CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON IMPROVING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN ENGINEERING HIGHER EDUCATION- A STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The ultimate criterion of effective teaching is effective and successful learning. The paper focuses on an ascertaining research that investigates the students’ opinion about the effective teaching characteristics through a survey based on a questionnaire that was sent to 233 first year students from Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, attending classes to prepare for a teaching career. The revised set of characteristics of effective teaching according to the Griffith University’s PRO-Teaching project (Klopper, C., Drew, S., 2015) presented originally as ‘eight dimensions of good teaching’ (Nulty, 2001) provided a structured framework that has been the basis for our study in students’ evaluation of effective teaching. The data collection procedure was based on a survey with a 5-point Likert scale and an open-ended question with comment box. The students in the contemporary educational system prefer interactive teaching strategies, suitable personal characteristics of teachers and a good teacher-student relationship .