Engaging the learner : Reflections on the use of student presentations

Abstract

This piece of research, in collaboration with Leicester University was initiated by the findings of an earlier, substantial study (Sander, Stevenson, King and Coates, 2000) which looked at students’ expectation of teaching in three different UK universities. One of the findings was that students did not like student presentations. The reasons varied between the student groups in a fairly consistent way. Given that there is good evidence to believe that presentations are a useful experience for students we wondered whether students would feel better about them after they had given one. A survey methodology was used within an action research framework collecting quantitative and qualitative data to answer this question. In this we were trying to get measurable insights into the student perspective on this method of teaching / learning / assessment. The results vindicated our persistence in trying to retain presentations as part of the students’ course experience.