Abstract
What behaviors do students consider as representative of exemplary teaching? Do those representations vary by context? This study evaluates 176 student nominations for a teaching award that asked nominators to articulate specific acts by individual instructors that exemplify “great teaching.” Through an iterative process, our content analysis identified 10 themes, which generally represent socioemotional connection, behaviors relevant to student learning, and instructor characteristics. We also identified two themes—the instructor as a model and as someone whose efforts exceed expectations—that do not appear frequently in existing literature. The quantitative analysis revealed that frequency of themes differed for instructors from traditional liberal arts and sciences disciplines and those from professional programs in the health sciences.
Highlights
The goals of this study were (1) to determine what behaviors students consider to be examples of “great” teaching, (2) to determine whether those behaviors may vary by teaching context, and (3) to examine how this approach, which focuses on students’ perceptions, may relate to other strategies for defining effective teaching
Attempts to define effective teaching have involved a multiplicity of sources and methods, there is considerable overlap among the definitions derived from these sources and approaches
Because ours is a mid-sized university that has an undergraduate curriculum in the tradition of the liberal arts and sciences and professional programs in the health sciences, we were able to gather data from a wider variety of teaching situations than those encompassed in many previous studies, allowing us to compare student perceptions of effective teaching in liberal arts and sciences and in health professions education
Summary
The goals of this study were (1) to determine what behaviors students consider to be examples of “great” teaching, (2) to determine whether those behaviors may vary by teaching context, and (3) to examine how this approach, which focuses on students’ perceptions, may relate to other strategies for defining effective teaching. In a comparison of five studies (Marsh, 1987; Braskamp & Ory, 1994; Murray 1997; Feldman, 1989, 2007; Hativa, Barak, & Simhi 2001), Hativa (2014) notes: In spite of the variation in number and content, several components appear repeatedly in many of these lists (under different titles) Four of these appear in at least four of the five studies: Organization; clarity; engagement/enthusiasm/interest/expression, and rapport/interaction/ concern about and respect of students. Nominations described specific behaviors of specific individuals This examination of students’ perceptions of teaching is based on spontaneous input from students in a variety of learning contexts and allowed us to have students independently identify behaviors that distinguish exemplary teaching. It is likely that the acts that qualify as exemplary teaching may differ in the two contexts
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