Understanding good teaching: what do students say?

contributors | abstract | presentation | biographies

Contributors

Jessica Guth and Edward Mowlam (University of Bradford)

Format

Paper presentation

Abstract

This paper reports on the first phase of an empirical research project examining the idea of ‘good teaching’.

Teaching matters in higher education institutions. Although quality teaching encompasses definitions and conceptions that are highly varied and in constant flux, the initiatives aimed at improving the quality of teaching are spreading within institutions.

— (OECD 2010).

The notion of what exactly good teaching is, according to Skelton (2009) a ‘highly contested concept’. While debates about enhancing teaching quality in higher education and improving the skills of higher education teachers generally have been ongoing for some time, there seems to be an assumption that we all know what ‘good teaching’ is. The lead author received the Bradford University Baroness Lockwood Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2010 to carry out a research project in the teaching and learning field. The chosen project seeks to unpick what students and higher education teachers consider to be good teaching. The first phase of the empirical work is an online survey aimed at university students in the UK and the data collected from that survey are presented here. The results are first examined in the current general literature drawn from the teaching and learning field before considering how the findings apply in the specific disciplinary context of law teaching.

Presentation

Short biographies of panel members

Jessica Guth is a Lecturer in European and Employment Law. She has an LLB (Hons) degree from Leicester University, completed the LPC at Nottingham Trent and an MA in Social Research from the University of Leeds and also holds a PGC in Higher Education Practice from the University of Bradford. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2010 was awarded the Baroness Lockwood Award for Distinguished Teaching by the University of Bradford. She is a member of the Law Teacher Editorial Board. Her research interests include European free movement of person’s law, EU citizenship, equality law and legal education.

Edward Mowlam graduated from Bradford University Law School with a first class LLB (Hons) in July 2010. He is providing research assistance on the current project. Additional research interests include all aspects of European Union law, including the issues surrounding EU citizenship and free movement rights which shall be the focus of a PhD starting in January 2011.

Last Modified: 24 February 2011