Effective teaching requires the use of techniques and strategies to counter student passivity and enhance engagement. Research demonstrates that drawing improves memory retention, increases motivation to learn, provides an opportunity to learn what makes an image an effective communication tool, allows demonstration of conceptual understanding,…

Higher education teaching abruptly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic to remote, on-line learning and teaching. The use of on-line communication software to teach became the norm and remains at many institutions. This software contains features, such as the chat, that offer teaching and learning advantages; however, potential benefits can be…

The educational benefit of the traditional didactic lecture to learners in Higher Education is hotly debated. Given increasing student numbers, existing technical set ups and many logistical concerns, lectures remain the norm in many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In this personal view piece, we discuss the benefits, opportunities, and…

This report offers technical guidance and encouragement for any instructor or department looking to produce valuable, high-quality Lightboard teaching videos under space and budget constraints. Lightboards were introduced in a chemical education setting around 2015 as a presentation setup that allowed the presenter to speak face-to-face to their…

How do teachers elicit and sustain students' interest and engagement in science lessons? This paper answers this question in the context of Bhutan, where students' performance in science is low compared to other subjects, and where falling levels of interest in science are a concern. Like other countries in the Global South, a large proportion of…

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching anatomy and physiology is using teaching tools that enhance active learning and keep students actively engaged during the lecture courses. This study explored the use of a student response system that was easy to use, cost-efficient, and re-usable for multiple anatomy and physiology courses. More…

This study investigates the instructional practices of a chemistry professor during an immersion summer program, with a focus on employing multimodal discourse within a studio-based learning environment. For this study, multimodal discourse includes natural language, gestures, mathematical expressions, symbolic visual representations, and manual…

The use of video productions in chemistry courses, though pedagogically beneficial, is not sufficient in and of itself. Students must also be willing to engage with these productions, especially when the videos are meant to be viewed prior to a class. Accordingly, we describe herein the implementation of two simple but effective strategies to…

The study evaluated the effects of teachers' professional and pedagogical competencies on implementing cooperative learning method and enhancing students' learning engagement and outcomes in science. The study employed randomized controlled trials method. The pretest-posttest data were analyzed by using two-tailed t-test and ANCOVA to either…

The research on students' perceptions after implementing a teaching style is recommended due to its potential to inform reformed education. The present study surveyed 319 students and revealed their perceptions of multimedia usage in teaching and learning quantum physics. Among these students, 156 were surveyed after learning quantum physics with…

A teaching team composed of a faculty member (lecture) and a graduate teaching assistant (lab) endeavored to engage students enrolled in several sections of the same organic chemistry course through the use of social media. Students were encouraged to follow both instructors on Twitter and were asked to share aspects of the class using the social…

This study measured student engagement in real time through the use of skin biosensors, specifically galvanic skin response (GSR), in a large undergraduate lecture classroom. The study was conducted during an intervention in an introductory-level biology course (N = 420) in which one section of the course was taught with active-learning approaches…

Recent studies have shown that sorting tasks are a useful tool both for measuring and aiding student learning as well as facilitating the transfer of knowledge to novel contexts. These tasks require students to categorize scenarios or information in new ways that facilitate connection making and deeper understanding. As such, sorting tasks…

In-class activities that use a collaborative learning approach were developed for a one-semester biochemistry course as a way to achieve higher student engagement. The redesign of this course from a traditional lecture to a format that incorporated a significant active learning component without reducing the amount of content is described. These…

Introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS) courses have emerged as a type of physics course within the introductory courses sequence. The interdisciplinary aspects of these courses as well as the diverse student populations that they serve create significant challenges for instructors who choose to design and deliver them. The Living Physics…