Introduction to the second edition

Although the focus will not be on teaching methods per se, but on strategies for fostering learning within the context of particular courses, various methods will be described. These include the use of learning contracts in which students prepare a formal plan for their learning and its evaluation which is validated by a staff member; one-to-one learning in which students work in pairs to facilitate each other’s learning; student-planned courses in which students work on their own and in groups to initiate their own projects and put them into practice; peer support systems in which newly arrived students are assisted in problems of personal and academic adjustment by students with longer experience of the institution; and collaborative assessment in which staff and students cooperate in establishing criteria for student assessment and make judgements on the basis of these. Each of these approaches is described in a particular context from the point of view of the teacher using the approach.