The use of diversified teaching strategies by four university teachers: what contribution to their students' learning motivation?

This multicase study aimed to describe the use of diversified teaching strategies in university courses and examine the contribution of these strategies and their context of use on student learning motivation. For this purpose, classroom observations and interviews were conducted with four teachers using diversified strategies, and 40 targeted students. Furthermore, the motivation of 195 students was measured at the beginning and end of the semester. Results reveal that the teachers used between six and nine different teaching strategies and that student motivation increased during the semester for two groups but remained the same or decreased for the other groups. In addition, other more or less positive contextual factors seemed to modulate the benefits of strategy diversification on students' motivation to learn. These findings highlight the importance of diversifying teaching strategies in higher education as well as to take into account their context of use in order to promote their positive contribution.