Abstract

To engage 21st century students, Generation Y and Generation Z, and impact their learning, instructors must reach out to students utilizing teaching strategies that students perceive promotes their engagement and enhances learning. The purpose of this research was to gather student perceptions of the teaching strategies that most impacted their interactions with course materials. We also wondered if faculty members understood student perceptions. Students and faculty members from a Midwestern university were surveyed to determine their perceptions of what teaching strategies most impacted student learning. While the highest-rated teaching strategy for both groups was “short lecture with activities and/or discussion,” overall, faculty perceived this strategy to be more impactful than did students. The greatest differences in perceptions between students and faculty were in “research project” and “required writing: journal, class notes, blogs.” For students, the top 7 out of 15 strategies measured involved some form of interaction with the material with the lowest-rated strategy “student-led class.”