Improving teaching in higher education: student and teacher perspectives

Using a phenomenological approach, the study sets out to discover whether it can derive a concept of good teaching from a group of university lecturers and the extent to which it compares and contrasts with a corresponding student concept of good teaching. The subjects were all mature adults, usually postgraduate, and often practising professionals with a wide experience of the university system. A single concept of what the students thought of as good teaching, and two categories ('pre-existing' and 'reflective') of what the teachers thought of as good teaching were developed. The extent to which these concepts overlap-and fail to overlap even after reflection-is used to discuss the importance of developing appropriate metacognitive strategies in human adult learning so that each group (teachers and learners) becomes more aware of what the other is attempting to do. The importance of out-of-class behaviours is seen as particularly valuable in this respect.