Traditional teaching methods are still preferred by some students, despite being reported to contribute to problems in student understanding introductory physics. Having been taught passively for a long time, students are usually resistant to changes in teaching methods. Students’ attitudes to change are important in their response to improving their comprehension of physics. This paper investigates students’ responses to elements of a modified teaching approach which consists of assessed group work in tutorials, WebCT reading quizzes, peer discussion during in-class demonstrations and pre-lecture downloaded hand-outs. The students were expected to engage actively in their learning, inside and outside the classroom, with activities such as web-based quizzes and team involvement that they may encounter in their further employment. The students showed more concern with tasks which were both new and assessed. Some student comments regarding activities perceived to be not helpful indicated a problem of time management outside the class. In general, however, the students were quite adaptive to the change in teaching approach. This adaptability can be considered as a promising indication in helping the students to learn better.

Keywords: Student response; teaching reform; introductory physics.