Speaker
Description
Friendly learning environments have been widely explored for their potential to enhance students’ understanding of fundamental Physics concepts and improve cognitive achievement. This is particularly significant given the widespread perception of Physics as a challenging subject, especially among first-year university students. During this critical transition period, many students encounter misconceptions and conceptual difficulties that can hinder their academic success.
To address these challenges, lecturers continuously seek effective teaching strategies that make Physics more accessible, engaging, and manageable for students. In this context, a supportive and student-centred learning environment grounded in the pedagogy of care was investigated. The study aimed to determine the impact of such an environment on first-year students’ learning experiences, with a particular focus on enhancing their motivation, participation, conceptual understanding, and sense of ownership of the learning process.
The learning environment was established through a triadic engagement approach that deliberately fostered interactions between lecturer and content, lecturer and students, students and content, and among students themselves. This integrated strategy promoted active participation and deeper engagement with Physics concepts, ultimately leading to improved learning outcomes.
Student performance was monitored over three consecutive years, with the findings demonstrating consistent positive results. These outcomes provide strong evidence of the effectiveness of the approach in improving student learning and supporting success in introductory Physics courses.