Teaching Methods and Students' Motivation in STEM Large Classes: A Survey at BTH

The combination of a large number of students and a diverse student population poses additional pedagogical challenges in higher education courses. The teacher's perception of student engagement becomes more challenging in a large group, and students may experience reduced motivation despite the teacher's efforts and pedagogical approach. This paper discusses the challenges of teaching approaches and students' motivation in large groups. For that, a survey at Blekinge Tekniska Hogskola (BTH) in Sweden was performed to evaluate and discuss learning improvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) courses attended by Swedish and international students. The survey explores how teachers can encourage student motivation in large classes, and it was based on related works reporting teaching methods and common issues in teaching STEM courses. Based on the survey's result analysis, we can observe that the physical learning environment and teaching style do not play an essential role in the student's motivation. However, the teacher and student interaction influences their motivation. These findings provide insight into the diverse perceptions of students regarding the connections between teaching style, feedback, learning environment, and motivation, for example. The conclusions derived from the survey are expected to serve as guidelines for improving student performance in large STEM groups.