STUDENT VIEWS ON TEACHING INNOVATIONS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Worldwide there is a strong trend toward the transition from traditional teaching methods relying on lectures to different strategies aimed at fostering deep learning through the active involvement of the students. Instructors can choose among the wide range of active methods that have been proposed to match the particularities of their subjects. However, less attention has been paid to the opinion of the students on the effectiveness of each methodology, although it is a key element in identifying which methods are more effective to achieve the goal of deep learning.

Here, we report a preliminary study about the perception of undergraduate and graduate students of five engineering bachelor degrees and one master degree in the areas of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Telecommunication, Industrial Design and Forestry; as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication all from the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain, on their views about common teaching methodologies. In this preliminary study, a cohort of 1188 students enrolled in selected subjects has been sampled through an anonymous online survey carried out during the two academic years: 2014-15 and 2015-16. In this period, 238 students filled out the survey.

Some interesting conclusions can be drawn from the student’s feedback. A majority of students (65%) think that teaching innovations contribute significantly to their learning. Around 70% of students consider that the most effective teaching methods are project-based learning followed by problem-based learning and lecturing. Portfolios were considered as the less effective method. On the other side, regarding teamwork, 58% of the students find more interesting the work in small groups (3-5) the most productive. Furthermore, there is a contradiction between the methods preferred by students and the ones they consider to be more effective. In fact, traditional lecturing still receives a strong support (80%) as the preferred method when attending a course. This might suggest that the way in which teaching innovations are being applied among technical students is not well matched to their interests. The conclusions of this study give instructors valuable insights into which methodologies are more effective and best aligned with the student demands.