SEEU Review vol. 6 Nr. 2 (pdf) - South East European University

Teuta Iljazi, Ma.; Sadri Alija, MSc.Research MethodologyThis research was carried out with first-year students (a total of 182students during the 2009/2010 academic year) at the BA Faculty at SEEU,who attend math classes in their second semester. After the first meetingwith students, during the first two weeks of introductory classes, they werecanvassed in order to get information about their personal data, secondaryschool background, overall success in their secondary school, state Maturaresults, whether they had taken math in their state Matura or not, how manyyears they had studied math in their secondary school, how often they hadmath classes, etc. They also took a test about what they had learnt insecondary school, which would help them in taking math classes atuniversity. The students were told their scores and then we set about creatingthe groups. While doing so, we were careful to have almost the same gradepoint average in every group. This means that every group had students withmaximum and minimum points from the test.The small group work was applied to 104 students, whereas thetraditional form to 64. The evaluation process was carried out through tests,quizzes, homework, periodic exam, attendance in class and final exam.Another tool that was used in our research was the questionnaire given toour students in order to get feedback about the teaching process, theirpreferred ways of teaching and learning, etc.After the final exam and final evaluation, we did another on-linequestionnaire with students where they were asked to evaluate the wholeprocess – the course, the teachers, the teaching methods. They were alsoasked to give their suggestions.158