Examining

the Effects of Different

Teaching Modalities on the
Motivation and Academic
Performance of Students in Human
Anatomy and Physiology Class
David F. Boshra
Samantha Hasbum
Ammar Hafeez
Jason Huynh
Sanja Hinic-Frlog
University of Toronto Mississauga
How many questions do kids ask, on
average, per day?
A. 168
B. 732
C. 86
D. 312
E. Too many to count
https://youtu.be/U1nOPBEGIi8
Introduction
o Students are motivated by the pursuit of their
educational goals.
o Instructors use teaching modalities to motivate
students.
o Different teaching modalities are expected to improve
student motivation and academic performance.
o What teaching approaches have you tried in your
classrooms to motivate learning?
Study Objectives
o Examine the effects of various teaching
modalities on student motivation in BIO210 at
UTM.

o Prediction: teaching modalities will positively

influence student motivation.
Methods
o Three different teaching modalities included:
video, case study, and salient diseases.
o Pre/Post motivation surveys administered
anonymously.
o Motivation levels measured using Likert scale.
 Administration of pre- motivational online Students informed about the
survey prior to the first lecture session of each upcoming teaching modality
organ system unit that will be presented in
(respiratory/urinary/reproductive). tutorial.

Present teaching Administration of post- motivational

Methods
modality (videos/case survey at the end of the week’s Tutorial
studies/salient session.
diseases) during
tutorial.

Collect as well as Collect the class mean of term test grades for
compare pre and respiratory/urinary/reproductive system and
post survey data for compare class means of term test grades of
each teaching 2016/17 academic year with those of 2015/16
modality. academic years.
 Example of Urinary Case Study*
H.T., a 42-year-old man has a sedentary lifestyle and a high intake of salty food. H.T also has
a family history of hypertension. Subjective data: complains of overall weakness; extreme
muscle weakness in his legs; extreme thirst; dizziness when he stands; has diarrhea and
frequent urination; eating more than usual, but has lost 5 pounds in the past month;
Objective data: heart rate is 95 beats per minute and irregular (normal range = 60-100
beats per minute); blood pressure = 140/95 mm Hg (normal range = below 120/80 mm Hg);
blood glucose = >500 mg/dl ( normal range = 50-170 mg/dl); urine = tested positive for
glucose; dry mucous membranes…

H.T. has been exercising as told by his doctor. Intense exercise leads to lactic acid
accumulation. How does acidosis occur and what happens to the pH of the urine as a
result? How would H.T.’s kidneys balance this change in pH? Additional objective data: -
Blood pH level = 7.23 (normal range = 7.35-7.45).
*Case Study developed by Muhammad Faizan, Mahnoor Ayub, and Vrinda Asrani, former research students. The case study was adapted from a
suite of case studies available at: http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/ap/ap_casestudies/cases
Example of Respiratory Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyE9Ek-
rH7Q&t=4s
Note: A sample video that was used in-class was
shown on this slide during the presentation. The clip
was taken from the TV series Untold Stories of the ER
that airs on Discovery Life. The specific example
shown was an edited clip of a patient with a
punctured lung due to excessive pressure when
exercising under hypoxic conditions. The students are
shown a portion of the clip that presents the case,
the symptoms in particular, followed by the class
discussion/tutorial session and later shown the
remaining clip that includes the final diagnosis.
Student Questions During Lecture with
Respiratory Video
o "Can we watch the whole video? Or are we only being left at the cliff?" 10:35
o "How do we answer this?" 10:50
o "Does he have sickle cell anemia?" 11:02
o "What is the function of the intrapleural cavity?" 11:07
o "If I'm not mistaken, the air was trapped in the intrapleural space.
How does the air then travel up into the neck? 11:29
o "Can we finish the video? I want to see why the guy's neck hurts." 11:43
o "When the video said ‘pops the lung’, what exactly is popped?
Is it the alveolus?” 11:49
Example of Reproductive System Salient
Disease
A Patient arrives at the hospital because she collapsed. She
recently underwent a myoma (a benign tumor) surgery around
her uterus. CT scan revealed multiple masses growing in various
organs of her body (liver, heart, intestines). The following
symptoms presented revealed that the abdominal cavity was filled
with blood, and the heart was bleeding. This patient is a women
and is having menstruation.
Questions:
What do you think the cause of this disease? Note: this happened
quite coincidentally (the bleed) with her menstruation
Why did this occur?
Why was she bleeding almost everywhere in the internal cavity?
Results
I Think I Will Benefit from This
Lesson
Salient Disease Presentation
(Post Reproductive Unit)
Salient Disease Presentation *
(Pre Reproductive Unit)
Video Presentation (Post Strongly Agree
Respiratory Unit) Agree
Video Presentation (Pre * Neither Agree nor Disagree
Respiratory Unit)
Case Study Presentation (Post Disagree
Urinary Unit) Strongly Disagree
Case Study Presentation (Pre *
Urinary Unit)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% * p < 0.05
Proportion of Responses to Likert Scale Category
I Think I Will Benefit from This
Lesson
I am Pleased with the Instructor’s Evaluation
of my Work Compared to How Well I Think I
Have Done
Salient Disease Presentation (Post
Reproductive Unit)
Salient Disease Presentation (Pre *
Reproductive Unit)
Video Presentation (Post Strongly Agree
Respiratory Unit) Agree
Video Presentation (Pre * Neither Agree nor Disagree
Respiratory Unit)
Case Study Presentation (Post Disagree
Urinary Unit) Strongly Disagree
Case Study Presentation (Pre
Urinary Unit)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% * p < 0.05
Proportion of Responses to Likert Scale Category
You Have to be Lucky to Get Good
Grades on the Test
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Salient Disease Presentation

(Post Reproductive Unit)
Salient Disease Presentation *
(Pre Reproductive Unit)
Strongly Agree
Video Presentation (Post
Respiratory Unit) Agree
Video Presentation (Pre * Neither Agree nor Disagree
Respiratory Unit) Disagree
Case Study Presentation (Post Strongly Disagree
Urinary Unit)
Case Study Presentation (Pre
Urinary Unit) * p < 0.05
Proportion of Responses to Likert Scale Category
 Student Performance
Proportion (%) of Correct
Unit Responses
Respiratory system 2016 (case study) 69%
Respiratory system 2017 (video) 56%

Urinary system 2016 (case study) 44%

Urinary system 2017 (case study) 49%

Reproductive system 2016 (case study) 54%

Reproductive system 2017 (salient
disease) 68%
Discussion

o Pre and Post tests for some teaching modalities

were significantly different.

o Students were generally more motivated after

salient diseases were presented.
Discussion
Motivation could have increased because:
1. A balance between task challenge and student
skill level.
2. Students dedicated more effort to material.
3. Introduction of real world applications kept
students more engaged.
Discussion
o Some increase in academic performance across
all teaching modalities between the 2015/16 and
the 2016/17 academic years.
o Does motivation increase the interest in the
material and allows students to ask questions to
better understand material?
Reflections
Standardize the student population involved in the
study
o Assessment choice
o Tracking student performance
Apply study to different groups of students in
different programs.
Based on your own experiences in your own
classrooms, what can you do differently to motivate
students more? Any questions for us?
References
Gini-Newman, G., & Case, R. (2015). Creating thinking
classrooms: leading educational change for a 21st century
world. Vancouver, BC: The Critical Thinking Consortium.
Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The Myth of Learning
Styles. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 42(5),
32-35.
Shernoff, D., M. Csikszentmihalyi, B. Schneider, & Shernoff,
E. (2003) “Student Engagement in High School Classrooms
from the Perspective of Flow Theory”. School Psychology
Quarterly, 18(3): 158-176.
Contacts
David F. Boshra – david.boshra@mail.utoronto.ca

Samantha Hasbum – sam.hasbum@mail.utoronto.ca

Ammar Hafeez – ammar.hafeez@mail.utoronto.ca

Jason Huynh – jason.huynh@mail.utoronto.ca

Sanja Hinic-Frlog – sanja.hinicfrlog@utoronto.ca

University of Toronto Mississauga

3359 Mississauga Road. Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6