Students experiences and perceptions of good teaching: in-depth teaching and understanding

Author(s):

Kyriaki Doumas

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 10B, Student Perspectives

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-12

14:45-16:15

Room:

B3 332

Chair:

Andreja Istenic Starcic

Contribution

How do students experience teaching in literature and physics in the first, second and third grade of high school? What do they perceive as important in their learning relationship to the subject matter, and what contributes to their feelings of enjoyment and happiness in a teaching period? How does the relation to the differing school subjects (humanities or natural sciences) vary with the age of the student? Starting from these exploratory questions, the aim of an interview investigation was to capture the meanings that students themselves attributed to the establishment of good pedagogical relations to the subject matter. Participants in the investigation were Greek students from classes chosen on the basis of reports on good teaching. This article will focus on various expressions and meanings of pedagogical quality described by the students' in relation to in-depth elaboration and understanding of the subject matter. Furthermore, the results will be discussed in connection to Greek philosophical traditions and the concept of eros. As the purpose was first of all to highlight the internal relations between teachers-students-object of knowledge, the thoughts and experiences of the students considered being appropriate primary source. A qualitative approach to investigating students' experiences as they were expressed to me through semi-structured and in-depth interviews was adopted. Contextual analysis (Svensson 1983, 1985, 1994) developed in close relation to the phenomenographic tradition was the methodology used to analyse my material. The process of this approach is interpretative and analytical.

Method

Briefly, the process of analysis was first to attain a deep understanding of the participants' utterances and then to select those "moments" which are most relevant to the research questions and give meaning to a larger part of the material. By comparing I ascertain similarities and differences among the cases (the participants) in order to discern main features and main relations of the investigated phenomenon and by this to make clear its character. Three central and interconnected aspects were distinguished through the analysis of students' interviews: In-depth elaboration and understanding of the subject matter. Dialogical interrelatedness and reflection. Teacher's rhetoric: logos, pathos and ethos.

Expected Outcomes

The three descriptions above signify the character of the appreciated pedagogical experience. This paper will focus on various expressions of the investigating pedagogical quality described by the students' as in-depth teaching and understanding.

References

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Author Information

Kyriaki Doumas

Lund University

Department of Education

Stockholm

186

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