Testing Different Teaching Techniques in First Year Finance Seminars

The author compares the relative successes of two different teaching techniques in seminars for a first year university course in Finance. This paper tests to see if there is one overriding approach that enables all students to learn effectively in seminars or whether different students benefit from different teaching techniques. An experiment will be carried out on a subset of a first year Finance group in Semester 1, 2001 for five separate fiftyminute sessions. Four groups (i.e. sixty students) will be taught using one teaching technique. The remaining four groups will face an alternative approach. The author will consider the performance of the students in these groups in the light of a personality questionnaire designed to ascertain preferred learning styles. The ultimate goal is to deliver seminars that offer the students the best possible learning environment.