Adult students' perceptions of good teaching as a function of their conceptions of learning—part 1. influencing the development of self-determination

This study investigated the perceptions of good teaching of adult students. Fifty-three students enrolled in part-time courses in Hong Kong were interviewed about a range of issues concerned with teaching, tutoring and learning. The initial analysis showed that there was no universal view of what constituted good teaching, as approaches preferred by some students resembled those disliked by others. These apparent contradictions were resolved by the recognition that perceptions of teaching quality were framed by conceptions of learning, which were shown to be consistent with a continuum from a reproductive pole to a self-determining one. Each of the four quadrants of the framework represents a conception of learning receiving teaching consistent or inconsistent with it. The quadrant representing self-determining learners receiving consistent facilitative teaching is seen as the goal for adult education to strive for. Didactic teaching was consistent with reproductive conceptions of learning. Teachers faced with predominantly reproductive classes are urged to help in developing greater levels of self-determination by progressively exposing students to forms of teaching requiring active involvement in the learning process, in a supporting environment.     

Lecturers’ and students’ conceptions of authenticity in teaching and actual teacher actions and attributes students perceive as helpful

This study investigated an under-explored area in the field of academic practice: the meaning of the complex notion of authenticity in teaching. Combining conceptual with empirical investigation, data included philosophical texts, repertory grid interviews with fifty-five lecturers and students from Law, Physics and English Literature, and fourteen focus groups with forty-six students. Philosophical conceptions were compared to those held by students and lecturers. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of repertory grids revealed differences in experts’/philosophers’ and lay-people’s conceptions of authenticity and additionally showed how lecturers’ and students’ conceptions of authenticity in teaching differed from their conceptions of teaching effectiveness. Focus groups identified linkages between authenticity in teaching and actual teacher actions and attributes that students perceive as being conducive to their learning. The findings enhance the meaning of authenticity, show how it matters in university teaching and offer a hitherto lacking theoretical foundation for further research.     

Teaching in higher education: Good teaching through students’ lens

This study explored 2475 Israeli students’ conceptions of good teaching and examined the relationship between these conceptions and students’ background characteristics. Data were collected using an internet survey designed to measure students’ conceptions regarding five teaching dimensions referring to goals to be achieved, long-term student development, teaching methods, relations with students, and assessment. Results indicate that students perceived assessment as the most important of the five teaching dimensions and long-term student development as least important. Only gender and field of study made a salient difference in students’ perceptions of good teaching. Implications for the evaluation of teaching are discussed.     

Differences between Students' and Lecturers' Perceptions of Factors Influencing Students' Academic Success at University

Qualitative data from 46 lecturers and 72 students were used to identify factors that were perceived as making the most important contributions to students' academic success at university and factors that were perceived as most likely to lead to student failure at university. A questionnaire based on this information was administered to a further 112 lecturers and 392 students. The resulting data highlighted some similarities and many differences in the perceptions of lecturers and students about student success and failure. Some possible reasons for these differences in perceptions are explored, and some of the consequences of the different views are discussed. Particular reference is made to the different views that lecturers and students have about the student effort required for success at university.     

Lecturers' approaches to teaching and their relationship to conceptions of good teaching

Previous research has established a close link between students'conceptions of learning, approaches to study and learning outcomes.Until recently, there have been few studies of lecturers' approaches toteaching in higher education and their relationship with conceptions ofteaching. This study aimed to characterise the alternative approaches toteaching of university lecturers, and to examine the relationshipbetween lecturers' approaches to teaching and their conceptions of goodteaching. This study adopted an open naturalistic approach. Seventeenlecturers in three departments in a university were selected forinterview based on their rank, years of teaching and industrial orprofessional experience. Lecturers were interviewed individually abouttheir conceptions of good teaching, motivational strategies andeffective teaching. The interview records were then content analysed bythe two researchers of the study. The study found that (a) it waspossible to characterise lecturers' approaches to teaching with onemotivation and five strategy dimensions; (b) the conceptions of teachingof the lecturers were best described by two main orientations oftransmissive and facilitative teaching; (c) lecturers who conceivedteaching as transmitting knowledge were more likely to usecontent-centred approaches to teaching, while those who conceivedteaching as facilitative tended to use learning-centred approaches. Thestudy concludes by suggesting that fundamental changes to the quality ofteaching and learning are unlikely to happen without changes tolecturers' conception of teaching.     

On the labor market for full-time non-tenure-track lecturers in economics

We examine AY2013 annual salaries, annual teaching assignments, and career publishing histories for more than 700 full-time lecturers and tenure-track faculty at 37 public Ph.D.-granting departments of economics. The roughly 15% of teaching faculty who were full-time lecturers were younger, more likely to be female and to teach at the program from which they received their Ph.D., and were assigned to teach both more courses and many more students. While lower than those for tenure-track faculty, the annual salaries paid to full-time lecturers compare favorably to those of tenure-track economics faculty at Master's- and Bachelor's-granting institutions. Regression results suggest that full-time lecturer salaries are determined by teaching assignments rather than research productivity while tenure-track salaries are determined by research productivity rather than teaching assignments.     

Workplace learning: principles and practice

Students in part‐time courses were interviewed about their perceptions of good teaching and tutoring. The perceptions differed markedly between those with reproductive conceptions of learning and students holding self‐determining ones. The former preferred didactic teaching but disliked interaction, whereas the latter had almost diametrically opposite perspectives by finding student‐centred approaches consistent with their conceptions of learning. The findings have implications for the evaluation of teaching, as ratings are likely to be influenced by the predominant conceptions of learning of a class. It is common for individual instructors to be regularly evaluated by teacher evaluation questionnaires, which often have a teacher‐centred bias, and for the ratings to be used for appraisal. It is argued that this leads to conservatism as teachers fear that students with reproductive conceptions of learning will reduce their ratings if they innovate in their teaching. As the degree of bias from this ratings‐lowering phenomenon may be quite large, the findings are a caution against the common practice of using absolute rating values from both teacher evaluation questionnaires and programme‐level evaluation by instruments such as the Course Experience Questionnaire. Results need to be interpreted together with other evidence and take into account contextual factors including students' conceptions of learning.     

The formation of conscience: A lost topic of Didaktik

Progressive and radical visions of education have accorded student voice an important place in their critiques of traditional schooling and their proposals for change. In this paper, I examine and criticize two popular conceptions of student voice. The firstvoice as individual expression- is put forward by advocates of writing workshop approaches tothe teaching of writing. Workshop advocates emphasize students' desire to express their unique selves in writing, and how traditional instruction frustrates this desire. The second conception of student voice- voice as participation- comes from advocates of critical pedagogy. These advocates call for critical dialogues among teachers and students, within which student voices would sound and be heard. I conclude the paper by sketching an alternative conception, one that affirms the strengths of these previous versions, as well as responds to their weaknesses. I propose that voice be conceived of as aproject involving appropriation, social struggle and becoming. My goal is to envision student voice in a way that more adequately recognizes the interactional and ideological complexities of student expression, so that we might, as educators and researchers, better support the flourishing of student voices in schools.     

The relative importance of teaching evaluation criteria from the points of view of students and faculty

Abstract

The student evaluation of teaching (SET) tool is widely used to measure student satisfaction in institutions of higher education. A SET typically includes several criteria, which are assigned equal weights. The motivation for this research is to examine student and lecturer perceptions and the behaviour of the students (i.e. ratings given by them to lecturers) of various criteria on a SET. To this end, an analytic hierarchy process methodology was used to capture the importance (weights) of SET criteria from the points of view of students and lecturers; the students' actual ratings on the SET were then analysed. Results revealed statistically significant differences in the weights of the SET criteria; those weights differ for students and lecturers. However, analysis of 1436 SET forms of the same population revealed that, although students typically rate instructors very similarly on all criteria, they rate instructors higher on the criteria that are more important to them. The practical implications of this research is the reduction of the number of criteria on the SETs used for personnel decisions, while identifying for instructors and administrators those criteria that are perceived by students to be more important.     

The teacher's role in supporting a learner-centred learning environment: voices from a group of part-time postgraduate students in Hong Kong

This study outlines what 29 part-time adult learners perceive as effective teacher (tutor/instructor/lecturer) practice in supporting their learning. The positive characteristics of teacher support from the students' perspective are first examined, and then what they found to be disappointing. Finally, the underlying themes that emerge are considered and the data is subjected to a holistic interpretation. Overall, the study confirmed the usefulness of a framework developed from a consideration of literature on learner-centred education and students' conceptions of learning. The investigation was able to reveal both key differences between and key similarities among the groups of students. The differences relate to conceptions of the roles and responsibilities of both students and teachers, while the similarities relate to the relationships between the parties in the teaching and learning environment. The implications for tutors/lecturers in improving their support to their students are highly significant. However, the most challenging task in establishing a learner-centred context is to influence students' learning conceptions and help them take a more active role in their learning.     

Students’ conceptions of good teaching in three different disciplines

This paper explores students’ conceptions of good teaching in three different disciplines. Moreover, the aim is to explore the relation between these conceptions and students’ approaches to learning by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of 695 students from the Faculties of Behavioural Sciences, Law and Veterinary Medicine participated in the study. The students’ conceptions of good teaching were analysed using a qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, the students were assigned to homogenous subgroups on the basis of their responses to items measuring approaches to learning and the differences between these subgroups and the students’ conceptions were examined. The association between the conceptions, disciplines and approaches to learning were examined using Chi‐square tests. Twenty‐one dimensions were created from the data and 12 of them differed between the disciplines. Only one dimension differed between the student groups. The study suggests that there is disciplinary variation in students’ conceptions of good teaching and universities should take this into account in the development process of the student evaluation system.     

Learning science through writing: associations with prior conceptions of writing and perceptions of a writing program

Students in a large undergraduate biology course were expected to write a scientific report as a key part of their course design. This study investigates the quality of learning arising from the writing experience and how it relates to the quality of students’ preconceptions of learning through writing and their perceptions of their writing program that led to their report. Closed‐ended questionnaires investigating student conceptions and perceptions of writing, and approaches to writing, were completed by 121 students. Significant associations were found amongst qualitatively different prior and post conceptions of writing, approaches to writing and achievement. The results of the analyses suggest that the effective support of student experiences of writing reports requires teachers to be aware of the type of conceptions that students bring to their course and the perceptions they hold about the purpose of the writing program in which they are engaged.     

Teacher awareness of student alternate conceptions about rotational motion and gravity

Twenty high school physics teachers were interviewed to determine their awareness of student alternate conceptions in the areas of force and gravity. The teachers were also asked to indicate preferred teaching strategies dealing with alternate conceptions. Teacher predictions of student responses were compared to alternate conceptions held by 315 grade-nine students and published findings from other research studies. Edmonton students were found to possess nearly every alternate conception identified in previous research, in similar proportions. A few previously undocumented alternate conceptions were also identified. At times, students were observed to arrive at the currently acceptable conclusion by using alternate conceptions. The high school physics teachers, as a group, identified nearly all the alternate conceptions used by the students. However, individual teachers were generally aware of only a few alternate conceptions, with fully one third of them possessing alternate conceptions themselves in one or more of the tasks. The teachers were also unable to predict with any accuracy the different types of student responses or the proportion of students choosing each alternative. The teaching strategies outlined by the teachers would be considered only partially effective according to current research findings.     

Teachers' approaches to teaching and responses to student evaluation in a problem‐based medical program

Teachers' approaches to teaching may influence the way they interpret and respond to student evaluations. In this article we explore the relationship between teachers' approaches to teaching and responses to qualitative student feedback in a problem‐based medical program. We asked all lecturers and theme session presenters in 2003 who had received student feedback comments in the past 2 years (N=121) to complete anonymously the Approaches to Teaching inventory (16 items) and an Approach to Feedback Inventory (14 items). Results were that most teachers report making changes to their teaching in response to students' suggestions at least sometimes. The types of change(s) teachers make are consistent with their approach. Teachers strong on a conceptual‐change student‐focussed (CCSF) approach are more responsive to feedback and positive about strategies for improving their teaching. To encourage teachers to use student feedback as a guide to improving their teaching, institutions may need to provide a systematic program of teacher education that focuses on teachers' conceptions, approaches and supports observation of exemplary practice.     

Preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching using mobile devices and the quality of technology integration in lesson plans

This study explored the relationships among preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching using mobile devices and the quality of technology integration in lesson plans. A total of 47 preservice teachers in Taiwan who had experienced designing their own lesson plans and teaching materials (ie, eBooks and applications) for teaching using mobile devices (ie, smart phones and tablet PCs) participated in this study. The results showed that four qualitatively different conceptions of teaching using mobile devices were identified, namely “technology support,” “knowledge transmission,” “learning facilitation,” and “supporting students to learn.” This study also found that the teachers who had more constructivist perceptions of teaching using mobile devices, such as facilitating students' understanding in a convenient way or supporting student learning in a more active way, appeared to attain better quality technology integration in their lesson plans than those teachers with traditional conceptions.     

The susceptibility of student evaluation of lecturers to situational variables

To investigate the effect of a number of situational factors on student evaluations of lecturers, a teacher rating form (TRF) was administered to 326 first-year students taking an Introduction to Economics course. A comparison was made of the responses of the following subgroups among the students: full-time versus part-time students; students asked to sign their responses versus those whose responses were left anonymous; students told that their responses were just for feedback to the lecturer versus those told that their responses would be used for promotion, tenure, and salary decisions about the lecturer; students told that the TRFs were sponsored by the student association versus those told that the TRFs were sponsored by the staff association. The factors of sponsor identity (staff or student association) and use of ratings (feedback or decisional) had significant effects on TRF scores; but the effects of the factors of anonymity and full- versus part-time were insignificant. These results are taken as suggestive evidence that conditions of administration can modify student responses to TRFs and that they should be as uniform as possible if TRFs are to be used to compare lecturers.     

Learning to Read and Learning to Teach Reading

The National Curriculum for Initial Teacher Education in English is specific and detailed about the knowledge expected of primary teachers. Shulman (1987) argued that teachers transform this sort of subject content knowledge into something accessible and meaningful to their pupils and this knowledge is described as ‘pedagogic content knowledge’. Medwell et al. (1998) found that effective literacy teachers only knew literacy in the way that they taught it. The research project underpinning this article aimed to explore student teachers' conceptions of the teaching of reading in order to find out what they thought they were teaching when they taught reading. It was thought that the personal reading histories of the students would impact on their developing conceptions of teaching reading. This article traces one student, Gordon, through the year of his PGCE course. In the form of dialogue between Gordon and the researcher developing understanding is articulated. Three different types of reading are described: decoding, making meaning and engaging. Reading is seen as a transformative process, where the reader is both within and outside the text. This has implications both for the conception of reading contained within the curriculum and the way it is implemented within the classroom. A teacher can only introduce children to experiences and ways of reading that are known to herself. It is argued, therefore, that student teachers need to extend the boundaries of their own reading and so appreciate the wide range of ways in which meaning is constructed and readers are created.     

From performativity to professionalism: lecturers’ responses to student feedback

Student evaluation questionnaires are used to measure academics’ performance in most English universities. Academics are assumed to respond professionally to student feedback, making appropriate improvements to their teaching. This paper describes a small-scale study into lecturers’ responses to student feedback. The evidence from semi-structured interviews suggests that the process is complex and is influenced by lecturers’ perceptions, beliefs and feelings. A typology of lecturers’ responses is developed, linked to concepts of performativity and professionalism, and consisting of four possible reactions: shame, blame, tame (the students) and reframe (the negative as something positive).     

University lecturers’ emotional responses to and coping with student feedback: a Finnish case study

Lecturers often find themselves unable to appropriately interpret or deal with student feedback, which may consequently be essential to how they feel about teaching and students. Research into lecturers’ emotional responses to student feedback is scarce, despite the growing use of student feedback as a means of evaluating teachers’ work. This narrative study explores seven lecturers’ responses to student feedback. The lecturers had prior to the study participated in pedagogical training aimed at developing a deep understanding of learning and teaching in higher education. Interviews with the lecturers were conducted and the data was analysed using a categorical approach to narrative analysis. Building on positive psychology, particularly broaden-and-build theory, we consider lecturers’ emotional responses as spirals, and thus had identified upward and downward emotional spirals regarding student feedback. Our findings suggest that pedagogical training may act as an intervention, as it appeared to be meaningful in providing guidance for coping with student feedback. We finally argue that lecturers need to find ways to cope with student feedback as this is essential for their teaching.     

Taking Responsibility for Learning isn't Everything: A case for developing tertiary students' conceptions of learning

This study examines first year university student perceptions of responsibility for their learning, within the context of their conceptions of learning, with a view to meeting two of the objectives of higher education in Australia: teaching students to think and to learn. A questionnaire was distributed to 100 students undertaking at least one first year subject at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in 1998. Their written responses provided information about their conceptions of learning, as well as both direct and indirect indications of their perceptions of responsibility. Results indicated that students held perceptions of personal responsibility for their learning, but that their conceptions of learning were essentially quantitative in nature and were at the lower levels of complexity. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of university teaching and learning, and of meeting the ultimate objectives of higher education.