Focused seminar group teaching and learning: a more collaborative approach?

Abstract

This research continued an earlier research project (Clarke and Lane, 2002) based in Early Childhood Studies, whereby the perceptions of one cohort of students regarding small group teaching and learning were examined. The earlier findings showed that students valued the opportunity of discussing particular subject-related topics in small tutor-led groups. In this earlier research there was also a significant improvement in the grades achieved by the students, which they attributed to the additional small group seminar. The original research was extended to include students who were studying on different degree and higher education programmes within the School of Education at the University of Wolverhampton. Other teaching staff were also involved in the research.