Teachers’ perceptions about their practices and needs for improvement: A qualitative research project at the University of Padova

Debora Aquario,Anna Serbati,Cristina Mazzucco,Renata Clerici,Lorenza Da Re,Ettore Felisatti,Omar Paccagnella

doi:10.4995/head17.2017.5262

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the results deriving from the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions included in the Prodid Project Questionnaire. Prodid (Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation) is a research project conducted in 2014-2015 at the University of Padova, which aimed at developing strategies to support academic teachers to enhance their teaching competences. The questions were formulated in order to collect teachers’ points of view on excellence and innovation, perceived critical aspects in their teaching practice and the need for support to improve teaching. The analysis was conducted through the use of software Atlas.ti 7 in order to highlight, on the one hand, the strengths and weaknesses of current teaching practices, and on the other hand, the need of support to improve teaching skills and enhance teachers’ professionalism. Findings are presented by illustrating the distributions based on the different Schools in the universities as well as the thematic issues that emerged from teachers’ answers. These results informed the professional development activities organized at the University for junior and senior staff in 2015.

Highlights

The paper is aimed at presenting the results that emerged from the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions collected through the questionnaire used in the research project "Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation" (Prodid)
We could try to consider it as a continuum: for some teachers, it is very strictly linked to internal factors whilst for others, it is mostly connected to external factors
These results are coherent with some frameworks of good teaching (i.e. Domenech, Descals, 2003; Parpala, LindblomYlanne, 2007; Semeraro, 2006a, 2006b; Tigelaar et al, 2004) in which personal and contextual elements are always part of the map of aspects related to good teaching

Summary

Introduction

The paper is aimed at presenting the results that emerged from the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions collected through the questionnaire used in the research project "Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation" (Prodid). The Prodid Project started at the University of Padova in 2014 with the aim of developing strategies to support academic teachers to enhance their teaching competences. One of the actions promoted by the Project concerned the exploration of teaching beliefs and practices through a structured questionnaire administered to all academic teachers in the institution. The questionnaire (Dalla Zuanna et al, 2016) included a final section with three openended questions, aimed at exploring specific aspects of teaching, i.e. the excellence and innovation used by them in their teaching activity, the critical aspects encountered in daily practices and the type of support perceived as necessary for the improvement of the teaching process. The questionnaire (Dalla Zuanna et al, 2016) included a final section with three openended questions, aimed at exploring specific aspects of teaching, i.e. the excellence and innovation used by them in their teaching activity, the critical aspects encountered in daily practices and the type of support perceived as necessary for the improvement of the teaching process. 158 answers about excellence were collected, 468 about critical aspects and 371 support requests

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion