OM NÄRVARO, STUDENTAKTIVITET OCH GENOMSTRÖMNING - INDIVIDUELLT OCH KOLLABORATIVT LÄRANDE VID RÄKNEÖVNINGAR I MATEMATIK OCH FYSIK

Abstract

Attendance at lectures and problem-solving sessions is often low in many of Sweden's universities. For the past decade, the methodology for problem-solving sessions in mathematics has developed significantly. Teachers have abandoned traditional teaching methods, where students receive help by raising their hands or by the teacher solving more difficult problems on the board, in favor of more collaborative learning. The collaborative teaching methods at BTH involve students solving problems in smaller groups through discussions on whiteboards. The purpose of this study is to investigate how collaborative learning can contribute compared to more traditionally conducted problem-solving sessions, in terms of attendance and study results. Students were given the choice of whether they wanted to belong to the traditional group, the individual group, or the group that solved problems in smaller groups on whiteboards, the collaborative group, during the problem-solving sessions in the introductory physics course. The study shows that attendance was positively affected for the collaborative group, which also tended to spend more time outside the scheduled teaching hours in the course.

Keywords: Attandance, attainment, collaborative learning, teaching physics & mathematics