An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Handouts in Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Higher...

AFRICA DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ADRRI) JOURNAL

ADRRI JOURNAL (www.adrri.org)

pISSN: 2343-6662 ISSN-L: 2343-6662 VOL. 6,No.6(2), pp 95-107, March, 2014




An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Handouts in Enhancing Teaching and Learning in

Higher Education.

Gerald Munyoro

Graduate Business School, School of Business Science and Management, Chinhoyi

University of Technology, P. Bag 7724, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe.

Received: 5th February, 2014 Revised: 17th March, 2014 Published Online: 31st March, 2014

URL: http://www.journals.adrri.org/

[Cite as: Munyoro, G. (2014). An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Hand-outs in Enhancing Teaching and Learning in

Higher Education. Africa Development and Resources Research Institute Journal, Vol. 6, No. 6(2), Pp. 95-107.]

Abstract Although the lecture is the most commonly used teaching approach in higher education, it has been noted in

recent years that lectures can be ineffective if they are overloaded with too much information. In order to

overcome this problem, there are suggestions that lecturers should provide additional material in the form of

handouts to be read after the lecture but many lecturers are concerned that students may see handouts, whether

provided in hardcopy or electronically. It is also vital to note that handouts can act as a summary of a lecture,

and that students should attend lectures rather than relying on handouts alone. Furthermore, the handouts were




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also found to be helpful as students can catch up on any missed session and lecturers can use them to clarify

certain things, such as abstract concepts. The findings and my own experience indicate that handouts do not

encourage low attendance and absenteeism but instead can boost attendances by integrating active learning.

There were also some suggestions that handouts should be provided on the VLE at least one week in advance.

Finally, it is important to note that this is a preliminary study and more investigation is needed.

Keywords: evaluation, effectiveness, hand-outs, teaching and learning, higher education

INTRODUCTION

The traditional approach to teaching in higher education has relied on lectures, in which the

teacher is the expert and the learner is the passive recipient of knowledge. Although the

lecture is the most commonly used teaching approach in higher education, it has been noted

in recent years that lectures can be ineffective if they are overloaded with too much

information. In this case, students become overwhelmed with detail and time management

becomes a problem. In order to overcome this problem, lecturers should provide additional

material in the form of handouts to be read after the lecture, but Morton (2009) notes that

many lecturers are concerned that students may see handouts, whether provided in hardcopy

or electronically, as a replacement for attending lectures. This attitude can then cause a

qualitative change in a student’s way of seeing, experiencing, understanding and

conceptualising information in the real world (Ramsden, 1998). As noted by Prosser and

Trigwell (1999), teaching and learning are fundamentally related and, therefore, lecturers and

students who engage in a teaching and learning activity should have physical contact between




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them. This led experts in higher education to question the effectiveness of handouts in

enhancing teaching and learning.

The research questions guiding this research were:

1) What are the perceptions and attitudes of undergraduate economic studies students

towards handouts?

2) How effective are handouts in enhancing teaching and learning in higher education?

The focus of this action research project was to evaluate the effectiveness of handouts in

enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. In this research I looked closely at the

perceptions and attitudes of undergraduate economic studies students towards handouts, the

effectiveness of handouts in enhancing the teaching and learning experience, and the

significance of the interaction between lecturers and students, as suggested in the research

proposal.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The use of handouts in large-group lectures has increased dramatically over the last few

years. This is due partially to the faster, cheaper use of high technologies such as Virtual

Learning Environment (VLE), but it is also linked with students’ expectations, because

handouts materials provide evidence not only of the content of teaching programmes, but also

the processes adopted to address student learning in lectures (Race, 2001). According to

Bligh (2000), there are three types of handouts, namely uncompleted or gapped, skeletal

notes and worksheets. The uncompleted or gapped handouts are important in teaching and




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learning in higher education because they encourage students to listen actively in order for

them to be able to fill in the notes by completing graphs, labelling diagrams and finishing

calculations during or after the lecture. Skeletal notes handouts have gaps, spaces and

omissions that students are encouraged to complete during the lecture, while worksheets have

problems which students are encouraged to solve during the lecture.

Race (2001) notes that, there are several advantages accompanying the use of handouts, such

as making more information available to students in a few pages than they would ever be able

to write down for themselves during the lecture, as well as enabling the lecturer to clarify

what is to be covered in a session by providing a summary of the key ideas and concepts to

be presented. In this case they might list the learning outcomes, an outline of the lecture’s

main headings and the conclusions reached. Handouts can also contain copies of all the

overheads used, providing students with an almost complete record of the lecture. In addition,

all students have access to the main concepts of the lecture, regardless of their note-taking

ability or their language proficiency, and this is fundamental for international students. This

can also be useful if students miss lectures through illness or for those who have disabilities

affecting their ability to take notes (Ramsden, 1998). The only disadvantage is that handouts

can generate a ‘spoon-feeding’ attitude to teaching in higher education, because students will

realise that everything they need to know is in the handouts and that attending the lecture is

not essential as long as they can get hold of the handouts. This might lead to a decline in

lecture attendances and, as noted by Morton (2009), this is a concern often expressed by

lecturers. This can be exacerbated if handouts are made available electronically via a Virtual




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Learning Environment where students can access lecture notes and presentation material

prior to the lecture, hence the need for the lecturers to discuss the use of the handouts with

their students and make it clear to them that attendance and listening to explanations is still

essential for comprehensive learning. Thus, as suggested by Prosser and Trigwell (1999),

teaching and learning are fundamentally related and good teaching is defined in terms of

helping students learn, whilst good learning involves a focus on the meaning and

understanding of the material being studied. Consequently, lecturers and students who engage

in a teaching and learning activity should all experience same perceptions and understanding

of teaching and learning.

Despite all of this, however, there has been little concerted effort to evaluate the use and

effectiveness of handouts in enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. Even the

use of questionnaires and reflection from the perspective of the lecturer has not been explored

to any real extent or from an academic standpoint. As a first step in understanding the

usefulness of handouts in lecturing efficiently, this research also attempted to assess the

efficacy of handouts in lecturing in higher education.

METHODOLOGY

This qualitative study explored the effectiveness of handouts in teaching and learning in

higher education. Two questionnaires were used as a means of collecting data, the reason

being that they are reliable, unambiguous, uniformly workable, easy to administer, cheap and




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fast, according to Anderson (1998) and Altrichter et al (2008). In addition, Cohen and

Manion (1994) suggest that questionnaires contain fewer errors from research participants

because their participation is voluntary and they are also engaged in their areas of interest,

thus encouraging them to cooperate and eliciting answers as close as possible to the truth. In

addition, group interview was used. This is seen as a conversation with a purpose where the

researcher’s aim is to obtain knowledge about the respondent’s world. This method is also

popular because it advocates the establishment of trust and commitment, something that is

regarded as a prerequisite because it enables the researcher to explore the inner world of the

respondents, as noted by Fontana and Frey (1994), Fern (2001) and Thorpe and Holt (2008).

14 first and 12 fourth year students, and 4 lecturers were the sources of data. There are

approximately 140 and 120 students in each year and 30 teachers respectively. The data was

collected using questionnaires and group interviews, in addition to self-reflection by the

researcher. The group interviews involved 4 people from each group and questionnaires are

attached in the appendix section.

The data was analysed using Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA), in which the data collected

using questionnaires and group interviews was transformed into some form of explanation of

the respondents’ views on the effectiveness of handouts in teaching and learning in higher

education (Seidel, 1998). As suggested by Seidel and Kelle (1995), the process of QDA

involves coding and writing. In this case the researcher looked into themes by identifying

passages of text and applying labels to them that indicated some thematic idea. This labelling

or coding of themes enabled the researcher to quickly retrieve all the texts that were




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associated with a particular thematic idea, and examine and compare them. Using Seidel’s

(1998) model, the researcher divided the model into three parts, namely Noticing, Collecting

and Thinking about interesting things. These parts are interlinked and cyclical. As suggested

by Seidel, the researcher noticed interesting things in the data and assigned ‘codes’ to them,

based on the topic or theme as shown in the findings section, and these codes were in turn

used to break the data into fragments. The codes were then used to act as sorting and

collection devices. After that, the researcher started writing about the data and his findings.

This involved writing a summary of the data and entailed some analytic ideas (Gibbs, 2002)

as shown in the appendix section.

FINDINGS

The findings were divided into themes as stated below:

Themes

The purpose of handouts

Most students believe that handouts are important to learning because they help them to recall

what the lecturer will have said during the lecture. The consensus among students was that

handouts are useful as they can be used as a memory aid or as a source to refer back to after

the lecture to prepare themselves for assignments and examinations. Handouts also free them

from writing notes during the lecture and instead allow them to concentrate on listening, as it

is difficult to listen to a lecturer whilst writing. In short, it distracts one from paying full

attention when the lecturer is explaining a theory and illustrating a point. Lecturers, on the




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other hand, agreed that they use handouts to prepare students for the next lecture, that they

are a good source of information regarding student courses and lecture materials, and that

they play a significant part in organisational learning, helping students to prepare for what is

ahead. This, they say, will free students from reading long and complex theories that might

not be necessary for their syllabus, as well as giving students ample time to prepare questions

that they want answered by the lecturer or need further clarification. These handouts can also

be used to prepare students for a problem-centred lecture; in this case their function will be to

relieve students of the psychological pressure of absorbing new information and to free them

from thinking about its application and its relation to other topics. Thus, it is now common

that students in higher education expect all lecturers to distribute copies of the PowerPoint

presentations from their lectures in advance. In essence, handouts help students to supplement

information not easily available elsewhere. Ideally handouts are intended to aid learning and

at times may increase attention and motivation, in the process helping students to follow the

development of an idea or argument. Hence, they are an integral part of the teaching and

learning system and make a difference to other elements in the higher education system.

Timing

Students were of the opinion that distributing handouts before lectures would help them to

take notes effectively, especially when using uncompleted or gapped handouts, although

some thought that would encourage absenteeism. They also suggested that providing students

with handouts in advance enhances their concentration and enables them to better understand

the subject being taught as they have ample time to read before the lecture, as well as giving




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them direction concerning what is important to learn. Most students thought that distributing

handouts before the lecture reduces the amount of notes they have to take, meaning that they

can be more engaged in the presentation and not miss something because they were taking

notes. Some students felt that handouts should be distributed after the lecture, in the belief

that if they have knowledge of what is to come in a lecture, then they will feel less inclined to

attend and, if present, they will not listen or may even doze off. Most lecturers like to involve

students and prefer to make handouts such as worksheets which are interactive and encourage

students to fill in the blanks.

Costs

Most students were all worried by rising costs of printing. All the lecturers and students felt

that putting handouts on university’s VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) was cheaper and

more convenient, hence the move by the department of economic studies to post handouts on

My Dundee. That said, however, there was a consensus among students and lecturers that, all

things being equal, hard copies are preferable because they can be referred to in lectures.

Summary

All the participants stated that handouts act as a summary of a lecture, although they felt that

students should not rely on them alone but should attend lectures as well. In addition, all

respondents felt that there was a need for lecturers to make rich and interactive handouts and

that this would encourage the students to pay attention to the presentation rather than merely

reading the handout. (See appendix for further information).




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DISCUSSION

The findings made me reflect on my attitude towards handouts and most significantly their

effectiveness in teaching and learning in higher education. The good thing to emerge from the

findings is that most students believe that handouts are critical to learning because they help

them to recollect what the lecturer will have said during the lecture, as suggested by Race

(2001). In addition they also help students to catch up on any missed sessions and the lecturer

to clarify certain information, as stated by Exley and Dennick (2004). Bligh (2000)’s

assertions that handouts are used as sources of information was confirmed by the

respondents’ answers.

In my presentation, which was part of my action research, peers and academic tutors also

noted that handouts are significant in higher education because they provide a printed version

of a lecture, either as a summary of key points and learning outcomes, or an outline of the

lecture including the key ideas and concepts presented therein. The advantage of these

handouts is that all students have access to the main concepts of the lecture, regardless of

their note-taking ability or their language proficiency, and the lecturer can be certain that the

lecture has been covered. This is more useful if students miss lectures through illness or have

a disability affecting their ability to take notes, as suggested by my peers and my academic

supporter. Handouts can also be used to provide material not given in the lecture, such as

diagrams, figures and tables which would take a long time copy down.




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The findings also made me consider whether it is beneficial to give out handouts before,

during or after a lecture. The findings so far disagree with Exley and Dennick (2004)’s

assertion that lecture attendance might decline if the handouts are made available

electronically via a Virtual Learning Environment one week before the lecture. I have noticed

this in my own lecturing and the results from both sets of respondents agreed with my

observation that attendance does not decline because of the availability of handouts on the

VLE, but through other factors such as lectures becoming boring to students due to a

deficiency in the lecturer’s teaching skills or ability to produce quality handouts. My

recommendation is that it is crucial to communicate to students at the start of the module that

although the handouts are a summary of a lecture, attendance is vital as listening to

explanations from the lecturer is highly significant, as suggested by Race (2001). I also

disagree with the idea that handouts, if they contain everything students need to know, can

reduce attendance at classes by generating a ‘spoon-feeding’ attitude towards teaching and

learning (Exley and Dennick, 2004). Instead, some indications from respondents and my own

experience suggest that handouts can boost attendances by integrating active learning. As

suggested in my presentation, by my peers and my academic supporter, this would involve

distributing what are known as gapped handouts, in which spaces are left for students to

undertake a variety of activities, such as inserting definitions and formulas, labelling

diagrams, graphs, maps and flow charts or providing answers to questions (Bligh, 2000;

Race, 2001). The use of interactive handouts is essential in that it also gives students a sense

of ownership of the lecture. According to Biggs and Tang (2007), students learn best when




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they feel free to move, are trusted, and are able to make decisions and take responsibility for

their own learning. (See appendix for extra information).

CONCLUSION

Most students and lecturers are aware that handouts are significant to learning in higher

education, as they can be used to proffer essential extra information not given in the lecture

such as diagrams, figures and tables which would take a long time copy down. It is also vital

to note that handouts can act as a summary of a lecture, and that students should attend

lectures rather than relying on handouts alone. Furthermore, the handouts were also found to

be helpful as students can catch up on any missed session and lecturers can use them to

clarify certain things, such as abstract concepts. The findings and my own experience indicate

that handouts do not encourage low attendance and absenteeism but instead can boost

attendances by integrating active learning. This would take the form of gapped handouts,

where some spaces are left in the handouts in order that students are encouraged to insert

missing information. There were also some suggestions that handouts should be provided on

the VLE at least one week in advance. Some lecturers opposed the idea of providing hard

copies as they found them to be environmentally unfriendly, especially if not all the papers

are used, hence the need for the university VLE. Finally, it is important to note that this is a

preliminary study and more investigation is needed.




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REFERENCE

Altrichter, H., Feldman, A., Posch, P. and Somekh, B. (2008) Teachers Investigate their

Work: An Introduction to action research across the professions: London: Routledge:

Taylor and Francis Group

Anderson, G. and Arsenault, N. (2001) Fundamentals of Educational Research: London:

RoutledgeFalmer: Taylor and Francis Group

Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2007) Teaching for Quality Learning at University: Buckingham:

Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press

Bligh, D,. A. (2000) What’s The Use of Lectures?: London: Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Company:

Higher and Adult Education Series

Brockbank, A. and McGill, I. (1998) Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education:

Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University

Press

Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: education, knowledge and action

research; Lewes: RoutledgeFalmer: Taylor and Francis Group

Cohen, L. and Manion, L. (1995) Research Methods in Education: London: Routledge:

Taylor and Francis Group

Exley, K. and Dennick, R. (2004) Giving a lecture from presenting to teaching: Key Guides

for Effective Teaching in Higher Education: London: RoutledgeFalmer: Taylor and

Francis Group

Fern, E. F. (2001) Advanced Focus Group Research: London: Sage Publications

Fontana, A. and Frey, J. H. (1994) “Interviewing: The Art of Science: in Handbook of

Qualitative Research”, in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds) Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage Publications

Gibbs, G. R. (2002) Qualitative Data Analysis: Explanations with NVivo: Buckingham: Open

University Press

McNiff, J. and Whitehead, J. (2002) Action Research Principles and Practice: London:

RoutledgeFalmer: Taylor and Francis Group

Miller, A. H,. Bradford, W. I. and Cox, K. (1998) Student Assessment in Higher Education: A

handbook for Assessing Performance: London: Kogan Page Limited




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Morton, A. (2009) Lecturing to Large Groups in Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, A.

(eds) Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing

Academic Practice: London: Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group

Prosser, M. And Trigwell, K. (1999) Understanding Learning and Teaching: The Experience

in Higher Education: Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education

and Open University Press

Race, P. (2001) Lecturer’s Toolkit: Learning, Teaching and Assessment: London: Kogan

Page Limited

Ramsden, P. (ed) (1988) Improving Learning: New Perspectives: London: Kogan Page

Limited

Seidel, J. and Kelle, U. (1995) ‘Different Functions of Coding in the Analysis of Textual

Data’ in Kelle, U. (Ed) Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis: Theory, Methods

and Practice: London: Sage Publications

Seidel, J. (1998) Qualitative Data Analysis: The Ethnograph v5 Manual, Appendix

E/http://www.qualisresearch.com/

Stringer, E. T. (1999) Action Research: Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Thorpe, R. and Holt, R. (2008) The Sage Dictionary of Qualitative Management Research:

London: Sage Publications

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Department of Economic Studies, University of Dundee and

the head of the department gave written permission for the distribution of questionnaires and

group interview (Anderson and Arsenault, 1998; Altrichter et al, 2008). At the same time the

participants received a verbal explanation about the study before they were invited to take

part. Participants were assured that their involvement was voluntary and that they had the

right to refuse to participate, as suggested by Cohen and Manion (1995). Furthermore,

participants were given surety that anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed in any




15

publication of the results and that the data collected from this survey was stored in a locked

filing cabinet to which only the researcher, academic supporter, peers and office staff have

right of access. (See appendix for a letter from the Department of Economics)

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