Comparison of students’ perceptions of their teaching–learning environments in three professional academic disciplines: A valuable tool for quality enhancement

The present study explored differences in students’ perceptions of their teaching–learning environments in three professional academic disciplines at the University of Helsinki, using a modified version of the Experiences of Teaching & Learning Questionnaire. A total of 426 first-year students from the Faculties of Law, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine participated in the study. When six scales measuring students’ perceptions of their teaching–learning environments were devised, veterinary and pharmacy students experienced their teaching–learning environment more positively than law students. Significant differences in students’ perceptions were found between disciplines on the four scales of Alignment, Staff Enthusiasm and Support, Constructive Feedback and Support from Other Students. Comparisons between the disciplines helped in recognising special features of each discipline from novice students’ points of view. The questionnaire was found to provide valuable information about the quality of teaching and learning.     

Phonological and sensory short-term memory are correlates and both affected in developmental dyslexia

We investigated whether poor short-term memory (STM) in developmental dyslexia affects the processing of sensory stimulus sequences in addition to phonological material. STM for brief binary non-verbal stimuli (light flashes, tone bursts, finger touches, and their crossmodal combinations) was studied in 20 Finnish adults with dyslexia and 24 healthy controls. To determine sensory Item STM, participants were asked to match pairs of sequences of increasing length. In Time STM, participants matched pairs of five-stimulus-sequences of increasing stimulus onset asynchrony between the stimuli. Phonological STM was studied with digit span forwards and backwards, pseudoword span, pseudoword matching span, and pseudoword repetition. Earlier results associating phonological STM impairment with dyslexia were replicated. Dyslexic participants also performed more poorly than controls in sensory STM, suggesting that they have general difficulties in representing temporal sequences in STM. Further, sensory STM, phonological STM, temporal acuity, and reading ability were correlated, pointing to shared processes.