Characteristics of effective teachers from the perspective of a private university professors

Authors such as Hargreaves (2003), Bain (2007), Stronge (2007) and Day (2006), among others, have made theoretical and empirical contributions of a quantitative and qualitative nature to try to build an effective or excellent teacher profile. This article was carried out within the framework of an interinstitutional and international research project whose general objective was to know the indicators that the professors and university directors consider to be the most relevant in the excellence or effectiveness of the teaching staff. The research question that guided this project was: What are the most relevant indicators that professors and university directors consider to characterize an "effective teacher"? It is a basic research with a descriptive scope. This paper presents the results of the application of a questionnaire-scale developed and applied at the University of Granada, Spain (Ferncindez-Cruz and Romero, 2010). The questionnaire was applied to a sample of undergraduate and graduate professors from a private university in central Mexico. The results show similarities between what undergraduate and graduate professors consider to be relevant in a professor of excellence, which are consistent with the institutional philosophy. There are also some differences that seem to be related to the different nature of both levels.