The Influence of Lecturers' Expectations of Students' Role in Meaning Making on the Nature of their Powerpoint slides and the Quality of Students' Note-making: A First-year Biology Class Context

Learning within first-year biology is about inquiry, but in this content-heavy science students can easily fall into the trap of parrot-fashion learning. This study investigates the influence of lecturers' expectation of students in meaning making on the nature of their slides and the quality of students' note-making. Data were collected by classroom observations, video-recordings, a questionnaire for students and interviews with lecturers and students. The quantity and quality of students' notes were analysed for four lectures. The analysis of data resulted in three categories of lecturers: 'student-centred', 'student-directed' and 'teacher-centred'. The student-centred lecturers provided key points on their slides, anticipated that students would build on their class notes and focused on the development of the students' critical-thinking ability. The student-directed and teacher-centred lecturers aimed to complete the syllabus and emphasised the provision of detailed slides that first-years needed to learn. In addition, student-directed lecturers stated that they attempted to simplify topics that they knew students found challenging. When undergraduates perceived that the lecturers' slides did not provide sufficient content for assessments, they reported that they captured more notes during and after the lecture, but analysis revealed that the first-years' notes were usually a close reflection of lecture slides.