Marcketti, Sara B. “Effective Learning Strategies in the History of Dress.” (2011)

In this article, Marcketti explains how she integrated learner-centered approaches to instruction into her university survey course on the history of dress. Using student self-reported learning outcomes, instructor observations, and end-of-term course evaluation comments, she worked to answer the questions of what learning activities helped students better understand the material; encouraged them to work hard; encouraged them to think, learn, and gain a greater interest in the material; and how students perceived these methods. In her two history of dress courses, Marcketti used four learning strategies: enhanced lectures, artifact analysis, annotated citations, and student choice projects. Enhanced lectures involve incorporating small group and full class discussion and debate, as well as images and film clips, into the lecture. Artifact analysis is the use of artifacts in the classroom to better understand them and the period in question. Annotated citations is a short reading and response assignment, and student choice projects are just that - projects chosen, from a set of broad types, and completed by the students themselves.

Based on her data collection, Marcketti concludes that the students found all four learning strategies effective in all of the areas in question. Although dealing specifically with a course in apparel history, the strategies that Marcketti uses in her classroom and discusses in the article can be applied to most, if not all, history classes.