A comparison of graduate and undergraduate teacher education students' perceptions of their instructors' use of Microsoft PowerPoint

Abstract

This study explored the perceptions of 304 teacher education students regarding how effectively and meaningfully their instructors use the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation software program in their teaching and compared graduate and undergraduate students' perceptions to determine the extent to which graduate and undergraduate teacher educators differ in the ways they employ PowerPoint. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews and surveys. The Mann‐Whitney U tests identified significant differences between undergraduate and graduate students' perceptions of their instructors' use of MS PowerPoint in their teaching. Specifically, this study found that compared to graduate students, significantly more undergraduate students reported that their instructors (a) use PowerPoint as a straight lecturing tool, (b) read directly from slides, (c) present the whole class in PowerPoint, (d) present information on the slide that is directly copied from the textbook. In addition, significantly more undergraduate students reported experiencing PowerPoint overload due to overfull presentations and the rapid pace of instruction.

Keywords:

• PowerPoint
• teacher education
• cognitive overload
• PowerPoint overload
• instructional design
• student perceptions

Notes

1. This study is part of a larger project that investigated issues related to the use of the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation software program in teacher education and the value of handouts accompanying PowerPoint presentations.

2. Experts, who represent the current system, produce abstract knowledge, which has no direct relevance to students' everyday lives (Freire, 1970).