Teaching Effectiveness Study – A Thematic Approach

10 Aug Teaching Effectiveness Study – A Thematic Approach

This year, a group of education researchers from Memorial University in Canada released a qualitative study titled Students’ Perceptions of Effective Teaching in Higher Education, where they asked students to “isolate the characteristics they believe are essential to effective teaching” for both face-to-face and online teaching.

College student evaluation surveys have been used as an indicator of teaching effectiveness for many years. In fact, educational researchers use student and faculty surveys to study specific teaching methodologies including group work, online instructional delivery, and the effectiveness of instructor feedback of class work.

Although much has been written recently about students’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness in higher education, particularly with the growth of online instruction, the Memorial University study suggests that almost all of them have been conducted using a pre-established set of measures that utilize likert-scaled questions.

What sets the Memorial University study apart is that they conducted their research using an open-ended questionnaire, in order to receive more detailed and personal responses. Using thematic analysis, the researchers were able to isolate 9 general characteristics that are indicators of effective teaching.  They are listed in order below by number of times mentioned in the survey:

1. Respectful
2. Knowledgeable
3. Approachable
4. Engaging
5. Communicative
6. Organized
7. Responsive
8. Professional
9. Humorous

The most interesting revelation, in my opinion, is that the 9 themes were consistent across both online and face-to-face modes of instruction, although in a slightly different order.  On the online list, the characteristic “Engaging” took a back seat to “Responsive.” Do your perceptions of effective teaching differ from those listed? In what order would you put the characteristics?

I have attached a link to the entire study if you are interested in reading further.

Stay Cool!

Arturo