Page 58 - Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century

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Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching and Learning 2021
Student feedback confirms that the majority of students
find that the seminar discussions help them
to understand the
course content better
and they appreciate
the opportunity to see applications of the theory learnt in class.
Reflective appraisal on the effectiveness
of the seminars
We have used the seminars, as described above, in teaching and learning in the Environmental Isotope Geochemistry course for the past six
years and our experience is largely positive. The students are far more interactive during the seminar discussions than during the lectures, which means that the seminars are a useful platform to assess which concepts many students are struggling with, so we can detect and deal with issues prior to a test and adapt future lectures accordingly. We observed that students who are usually quiet in lectures ‘find their voices’ during a debate, as they are pushed to form an opinion or gain confidence from the affirmation of the group. The seminar format enables active rather than passive learning, which has been shown
to increase understanding and retention of knowledge, encourage critical thinking and better prepare students for the work environment (Hernández-de-Menéndez et al. 2019). This heightened interaction in the classroom is also an opportunity for bonding. The students entering this first module of the Geology honours programme come from a number of different institutions and have few connections, but there is a noticeable improvement in class cohesion over the two weeks of the seminar series. Development of a peer support group is essential in the transition to postgraduate studies (Hoeta 2021; McPherson et al. 2017).
Student feedback confirms that the majority of students find that
the seminar discussions help them to understand the course content better and they appreciate the opportunity to see applications of the theory learnt in class. Student X says, ‘The seminars gave more insight in terms of the application of stable isotopes in real life situations so they helped give a different and more informed view to the topic.’ Student Y commented that ‘the seminars were a good idea, very relevant and mind opening.’ It is also clear that preparing for the seminars pushes students to engage with the lecture content earlier in the course, rather than shortly before the final test.
Students’ response to the seminars as an opportunity to practice oral presentations in an informal environment is unanimously positive. The Geology honours students give the first formal presentation on their research project to the department just one to two weeks after the end of our course, and we are able to see feedback given during the seminars on presentation style implemented in these later talks.
However, it is also evident that the honours students are still in the incipient stages of engaging with academic literature, and their research skills require further development. Most students do not read beyond the main body of the article to supplementary datasets and online supporting materials, or to the cited articles that provide context to
the study. They read only the article they were directed to, but do not continue the research in the course of their own independent enquiry.