Students’ Perception Towards Teaching Practices Among Lecturers With Professional Engineer Certification: A Qualitative Approach

Abstract

Engineering bachelor’s degree programmes in Malaysia require up to thirty percent (30%) of lecturers in their faculty to have professional engineering certificates. However, the teaching approach by these professionally certified lecturers, compared to those who were not certified engineers has not yet been fully investigated. This study utilised a qualitative approach and selected eight (8) engineering students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Civil Engineering in a local university. The aim is to explore these students’ perception of the teaching approaches implemented by the senior lecturers with professional engineer certification, each having vast experience and skills in engineering. The university students were interviewed using an online video conferencing service. The results of this study were then thematically analysed. The results revealed that their lecturers’ mode of teaching usually involves the formation of groups for assignments or projects in the class, besides daily teaching using slides. By doing assignments in groups, it is believed that students will have a better understanding of the subjects. However, most of the students revealed that they have problems performing the assignments, despite realising the importance and advantages of these group assignments. Working together on an assignment would create good team spirit and instill good communication skills. They understood the purpose of pursuing their bachelor’s degree at the university and hope that they could secure their lecturer support and other platforms like YouTube to increase their knowledge in the respective subjects. The students also suggested that the university and their faculty could provide sharing sessions from other experts in engineering as well as improve the facilities, and Wi-Fi connection on the university campus.