University students and their perception of teaching effectiveness. Effects on students’ engagement // La percepción de los estudiantes universitarios acerca de la eficacia docente. Efectos sobre el compromiso de los estudiantes

Abstract

This paper is based on a teacher effectiveness model with six teaching behaviour domains (safe learning climate, efficient classroom management, clarity of instruction, activating teaching, differentiation and teaching – learning strategies). The main purpose has been to examine university student perceptions of teaching effectiveness and its influence on students’ academic engagement. The sample is composed by 782 students from 16 universities. Data have been collected with a transversal design by using the instruments My Teacher Questionnaire and the Academic Engagement Scale, both with a likert format and adapted in the study population. Findings suggest differences concerning teachers’ gender and type of studies: male teachers are perceived by their students as better, and teachers belonging to studies of Arts and Humanities, Social and Legal Sciences and Health Sciences are also perceived more positively. Regarding students’ engagement results confirm the predictive power of classroom management, activating teaching and differentiation domains. The percentage of explained variance is bigger for emotional engagement than for behavioural one. This kind of investigations give us very interesting information in order to identify which aspects of higher education need to be reinforced and which ones, on the contrary, are already positively perceived by students.