2024 ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Concepts of Immunology are advanced science courses in Microbiology which are often taught within the peak semesters of the pre-clinical years of study along with some other advanced sciences in the Pharmacy school. This makes learning problematic. The Co-operative learning and student-led teaching strategies as employed in higher education have shown to be effective in improving students' understanding of scientific concepts. For this reason, a modified mixed strategic approach (MMSA) which incorporated the above-mentioned teaching strategies were developed. To do this, a mixed methods research design was employed to explore the outcomes of the MMSA. The MMSA was translated into in-class student-led presentations dubbed the ‘Art to remember’ (ATR) approach. Class RX 26 was the target group for this study. Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Concepts of Immunology classes were chosen for this study. Quantitative data was obtained with a google form survey and analysed with frequencies, mean tests, sample T-test and some other inferential statistics. In the qualitative data, thematic analyses on students' perception of learning with the ATR strategy was done through whole class discussions and google forms. The findings showed that the ATR strategy was an effective strategy for teaching as compared with the conventional approach. Although ATR could not exhaust the entire content of the topics of study, they improved concentration, allowed the expression of talents which is de-stressing and created opportunities to remember aspects of the content of the topics under study. Students perceived the opportunity to search and share information as well as relate these concepts to everyday arts in the like of poetry, singing, dancing, games and drama. The ATR strategy facilitated the understanding of concepts in the target courses of study. It is recommended that higher educators in biology incorporate the ATR strategy to teach concepts students find problematic.