Qualitative differences in approaches to teaching first year university science

Abstract

Changing lecturers' teaching strategies to improve learning in higher education may mean first having to address the intentions associated with those strategies. The study reported in this paper used a phenomenographic approach to explore the intentions associated with the teaching strategies of first year physical science lecturers. Approaches found ranged from those involving information transmission to those where the intention was to develop learning through conceptual change, but in all approaches, logical relations were found between intention and strategy. The implications for attempts to improve teaching through developing strategies are discussed.