Investigating the Use of Active Teaching Methods by lecturers at the Physics Department of the University of Garmian

Introduction: Using active teaching methods is a requirement for educational systems. The goal of the present study is to investigate the use of active teaching methods by lecturers at the physics department of the University of Garmian in the academic year of 2016-2017.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the physics department of the University of Garmian in the academic year of 2016-2017. The population consisted of all students studying at different levels of physics department (N=174); because of the limited population, the sampling done at that period of time (the census method) and final sample included 145 students. To collect data, a questionnaire was used as prepared by the researcher. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by experts (Cronbach s alpha=0.93). The data collected was analyzed by SPSS 22, using descriptive statistics tests, t-test and one-way ANOVA.Results: Findings show that more than 56% of students believed their lecturers had used active teaching methods while 43.4% of others believed their lecturers had not used them. Also, results show that there was no significant difference regarding gender (p> 0.05), but there was a significant difference between the year of study and evaluating the use of active teaching methods. This difference was significant for the 1st and 4th year students (p<0.05). 4th year students evaluated their lecturers’ methods more active than other students.Conclusion: Although this study show that most of the lecturers at the physics department used active teaching methods, considering the findings about active teaching methods in different years of study, it can be concluded that lecturers of 1st year students need to use active teaching methods more frequently.

Keywords:

Teaching Methods , Physics , Active , Students