Students’ Conceptions of Good Teaching in Engineering Education of Bangladesh

Abstract

The objective of this study centered on identifying and classifying the conceptions of good teaching held by students from engineering background. In order to examine these conceptions, a qualitative research approach, phenomenography, was used as it places emphasis on the importance of people's experiences of the phenomenon. A pool of 15 students from five engineering universities within Bangladesh, were interviewed to explore their different ways of understanding and conceptions regarding good teaching. From the analysis of the interviews, six conceptions of good teaching along with two dimensions of variations among the conceptions were revealed. These conceptions include: managing classroom effectively, simplifying the concept, teacher-students communication, linking theory to practice, engaging students and linking the subject to real life. Three dimensions were used to examine the variation that exist among these conceptions, which include: the role of teachers in good teaching, the role of students in good teaching and the motivation factor for learning. These findings contribute to our understanding of good teaching practices, describing it from the viewpoint of engineering students. The results also showed that much as conveying the right information to students is concerned, teachers have to also focus on improving their classroom administrative work as well as directing their effort to a more practical oriented and industrial focus teaching. The relationship among these conceptions and previously identified conceptions of good teaching by earlier researchers is also discussed in depth in this thesis.