Teaching Strategies and Effects of Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of the Extended Curriculum Programme at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Philomene Nsengiyumva, University of the Western Cape

Thus, this paper explores the relationship between teaching strategies and the performance of students in ECP programme. In addition to the traditional methods of teaching, our research encompasses innovative teaching methods such as technology, problem solving and cooperative learning for the Introductory Statistics Module in the ECP. The students’ final marks data for the academic years from 2008 to 2014 were used for analysis. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the performance of students over time and the Dunn’s post-hoc test with a Bonferroni adjustment was used to indicate which groups were statistically significantly different. Results show that there was a gradual increase in median achievement of class groups from 2008 to 2014 as new teaching strategies were introduced. This suggests that, though there might be other factors that have contributed to the students’ success, the employed teaching strategies had a positive impact on the performance of these students over time.