Restructuring the College Classroom: A Critical Reflection on the Use of Collaborative Strategies to Target Student Engagement in Higher Education

Recent years have witnessed a surge in classroom-based pedagogies aimed at targeting student engagement. This paper seeks to report on the design, delivery and small-scale evaluation of a final year undergraduate module in developmental psychology. Adopting a range of innovative teaching/learning methodologies, the author sought to support student engagement across the module. Using a scaffolded approach to module delivery, four discrete teaching methodologies were employed: ‘lectorial’ design, the jigsaw method, in-class presentations and an online discussion forum. Such strategies were chosen due to their strong alignment with the six ‘engagement indices’, as put forward by the Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE). Following module completion, student feedback was obtained using the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) and additional Likert scale questions. Based on descriptive and inferential analysis of findings, student feedback is presented, with implications for practice outlined. Limitations of the small-scale evaluation are also noted, offering potential avenues for future research.