Basic Mechanics: Learning by Teaching - an increase in student motivation (a small scale study with Technology Education students)

This paper discusses the introduction of peer learning and teaching into the Basic Mechanics course of a Technology degree. Statics was taught conventionally using lectures and tutorials. Dynamics was taught using the premise "Tell me and I forget; show me and I remember; involve me and I understand" as an educational principle. The students worked in small groups and were asked to learn agreed topics by teaching them to other groups of students. The course was extensively evaluated and 82% said they enjoyed the dynamics part of the course. When checking the results there was no significant difference between the raw scores obtained in either the statics or dynamics exam for the females and mature males, but when the scores of the males aged 20 or less were also included a significant difference (p<0.05) between the exam scores appeared. 83% of the young males scored considerably higher in the dynamics exam. There was roughly an equal number of males aged 20 or less, females and mature males in the class. This is the completion of a work in progress paper given at FIE2003