Some instructors have experienced student resistance when
they change from lecturing to more interactive classes that
include activities like the one described in this paper
(Hestenes 1979), so on the evaluation mentioned above,
we asked students to provide their opinions about this
activity. The evaluations were anonymous and voluntary,
and 93% (n=54) of our class completed the evaluations.
We asked students to indicate on a six-point Likert scale
(strongly disagree, somewhat disagree, slightly disagree,
slightly agree, somewhat agree, and strongly agree) how
well the activity held their interest and better helped them
understand evolution. We also asked students to use the
same scale to provide their opinions about specific parts of
this classroom exercise, including how helpful they found
writing and reexamining their answers and discussing
answers with classmates.
When asked if the activity held their interest, 94.4%
agreed and 88.9% agreed that the activity was intellectually
challenging (Table 4). Overall, students responded positively
to writing and reexamining their answers and
discussing questions with classmates (Table 4).