Franziska Widmer, Departement Soziale Arbeit (ZHAW):

Bachelor students in social work at a university of applied sciences have diverse educational backgrounds. As a consequence, during a lecture, one group may feel overwhelmed whereas the other group is bored and not challenged enough.

In the presented Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Project the following question is raised: What can lecturers do in preparation and during lectures to enhance the accessibility for students with different levels of access to scientific knowledge, field experience and learning motivation? What can be done to enhance students’ satisfaction, their feeling of benefitting from the offered knowledge and approach?

The goal of the project is to take material from an already existing course and rework the course based on theoretical proposals. Feedback from students is used to determine whether their level of theoretical and practical knowledge has been addressed. The results serve to critically examine the usefulness of the measures applied and to develop considerations for further adaptation for diversity-sensitive teaching.

Selected theoretical proposals dealing with such disparities will be translated into presentations and lectures.

The research was conducted in spring semester 2018 and was based on three qualitative group interviews and an anonymous evaluation. The material was evaluated with a content analysis based on Mayring.

Results: The general level of adaption to previous knowledge is satisfying. The need of repetition of knowledge from previous courses has been discussed controversial. A need students acknowledge is to have theory more merged with practical issues. Students know what workload they can expect, but they wish to have tasks given as early as possible, to have a better chance to join lectures well prepared. This might be a possibility to enhance accessibility.

Instruction for composition for group work is important to establish a trustful learning atmosphere, and evaluate students’ feedback with qualitative research methods turned out to be very fruitful.