[Maths-Education] The value of independent study time

[Chris Sangwin]

I am trying to find research into the value (or otherwise) of university
teaching in 'blocks', i.e. nine week periods of teaching (including exam
time).

Has anybody studied the value of independent preparation time (say one
week, or even two) at exam time? Put differently: if you run your course
for 8=BD weeks and then have an exam immediately after the last lecture,
and then compare the learning outcome with an approach where you teach
for, say, 7 weeks and then let the students prepare for the exam for
about two weeks, which works better? I am assuming that the amount of
material covered is the same (i.e. the subject content of the two ways
of running this course do not differ)

I would be grateful if you could point me to any work in this area - not
necessarily in mathematics.

Many thanks
Chris Sangwin
----------------------------------------------
LTSN Maths, Stats & OR Network
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, B15 2TT
United Kingdom
+44 121 414 6197
----------------------------------------------