Teaching style and learning in a quantitative classroom

Education research over the last few decades has focused on the debate over which classroom pedagogies best encourage learning: teacher-centred or student-centred. Although research appears to support the philosophy that student-centred teaching provides for better learning, the supporting research is frequently limited to observational studies or limited in experimental design. Despite this, the trend has been to encourage teachers to adopt a more student-centred approach both in the teaching of the course material and as a model for future teachers. A pilot study was conducted in an introductory university statistics course using a Latin Square Design to experimentally collect both quantitative and qualitative data pertaining to student performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of teaching style on learning, assess these approaches in quantitative courses, and establish protocols for such studies using a statistically controlled design.