The effects of two methods of teaching family therapy on students\u27 motivation, interest, and learning

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of the proposed video teaching method on such aspects of learning as motivation, interest and knowledge as compared to a traditional lecture/discussion (didactic) method\u27s impact on the same for undergraduate students. The subjects consisted of thirty-eight undergraduates enrolled in a family therapy class at Purdue University. The subjects were randomly assigned to groups A or B and administered a knowledge pretest over the content topic. Group A was given the video teaching module first, followed by the didactic module two days later. Group B received the same in reverse order. Interest, motivation and knowledge were measured after each module. One month following the initial treatment, the same variables were measured again. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed no significant difference in amount of interest or ability to learn between the two teaching methods. They did show a significant difference in the amount of motivation, favoring the didactic method. These findings ran contrary to the expected advantage of the video teaching method. A repeated-measures analysis of variance with a between subjects variable of group showed no significant differences between Group A and Group B regarding motivation and knowledge, but there was a significant difference in interest. Regarding the proposed video teaching method, an analysis of variance showed no significant differences between those attending theater frequently versus infrequently in motivation, interest or knowledge. This finding also ran contrary to the expected advantage of the video teaching method. A repeated-measures analysis of variance showed no significant differences between the subjects\u27 initial reactions and those one month later for motivation. There was a significant drop-off in scores for interest in the video method and for a the knowledge for the didactic method. Conclusions were that the proposed video teaching method was a viable teaching tool that should not replace the didactic approach, especially with undergraduates, but instead be used to augment the traditional lecture/discussion method