One Small Step in the Lecture Hall, One Big Step for Student Motivation: Short Bursts of In-Class Small Group Work

Great teachers are continually introducing strategies to engage students, especially those who teach large-lecture classes, whose format can limit active learning and student motivation to engage in learning. Implementation of active teaching strategies must be assessed for effectiveness. Using the simple MUSIC model postcourse assessment survey, student motivation to engage in learning was statistically quantified. A simple short intervention of in-class group work led to significant areas of improvement, which included the students’ perception of the class’ Usefulness towards their future career (p <.01), their perceived ability for Success in the class (p <.01), their Interest in the material (p <.01), and their perception of the instructor Caring about their success (p <.05). No change was seen in eMpowerment. In addition, students rated the ease of the class (p <.01) and the overall satisfaction with the course (p <.01) significantly higher than the previous semester, prior to the in-class group work implementation. The implementation of this short simple intervention of in-class group work was highly successful in increasing student motivation in a large-lecture, in-major required exercise and health class and can be easily adapted to other large-lecture classes.