Abstract

This study describes feedback on the effects of changes introduced in our teaching practices for an introductory biochemistry course in the Life Sciences curriculum. Students on this course have diverse educational qualifications and are taught in large learning groups, creating challenges for the management of individual learning. We used the constructive alignment principle, refining the learning contract and re‐drafting the teaching program to introduce active learning and an organization of activities that promotes the participation of all the students and helps their understanding. We also created teaching resources available through the university virtual work environment. Our research aimed to measure the effects of those changes on the students’ success. Monitoring of the student performance showed a continuous increase in the percentage of students who passed the course, from 2.13% to 33.5% in 4 years. Analysis of student perceptions highlighted that the teaching methodology was greatly appreciated by the students, whose attendance also improved. The recent introduction of clickers‐questions constituted a complementary leverage. The active involvement of the students and better results for summative assessments are altogether a strong motivation for teaching staff to continue to make improvements.

Highlights

  • This study describes feedback on the effects of changes introduced in our teaching practices for an introductory biochemistry course in the Life Sciences curriculum

  • We can assume that the results of learning assessment and of the student evaluation of teaching (SET) could not be correlated to the variations of the Bac type

  • The absenteeism slightly increased during the semester; in parallel we observed a significant increase of participants in the activities available in moodle, with a maximum on the days preceding examinations

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Summary

Introduction

This study describes feedback on the effects of changes introduced in our teaching practices for an introductory biochemistry course in the Life Sciences curriculum. Students reported that they ‘feared’ and even ‘hated’ biochemistry, mostly at the beginning of the curriculum. Thinking this is not inevitable, we challenged ourselves to improve the students’ motivation and interest in biochemistry and to promote academic success

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