Table 4 Representative quotes from the focus groups regarding their thoughts on the changes to the lecture aspect of the class

“He encourages student discussions and it helps you remember the things if you are participating. Actually I think this is the first course at Saint Mary’s where I attended every single class.”

“I like that I’m actually taking something away from it and I enjoy going to class. At the same time it’s really hard. It is very demanding.”

“He gives you information then asks you your opinion on it and gets you to think about it instead of just the regular method, which doesn’t work.”

“He used examples which we could relate to, and if he was ever talking about animals he would make some kind human comparison both in the lab and in class, which is interesting. We were just talking about bar fights, now we know why they happen: because of male competition, alcohol is a social lubricant, it helps everything happen. Men are competing.”

“I think we are coming out of this course ten times better than we would be coming out of it if we were taking it with another professor that just had multiple choice tests where you’d just regurgitated information. We’re applying it, which is good. The way he teaches, he’s definitely on to something really good, but there’s definitely some fine tuning.”