Strategies to improve learning of all students in a class

ABSTRACT

The statistical distribution of the student learning abilities in a typical undergraduate engineering class poses a significant challenge to simultaneously improve the learning of all the students in the class. With traditional instruction styles, the students with significantly high learning abilities are not satisfied due to a feeling of unfulfilled potential, and the students with significantly low learning abilities feel lost. To address the challenge in an undergraduate core/required course on ‘transport phenomena in biological systems’, a combination of learning strategies such as active learning including co-operative group learning, challenge exercises, and others were employed in a pro-advising context. The short-term and long-term impacts were evaluated through student course performances and input, respectively. The results show that it is possible to effectively address the challenge posed by the distribution of student learning abilities in a class.

KEYWORDS:

• Distribution of learning abilities
• whole class
• cooperative group learning
• challenge exercises
• proactive advising
• sensitivity

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Professor K. P. Madhavan for his insightful input to improve the manuscript and Professor Nandita Madhavan for her input. The author also acknowledges the input received from his colleagues, Professors Karthik Raman, Sanjib Senapati, and Smita Srivastava.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

G. K. Suraishkumar received his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras, Chennai, India, and his Ph.D. from Drexel University, Philadelphia, U.S.A. He has contributed methods through journal publications to improve student learning in courses, laboratories, and to improve technical writing. He has authored a book titled Continuum Analysis of Biological Systems: Conserved Quantities, Fluxes and Forces, and has developed videos, NPTEL online video courses, and MOOCs. He and his research group have contributed to novel research findings related to the technological aspects of reactive species. He has also significantly contributed to the start-up of two Departments of Biotechnology at IIT Madras and IIT Hyderabad, respectively, as the first formal Department Head of each.

ORCID

G. K. Suraishkumar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6521-4494