The Impact of Ignatian Pedagogy on Learning Outcomes in an Undergraduate Business Statistics Course

This study compares learning outcomes, for an undergraduate statistics course, of traditional sections versus a section based on the Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm (IPP section). It is a before/after-study of 200+ students in a total of six sections of the same course, taught by the same instructor, in the same year, using the same teaching materials, and measured by the same survey. The IPP section incorporated the five elements of Ignatian Pedagogy and included a service-learning project for Catholic Charities whereby students analyzed a dataset of some 120,000 observations and presented recommendations. That project also reinforced other aspects of Ignatian Pedagogy, notably concern for others and social responsibility. We found that, compared to the traditional sections, the IPP section was associated with statistically significant improvements in learning outcomes.