This article reports on a piece of research designed to explore education students’ perceptions of what constitutes effective teaching in a modern UK university. Whilst quality assurance processes have long taken into account students’ perceptions of the teaching they receive, their views have not been as influential in the UK as, for example, in the United States where, according to Shevlin et al (2000, p. 38) information from student evaluation of teaching “can be used for faculty decisions about conditions of employment such as salary and promotion”. Paradoxically, whilst a number of fairly recent studies (Vielba & Hillier, 2000, Hillier & Vielba, 2001, Skelton, 2004) focus primarily on teachers’ perceptions of high quality university teaching, the dearth of research relating to higher education (HE) students’ perceptions of effective teaching in the UK and other European countries reported by Reid and Johnston (1999), still applies almost a decade later. This study aims to (a) offer a framework for conceptualising effective teaching in HE based on extant literature, (b) contribute to an emerging body of knowledge relating to students perceptions of effective teaching and (c) relate research findings on what constitutes effective teaching to current higher education pedagogical theory. The empirical study addresses aim (b) and posits the research question: What do students perceive to be effective teaching in their first year in HE?

This case study was undertaken from a phenomenographic perspective (Marton, 1981; Marton & Booth 1997) to examine students’ perceptions of effective teaching in the first year of their study. Data were initially gathered from three focus group comprising 16 students in total. The data collected in this first phase were analysed and grouped into four broad categories: • teaching skills; • subject knowledge of teachers; • personal qualities of teachers and • aspects of teaching that may hinder students’ learning. These categories were then discussed and refined with a further five focus groups comprising a total of 65 students. The data from this second phase were summarised into 33 statements incorporated into a Likert questionnair. The questionnaire was piloted, modified and then distributed to 121 first year undergraduate students. An open-ended question was also added to allow respondents to comment further on effective teaching from their perspective; 36 of the 80 respondents did so.

We summarise definitions of effectiveness gleaned from current literature into four domains: providing a supportive learning environment; having high expectations; scaffolding learning; and providing clear explanations. This provides a framework in which we locate critically our empirical data. Our findings indicate that students rate highest the following characteristics - effective university teachers: • demonstrate excellent knowledge of their subject; • ensure the relevance of information within sessions; • include group activities during sessions; • encourage discussion; • start sessions on time; • are approachable; • are patient; • respect students’ opinions; • are enthusiastic about learning. An analysis of correlations across the dataset was undertaken and we report on correlations with a level of significance of p<.01. The strongest positive correlations are between respecting students’ opinions, enthusiasm and giving examples from teachers’ own experience. We also explore surprising outcomes associated with patience, approachability recognising that students learn at different.