Abstract:

Active learning has been on the agenda in higher education. In 2023, we consolidated our existing laboratory courses in biodiversity and put up our year-long Biodiversity Laboratory I (Term 1) and II (Term 2), a must-take for our Year 3 Biology majors. Active learning is one of the major highlights. Instead of listening to teaching assistants introducing the various groups of organisms most of the time like before, students now practice peer teaching and learning by preparing and giving a 3-min group presentation to one another in almost every class. Through this on-going training, students picked up not only the subject knowledge but also ample soft skills, including how to engage the audience using vivid language and live demonstrations. In order to let students take more ownership of their learning and to further boost their self-efficacy, a student-led ecotour activity was introduced in Term 2, 2024-25.

For this activity, each group has to come up with a site on campus that they would like to work on. The whole class would then work out a feasible route for the ecotour to be held in our last lesson. Several days before the trip, each group had to post their pre-trip leaflets (one version for Biology majors and an abridged one for the general public) onto our designated Padlet site. On the day of the tour, the groups took turns to act as the tour guides for the whole class. Within a week after the tour, they were to post their post-trip videos and reflections onto the same Padlet site. Students were encouraged to read/watch one another's work and give comments and suggestions.

A questionnaire was set up to collect students' feedback. Results showed that 94.4% of the respondents (n=36) from 2 sessions, ~20 students each, indicated that this students' led ecotour was useful and all of them agreed that this activity had facilitated their learning. All of the respondents reflected that their subject knowledge was enhanced, while most reported an enhancement in research abilities (97.2%), critical thinking (97.2%), problem solving (88.9%), organisation skills (97.2%) communication skills (91.7%), teamwork (91.7%) and leadership (88.9%). The activity had raised their awareness of conservation and sustainability. Students were also more confident in delivering messages, engaging the audience and handling unexpected challenges. Their self-reported patience, empathy and adaptability had also improved.

Keywords:

Active learning, peer teaching and learning, self-efficacy, student-led ecotour, biology.