Evaluating major post-secondary education improvement projects involves multiple perspectives, including students\textquoteright perceptions of their experiences. In the final year of a seven-year department-wide science education initiative, we asked students in 48 courses to rate the extent to which each of 39 teaching or learning strategies helped them learn in the course. Results were related to the type of improvement model used to enhance courses, class size and course year level. Overall, students perceived unimproved courses as least helpful. Small courses that were improved with support from science education specialists were perceived overall as more helpful than similar courses improved by expert teaching-focused faculty without support, while the opposite was found for medium courses. Overall perceptions about large courses were similar to perceptions of medium courses. Perceived helpfulness of individual strategies was more nuanced and context dependent, and there was no consistent preference for either traditional or newer evidence-based instructional practices. Feedback and homework strategies were most helpful in smaller courses and independently improved courses. Results indicate that students are perceptive to benefits that arise when improvements are made either by expert educators or by research-focused faculty who received dedicated support from science education specialists.

<p>We set out to identify the benefits and drawbacks of using more than one instructor to teach single section science courses at a large research university. Nine courses were investigated involving widely differing subjects and levels. Teaching models included: sequential teaching with two to six instructors each covering only their own modules, two teachers present in class at all times, and hybrids of these two models. A three-question survey was answered by 957 students and 17 instructors. Dominant advantages identified by both groups were variety of teaching style or perspectives and instructor expertise, with instructors being more likely to identify expertise as the primary advantage. Dominant disadvantages identified were adjustment to teaching style and expectations and confusion and communication issues. Data suggest that advantages are maximized and disadvantages minimized either in courses with two or more instructors interacting and collaborating in class or when special care is taken with coordination and collaboration if the course is sequentially taught. We conclude with specific recommendations to instructors and departments based on evidence from the data.</p>

<p>Article Citation: Alison Jolley, Francis Jones, and Sara Harris (2013) Measuring Student Knowledge of Landscapes and Their Formation Timespans. Journal of Geoscience Education: May 2013, Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. 240-251.</p>