Students’ experiences of active engagement through cooperative learning activities in lectures

Abstract

This article reports on students’ experiences of lectures which included many opportunities for active engagement through cooperative learning activities. At the end of a 13-week semester-long unit, 113 students completed a questionnaire which contained five open-ended questions focusing on the extent to which the students thought that the lecture activities helped them to learn and understand the course content and to maintain their interest and attention during the sessions. Results indicate that students valued the mix of traditional lecturing and cooperative learning tasks, particularly the variety of activities, the opportunities for small-group and whole-class discussions, the clear focus on one or two central ideas, and the authenticity of the tasks.