Improving conceptual understanding by inductive teaching: an example of its success

We are teaching a PhD/MSc course on quantitative microbiological risk assessment with up to 20 students with a varying (international) background and two teachers. We have experienced a challenge in explaining one of the key concepts in the theory. It requires that the students adopt a way of thinking about the concepts variability and uncertainty that requires deeper understanding, and accommodation rather than assimilation of new knowledge is required.

I therefore decided to change the teaching method, without impacting the rest of the course too much, as it is mainly succesful as it is. I choose to try the use of an inductive instead of a deductive approach, based on Kolb’s learning cycle (experience, reflection, conceptualization, practice). The performance of the students after application of the inductive approach was compared with the performance with the old approach.