School of Business Lecturers Dr Paul Donovan and Dr Christina O’Connor have been awarded Best Paper at the International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy hosted in Maynooth University, from 1 – 2 December 2016.
Their paper, ‘The PowerPoint Free Classroom: Passivity, Engagement, and Student Perceptions’, received great reviews and conference response, as it highlighted the challenge of student passivity within Higher Education linked to lecture and presentation style.
Student passivity, according to Donovan and O’Connor, has become a problem in higher education classrooms and much of it may be caused by lecture and presentation style. PowerPoint™ has become ubiquitous as a presentation tool and is used in millions of lectures and presentations daily. There is, however, controversy regarding its use and criticisms range from charges that it reduces the analytical quality of presentations to a claim that it inhibits presenter – audience interaction.
Donovan and O’Connor discussed both criticism and support for PowerPoint™ and concluded that the conflict emanates from the paradox of its use as a presentation medium within a social constructivist milieu. Their research was conducted into the effect of the removal of PowerPoint™ as a transmission medium and its replacement by a constructivist and performative mode of teaching.