Cambridge undergraduates have regular active-learning opportunities in small-group tutorials, in which they solve problems and discuss ideas based on course material. Would they see any value in performing similar tasks in flipped-classroom settings, or would they regard the introduction of a second active-learning modality as redundant? Following…

Ongoing concern about poor learner performance in mathematics has led to wide-ranging research on the subject, globally and in South Africa. Among the remedies identified is the reformation of pre-service teacher (PST) education programmes in a way that supports the acquisition of professional skills for pre-service teachers. Developing PSTs'…

Student engagement is widely recognised as being influential on learning and achievement in higher education. What is less clear is how the knowledge transfers, i.e., the process of engagement by the student with any new forms of teaching demonstrated by the teacher. Aim: To investigate the effect of small group tutors on student engagement in the…

A new teaching format, the LecturePlus, was formulated as a lecture followed by small-group learning activities. This study assessed the effectiveness of LecturePlus in medical education. An interventional study was conducted among final-year medical students, with 74 students in the experimental group and 96 students in the control group. Each…

Incivility has been reported as having an adverse impact on student learning, faculty staff retention and student commitment within Higher Education. As such this behaviour has the potential to reduce student achievement and could have a financial impact. The aim of this research was to examine the impact of teaching context (lecture versus…

This study assessed perceived learning outcomes in a team-lecture hybrid (TLH) instructional design in six public affairs and health administration courses implemented in 2011 and 2012. A cross sectional and prospective survey design was implemented using descriptive statistics, regression analysis and qualitative analysis. Results show students…

Twin principles of attendance policy are suggested to understand need-based attendance policies reported in literature for undergraduate medical education. In these reports, clinical sessions need compulsory attendance with remediation, nonclinical small group sessions need compulsory attendance with minimum attendance requirement and lectures…

Studies on the effectiveness of clickers in undergraduate chemistry courses are mixed, and there is disagreement on how to effectively leverage clickers to improve student learning performance. To fill a gap in the research, we analyzed three different teaching strategies (two involving clickers) in a General Chemistry I course over a 13-year time…

Drawing on data from five large enrolment introductory courses in a public university, we compared students' perceptions of blended learning on design, interaction, learning, and satisfaction in four different blended models. The models, which were the result of a course redesign initiative, had different combinations of face-to-face lectures,…

This article reports analysis of students' written reflections as to what helps them learn in an active learning environment. Eight hundred and twenty seven responses from 403 students in four different studio courses over two years were analyzed. An emergent coding scheme identified 55% of the responses as associated with cognitive processes…

Critical thinking skills are sought after in the workforce and are often included in course, departmental, and programmatic learning objectives. However, in the curriculum of many courses we tend to focus on content rather than on fostering the growth of the cognitive skills needed to improve critical thinking ability. Further, skills are…

A detailed study of learning and teaching (L&T) of chemical engineering distillation to a mixed-ability small class of 13 students who are ordinarily full-time in-house employees in industry is reported. The course consisted of 9 × 2-h lectures (18 hours) and 9 × 2-h tutorials (18 hours). It was delivered over nine business days "in…

Recent work on student perceptions of skills development and engagement with different teaching and learning approaches have provided useful evidence bases for practitioners aiming to enhance the student learning experience. Although there has been some useful research on student expectations in non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and…

Small group learning activities have been shown to improve student academic performance and educational outcomes. Yet, we have an imperfect understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs. Group learning may mediate student stress by placing learning in a context where students have both social support and greater control over their learning.…

To promote student learning and bolster student success, higher education institutions are increasingly creating large active learning classrooms to replace traditional lecture halls. Although there have been many efforts to examine the effects of those classrooms on learning outcomes, there is paucity of research that can inform the design and…