difference between the highest and the lowest?

Graph 10.1 Bar graph test results part 2, boys
Graphs 11.1 & 12.1 show the combined results of part 1 and part 2 for the girls and the boys.

Graph 11.1 combined answers for bar graph test, girls
3 3
7 7
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Bar graph results Pt2 (boys)
What year had the most average visitors? Which month had the highest amount of visitors?
Which month had the lowest amount of visitors? Why might the low months have less visitors?
Why might the high months have more visitors?
64
63
71
72
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Combined bar graph results (girls)

Graph 12.1 combined answers for bar graph test, boys
Graph 13.1 & 14.1 compare the amount of times the students were distracted during the lessons.
This data was also collected by gender to see if one favored a method of teaching that the other
did not.

Graph 13.1 Total amount of students distracted during lesson, girls

45
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Combined bar graph results (boys)
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Line Bar Line Bar Line Bar Line Bar
Looking around Head down Talking Moving around
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Distractions during lesson, Girls

Graph 14.1Total amount of students distracted during lesson, boys
Literature and References
To compare my findings with that of published studies I used the Psyinfo database which was
accessed through the ASU library website. My first attempts at searching for child
development and learning methods was unsuccessful in yielding usable journal studies. By
using the thesaurus within the search application and searched for learning strategies which
yielded one journal and also searched for lecture methods which yielded two journals. The first
journal was Early elementary students development of astronomy concepts in the planetarium
(Plummer 2009). This study looked into a childs ability to learn about the celestial motion of the
planets, sun and stars after participating in kinesthetic learning at a planetarium. This study also
used a similar instrument as I to measure the amount the students learned from the lesson by
interviewing the students before and after the visit to the planetarium. Furthermore they also
separated their data by gender. The study concluded that there was a significant improvement in
the students ability to understand and describe celestial motion. The next journal that I found
4
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Line Bar Line Bar Line Bar Line Bar
Looking around Head down Talking Moving around
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Distractions during lesson, Boys
was Distance learning: Teaching by lecture/explanation (Clenkus and Omstein 1997). This
journal was not a study, instead it was more instructions for giving a lesson in a lecture format
and the different ways one can accomplish a successful lecture. The portion of the journal that I
found most useful was the identification that with students who are bellow High school should
not be given a lesson via formal lecture (no or limited questions from students), and instead
lectures should be done in brief segments and encourage the students to respond. At the end of
the journal the author adds fifteen methods of how the instructor can improve their lectures. Of
the fifteen methods I found some to be very important, whereas some I saw as difficult to follow.
Of the important ones the author listed: maintain eye contact, write important information on the
board, provide an outline for students notes, occasionally summarize important ideas and allow
for questions. Of the ones I found to be difficult were: avoid details unless supported with
graphs, tables or illustrations and go slowly with difficult topics. The last journal that I found
was The effect of stimulus variation on learning from lecture (Wyckoff 1973). This study
examined the effects on a students learning when exposed to a variation of stimulus from the
instructor. The study also hypothesized that the students scores would increase respectively with
the amount of stimulus variation the instructor included. Types of stimulus included: movement
around the classroom, gesturing and pausing during the lecture. The teachers used for this study
were randomly selected from the School of Educations Micro-Teaching Clinic at the University
of Massachusetts. The age range of the students that participated in the study were nine to
seventeen, however for my study I focused that the results for their elementary students. What
the author of the study concluded regarding the elementary students is that the amount of
different stimulus was too distracting for the younger students to concentrate on the lecture, and
suggest that possibly fewer variations in stimulus may yield the desired result.

Overview
My initial expectations went two different ways. First regarding the boy students I expected that
the amount of correct answers would increase more for the line graph test (hands-on lesson) than
it would for the bar graph test (lecture lesson). And second regarding the girls I expected just the
opposite that the amount of correct answers would increase more for the bar graph test (lecture
lesson) than it would for the line graph test (hands-on lesson). After collecting the data from the
line graph and the bar graph tests it was clear that my expectations were incorrect. When
examining the data for the bar graph tests that the boy students took it shows a drop in both
correct and wrong answers and an increase in answers being left blank. So far this data correlates
with my expectations that the boys would not learn as much from a lecture lesson. However once
the data for the line graph tests that the boy students took is examined it shows clear increase in
answers wrong after the hands-on lesson. Similarly with the results from the girls bar graph test
is shows no increase in correct answers or wrong answers. And with the line graph test taken by
the girl students it shows a 40% increase in wrong answers after the lesson is given. The amount
wrong by the girl students on the line graph test compared to the boys results were surprising
given that by examining graphs 13.1 and 14.1 the boys were stimulated by distractions more
during the line graph lesson whereas the girls were less stimulated with distractions. What was
also interesting from graphs 13.1 and 14.1 was that during the lecture lesson the boys were by far
less distracted by stimulus than the girls were, aside from looking around at other students. As
outlined in the study done by Wyckoff the instructor was moving around too much during the
lecture lesson. Additionally the instructor was not utilizing the white board as much as he could
have been to connect what he was saying to past information that the students had learned as
outlined by Clenkus and Omstein in their methods for lecture teaching. Overall based ont this
study it is not definiative if students age nine to eleven learn better from a lecture based lesson or
a hands-on based lesson. Lecture based caused a more disruptive classroom with closer pre-test
and post-test results. And hands-on based kept most of the students engagued however produced
negative results from the pre-test to post-test.
References
Clenkus, Robert C., and Allan Omstein. 1997. "Distance Learning: Teaching by lecture/explanation." The
High School Journal 247-253.
Plummer, Julia D. 2009. "Early elementary students' development of astronomy concepts in the
planetarium." Journal of Research in Science Teaching 192-209.
Wyckoff, W.L. 1973. "The effect of stimulus variation on learning from lecture." Journal of Experimental
Education 85-90.