Designing teaching strategy to enhance student learning (II)

Abstract

This study investigates how the prior knowledge of the students can be used to develop an effective teaching and learning strategy. First - year university science students come from a variety of teaching and learning cultures with a wide range of academic abilities. Moreover many studies have shown that science students hold a variety of alternative conceptions that are hard to change. These combining factors pose a daunting challenge for the instructor to teach such a group of varying abilities and mixed conceptions. A traditional mode of teaching in many cases is not suitable and may result in a high drop out rate. Before embarking on a full teaching program, it is therefore, useful to develop a teaching and learning strategy that is suitable for the whole class. In this paper we will discuss the outcome of two years of study for two different groups of students.