Elina Ketonen

How to make a lecture course an engaging learning experience

How to make a lecture course an engaging learning experience? This paper investigates engagement and active learning in university mass education. It presents the results of an empirical study on the level of interest and the academic emotions that were experienced during an engaging lecture course, and how such variables were related to flow experience, self-study time, and study success. The participants (n=107) were Finnish first-year teacher students in an educational psychology lecture course. The data were collected by using a questionnaire that measured interest, academic emotions, sense of competence, challenge experienced, and self-study time five days before the final examination. Correlations among variables were measured, a step-wise cluster analysis and two ANOVA tests conducted. The participants were highly engaged and interested during the course. Interest, enthusiasm, sense of competence, and self-study time correlated positively with the grade awarded for the course. Three clusters (emotional profiles) were identified: engaged (36 %), unstressed (25 %), and anxious (39 %) student groups. Engaged students spent the most hours in self-study and received the best grades. Unstressed students were the least active in self-study and also achieved the lowest grades. Interest and sense of competence were decisive variables in successful studying during an engaging lecture course. Opportunities to develop blended learning environments that foster active learning in lectures were further discussed.

How are Situational Academic Emotions Related to Teacher Students’ General Learning Profiles?

When students enter lecture halls and seminars, they enter with various dispositions and may entertain a range of beliefs. Such beliefs may also be socially shared by their discipline or academic community (Lonka & Lindblom-Ylanne 1996; Makinen, Olkinuora, & Lonka 2004). These dispositions may contribute to engaging or disengaging interaction with the academic environment in question.