scholarly journals Quality of teaching in Kosovo’s higher education institutions: Viewpoints of institutional leaders and lecturers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dugagjin Sokoli ◽  
Nada Trunk Širca ◽  
Andrej Koren

BACKGROUND: Due to the continuous shift being experienced in the higher education landscape, the quality of teaching had become an issue to be discussed from different perspectives by the concerned stakeholders. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the research on the quality of teaching and identify the characteristics and best practices on supporting, developing, and improving Kosovo’s higher educational system’s effectiveness by improving the quality of teaching. METHODS: The paper used qualitative paradigms in research. The study targeted professors at Kosovo universities from two public universities and two private Colleges where focus group interviews, individual interviews, and documentation content analysis were obtained. RESULTS: According to professors’ opinions, the research results show that the quality of teaching is related to the research of professors, and it depends on the experience of the teacher, knowledge transfer, technology use, and degree of professor qualification. Other key factors determining the teaching quality are communication, motivation, pedagogy, cooperation, and adequate implementation of planned activities. CONCLUSIONS: Kosovo should establish appropriate mechanisms and policies for evaluating professors’ performance and make their selection and re-election based on these performance indicators and not only based on formal documents.

Author(s):  
O Liuta ◽  
S Lieonov ◽  
A Artyukhov ◽  
M Sushko-Bezdenezhnykh ◽  
O Dluhopolskyi

Purpose. To determine the level of students interest in internal quality assurance, particularly in passing the survey and changing the teaching quality level and improving teachers pedagogical skills. Methodology. For the data collection, a questionnaire was used which included closed-end questions on the quality of teaching and open questions in terms of comments and recommendations of higher education students on the quality of teaching and several questions concerning the share of classes in the discipline attended by the students, ECTS scores, received by students from the relevant disciplines and the average score for the entire period of study. Findings. Sumy State University (SSU) introduced an online survey of students as the main consumers of educational services regarding the quality of teaching disciplines. Over the last 3 academic years, there has been an increase in the number of teachers whose activities are evaluated by students. There has been an increase in the number of teachers who, according to students, show excellence in teaching, which is a positive trend. If in the 20172018 academic year the number of such teachers in SSU was 57people, then in the 20192020 academic year, it increased by 35% to 77 people. Quality level Above average was determined for 120 teachers in the 20172018 academic year, and in the 20192020 academic year, their number increased by 30% and amounted to 156 people. It is noteworthy that in the 20192020 academic year compared to 20172018, there is a reduction in the number of teachers from 71 to 66 people (7%), who demonstrated the level of teaching Low. Originality. Survey of students on the quality of teaching educational components, on the one hand, allows monitoring students satisfaction with methods used by the teacher in training and communicating with students, and on the other hand, it is a method to control the institutions authority over the educational service quality and the HEIs mission implementation. It also indicates an increase in students interest in participating in higher educations internal quality assurance. An important factor influencing the positive dynamics of the teaching quality level is that each semester teachers receive a detailed analysis of students answers with a visual display for each questionnaire, as well as their comments and suggestions for teaching the relevant discipline through the information service Personal teachers office based on the results of the survey. Practical value. According to the analysis results of the received information, managerial decisions can be developed and implemented to improve the content and practice of educational components implementation, improving the professional skills of research and teaching staff, advancement of best pedagogical practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 618-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Sutherland ◽  
Philip Warwick ◽  
John Anderson ◽  
Mark Learmonth

How does quality of teaching, assessment, and feedback influence satisfaction with overall course quality for students taking business school (BS) undergraduate courses in the United Kingdom? Are these teaching-related determinants of satisfaction in BS courses different to those in nonbusiness school (NBS) courses? These questions currently figure prominently in U.K. higher education owing to the introduction of a “Teaching Excellence Framework,” linking student fee increases to levels of reported student satisfaction. The elevation of student satisfaction as a determinant of higher education delivery raises important questions about the possible longer term consequences for teaching practices. To explore these, we test three sets of hypotheses relating to how teaching, assessment, and feedback quality affects satisfaction in the BS context, as well as comparative differences (i.e., BS vs. NBS students). We draw from over 1 million responses recorded in the U.K.’s National Student Survey. We find questions related to perceived teaching quality are important satisfaction drivers for BS students. In terms of differences with NBS students, we find intellectual stimulation appears of lesser importance to BS students, whereas fair assessments are of greater importance. BS students, we argue, exhibit a stronger orientation toward “instrumental” learning. We consider policy implications.


2016 ◽  
pp. 207-227
Author(s):  
Harriet Thindwa

Students are the future of any country. They are the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. If teaching quality is undermined, so is the country's overall education system, and therefore, so is a country's future. In this chapter, the role of technology in improving quality of teaching in higher education, which has been declining over the years internationally including in the US, is reviewed. Databases EBSCOhost and Academic Search Complete were employed in this review. Empirical studies have revealed that e-learning technologies such as Moodle improve teaching quality. Given the advancement in technology, institutions of higher learning the world over are challenged to embrace technology as a strategy to engage students and enhance learning.


Author(s):  
Harriet Thindwa

Students are the future of any country. They are the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. If teaching quality is undermined, so is the country's overall education system, and therefore, so is a country's future. In this chapter, the role of technology in improving quality of teaching in higher education, which has been declining over the years internationally including in the US, is reviewed. Databases EBSCOhost and Academic Search Complete were employed in this review. Empirical studies have revealed that e-learning technologies such as Moodle improve teaching quality. Given the advancement in technology, institutions of higher learning the world over are challenged to embrace technology as a strategy to engage students and enhance learning.


Author(s):  
Joshua Weidlich ◽  
Marco Kalz

AbstractIn 2020, Higher Education institutions were pressed to swiftly implement online-based teaching. Among many challenges associated with this, lecturers in Higher Education needed to promptly and flexibly adapt their teaching to these circumstances. This investigation adopts a resilience framing in order to shed light on which specific challenges were associated with this sudden switch and what helped an international sample of Higher Education lecturers (N = 102) in coping with these challenges. Results suggest that Emergency Remote Teaching was indeed challenging and quality of teaching was impeded but these effects are more nuanced than expected. Lecturers displayed instructional resilience by maintaining teaching quality despite difficulties of Emergency Remote Teaching and our exploration of predictors shows that personality factors as well as prior experience may have supported them in this. Our findings may contribute to the emerging literature surrounding Emergency Remote Teaching and contributes a unique resilience perspective to the experiences of Higher Education lecturers.


Author(s):  
In Hwa Shim ◽  
In Ok Sim

Maintaining a high quality of work and life can be a challenge for working adults. Most working adults do not have the opportunity to participate in activities that promote physical and emotional health. Working adults need to improve their potential to maintain life satisfaction and prevent a variety of stresses and physical illnesses. Recent research has suggested the effective value of art participation through choral activities for many people. However, little is known about what working adults experience through choir activities. In particular, research focusing on effects of choir participation on healthy people is lacking, and there is insufficient fundamental evidence about how to develop choral programs to improve the quality of healthy people’s lives. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of working adults in the process of regularly participating in choral activities. Our research question is “What experiences did the participants gain from the choir activities?”. Data was collected in three focus group interviews and additional individual interviews with 15 participants. Four themes emerged from this study: “self-improvement and sense of accomplishment”, “interaction and harmony”, “discovery of positive self-identity”, and “healing and happiness”. These findings could encourage choir activity in working adults and suggest that they can be applied as lifelong activities that can improve their quality of life with social interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 342-346
Author(s):  
Siri Wiig ◽  
Peter D Hibbert ◽  
Jeffrey Braithwaite

Abstract Patient and family involvement is high on the international quality and safety agenda. In this paper, we consider possible ways of involving families in investigations of fatal adverse events and how their greater participation might improve the quality of investigations. The aim is to increase awareness among healthcare professionals, accident investigators, policymakers and researchers and examine how research and practice can develop in this emerging field. In contrast to relying mainly on documentation and staff recollections, family involvement can result in the investigation having access to richer information, a more holistic picture of the event and new perspectives on who was involved and can positively contribute to the family’s emotional satisfaction and perception of justice being done. There is limited guidance and research on how to constitute effective involvement. There is a need for co-designing the investigation process, explicitly agreeing the family’s level of involvement, supporting and preparing the family, providing easily accessible user-friendly language and using different methods of involvement (e.g. individual interviews, focus group interviews and questionnaires), depending on the family’s needs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Jiří Rybička ◽  
Petra Čačková

One of the tools to determine the recommended order of the courses to be taught is to set the prerequisites, that is, the conditions that have to be fulfilled before commencing the study of the course. The recommended sequence of courses is to follow logical links between their logical units, as the basic aim is to provide students with a coherent system according to the Comenius' principle of continuity. Declared continuity may, on the other hand, create organizational complications when passing through the study, as failure to complete one course may result in a whole sequence of forced deviations from the recommended curriculum and ultimately in the extension of the study period. This empirical study deals with the quantitative evaluation of the influence of the level of initial knowledge given by the previous study on the overall results in a certain follow-up course. In this evaluation, data were obtained that may slightly change the approach to determining prerequisites for higher education courses.


2014 ◽  
Vol 484-485 ◽  
pp. 239-241
Author(s):  
Shao Lin Wang

Higher education and traditional forms of teaching and management system are difficult to adapt to the individualized requirements and the cultivation of personalized talents. higher education information technology is a new trend in the world, and it plays an important role in promoting universities personalized education and innovation, training personnel, improving the integrated use of the excellent teaching resources, deepening teaching management reform and improving the teaching management level, enhancing teaching quality of advanced manufacturing engineering. Colleges and universities should attach great importance to the building and information on the quality of the teaching environment of information technology and promote information technology in education for major of manufacturing engineering.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document