A causal comparative investigation into transactional versus transformational instructional delivery style in two freshman-level humanities courses at a Southeastern American university

The purpose of the study was to utilize a causal comparative approach to compare two contrasting instructional delivery styles to determine if there was any difference in final grade outcome between students whose instructors used transactional instructional delivery techniques and students whose instructors used transformational instructional delivery techniques in two lower division undergraduate humanities courses at a southeastern university. A secondary purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between instructional delivery style and student perception of teacher effectiveness. The primary researcher also examined if student assessment and teacher self-assessment of teacher delivery style would align. The research questions were (1) Is there a statistically significant difference between a transformational instructional delivery style and a transactional one relevant to final course grade? (2) Is there a statistically significant difference between a transformational instructional delivery style and a transactional one relevant to student perception of teacher effectiveness? (3) Will the proportions of the level of agreement to disagreement between faculty self-ratings and student assessment of faculty style differ between the two styles? During spring 2014, participating instructors' instructional delivery styles were triangulated by utilizing (1) a researcher-developed self-rating survey the instructors completed, (2) qualitative interviews with the primary researcher, who interpreted the instructors' instructional delivery styles from his point of view, and (3) a student-completed survey in which they rated the frequency of their instructors' more transformational and more transactional behaviors in the classroom. Using independent-samples t-tests and the Mann-Whitney U nonparametric test statistic, it was determined that instructional delivery style did have an effect on both final course grade and perceived teacher effectiveness, and furthermore, that a more transactional style was more effective in both cases. Utilizing the chi-square test statistic, it was determined that the proportions of the levels of agreement and disagreement between faculty self-rating and student assessment of faculty instructional delivery style differed between the two instructional delivery styles. It appears that instructional delivery style does have an effect on course outcomes, and close reflective study of how literature instructors teach what they teach may have a powerful effect on student outcomes.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Jaynes, Michael J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rausch, David
• Hinsdale, Bernard; Crawford, Elizabeth; O'Brien, Elizabeth
• College of Health, Education, and Professional Studies

• College teaching
• Effective teaching
• Literature -- Study and teaching
• Student evaluation of teachers

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/136

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1272