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Techniques for rapid quantitative assessment of activity levels in small‐group tutorials

Two techniques for the rapid quantitative analysis of student participation in small‐group teaching were investigated. In the first approach an observer, who also acted as a `critical friend', recorded the length of individual contributions using a computer keyboard as a simple timing device. In the second approach, small‐group sessions were recorded with a portable stereophonic audiotape recorder. The teacher was recorded on one channel, all students on the other. A computer program produced automated analysis of these small group interactions by computing relative amount of speech on each channel. Simple analysis produced automatically by the programs revealed the overall style of the tutorial – variably `mini‐lectures' by teachers with very little participation by the student body, rapid `question and answer' sessions with about equal teacher/student body involvement or `mini‐presentations' by students with the teacher offering sparse comments in the manner of a facilitator. By presenting results in a graphic format, teachers can be given rapid objective feedback on their teaching style. Coupled with short verbal/non‐verbal quizzes at the end of tutorials and information from other assessments, the value of using levels of participation as a measure of the efficiency of such small‐group sessions can itself be assessed.