At the beginning of the course, students answer a survey regarding their prior knowledge, competencies and level of motivation for the subject. We form study groups based on the students’ answers, so that each group consists of students with varying competencies. Via peer teaching in these groups, students then increase their motivation for the subject.
The course teaches students how to use statistical models in the programming language ‘R’. The course brings together students from different degree programmes, who have different prior knowledge and reasons for learning to program. Most of the students are biology students whose motivation for the course is not particularly high. But these students are better prepared than the students from the other faculties, because they have already completed a course in basic programming and statistics. The goal of this activity is therefore to motivate the biology students by encouraging them to help the students from the other faculties through peer teaching in their study groups.
THE PROCESS | |||
Teacher's preparation | Survey design and distribution: Send out a survey at the beginning of the course to ask about the students’ prior knowledge, competencies and their level of motivation for the course content. The survey could ask students about the following topics:
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Students' preparation | Students fill out the survey: The goal is for students to reflect on their own programming skills and their opinion on the importance of statistical skills. | ||
Teacher's preparation | Creating study groups: Based on the students’ responses, create study groups of three people that combine students with strong and weak programming skills. This ensures that students with strong programming skills get to opportunity to improve their peer teaching competencies. | ||
In study group/in class | Programming assignment: Give each group a programming assignment that starts off easy and gets gradually more difficult.
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At the beginning of the course, 33% of students disagreed with the statement “statistics in biology is interesting.” After several initiatives focusing on student-centred learning activities and blended learning activities, this figure dropped to 23.5%.
The survey showed that students with low motivation also had weak programming skills at the beginning of the course. These students increased both their skills and motivation more than others throughout the course.
Don’t underestimate the variation in the students’ competencies and level of motivation.
Students from other faculties often need some introductory material to establish good habits for working in a group.
Design the survey so that it measures competencies, academic engagement and personal motivation.
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