Professional paper
Students’ Position Regarding the Quality of the Teaching Process at the University
Jasminka LEDIĆ
Vesna KOVAČ
Branko RAFAJAC
Abstract
This paper presents the results of research on “The Quality
of Teaching in Higher Education”, exploring students’ status
at the university, with the emphasis on their position in the
teaching process. The questionnaire was based on 15 higher
education quality criteria, and the participants (203 teachers
and 469 students from the University of Rijeka) assessed the
difference between “ideal” teaching (assessment of the
relevance and contribution of each criterion to successful
university teaching), and “real” teaching (the extent to which
every criterion is respected in actual teaching at the
university. The results show a statistically significant difference
between “ideal” and “real” in seven (from 15) criteria,
according to the teachers. According to the students, “ideal”
and “real” differ statistically on every criterion. Indicative
results with significant implications could be perceived when
“ideal” and “real” were comparedbetween students and
teachers. The Mann-Whitney U test shows statistically
significant differences according to 7 criteria in ”ideal”
teaching. However, when “real” teaching is assessed by
teachers and students, a statistically significant difference is
found in every criterion. Qualitative results (teachers’ and
students’ comments) mostly point at “external” problems
which negatively influence teaching. However, the analysis of
the students’ comments shows that a part of the problem
could be primarily connected with teachers. The qualitative
results support the statistical tests, and it might be considered
that most of the teachers do not understand the importance
of or neglect communication with students, do not show
interest for students and their problems, and are not ready to
help the students to a sufficient extent.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
20461
URI
Publication date:
31.10.1998.
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