Using Handouts in the Bhutanese Classrooms: Its Effectiveness and Limitations in Teaching Learning Economics

Abstract

The researcher have used handouts in teaching learning Economics for the last 13 years. So far, no study has been done to examine the usefulness of handouts in the teaching learning process. The purpose of this study was to examine the percep[1]tion of students on the use of handouts and to find ways to improve the handouts for future use. The data was collected through a structured survey questionnaire with 28 students (11 boys and 17 girls) of class XE of Dechencholing Higher Secondary School under Thimphu Thromde. Open ended questions were included in a structured survey questionnaire to further enrich qualitative responses. Focus group interview with 8 students (4 boys and 4 girls) were carried out to get views and opinions about handouts. The focus group discussions were analyzed using the process of emerging themes. The survey questionnaire data of the close-ended questions were analyzed using SPSS version 24 and open-ended questions in the survey questionnaire were analyzed using axial coding. Analysis of the study re[1]vealed that handouts were useful for teaching relevant, useful and important topic areas, especially where class size is large. Suggestions from students to improve the quality of handouts included increasing the font size, having enough space in the handouts for students to write their own notes, use of relevant tables, diagrams and graphs, and including suitable examples to enhance their understanding of topics. Handouts should be distributed in the class at the end of a lesson so that students are not distracted by reading handout during the lesson.