Correlates of business students' perceptions of teaching excellence

Date of Completion

January 1996

Keywords

Education, Administration|Education, Business|Education, Higher

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

The focus of this study is business administration college students' perceptions of teaching excellence and selected correlates of these preceptions, notably gender, temperament, and declared major or concentration.^ Recently teaching quality in higher education has come under increased scrutiny and criticism. Literature exploring teaching excellence in business colleges is uncommon. Specifically, knowledge about perceptions of excellent teaching among business students is conspicuously absent from the literature. The principle of assigning importance to student criteria is directly derived from Total Quality Management (TQM). Therefore, a deeper understanding of the variety of perceptions of teaching excellence held by students might prove valuable to academic divisions attempting TQM programs.^ A first challenge to involve academic divisions more fully in TQM is research which examines students' perceptions of good teaching. Since all students are not alike, such research must also find a way to account for their differences in perceptions of teaching excellence.^ The Student Criteria of Teaching Excellence Inventory (SCTEI), a 26 item Likert scale instrument developed by the investigator and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) were administered to 354 undergraduate business students' at a New England private business specialty college. The sixteen MBTI types were collapsed into four temperaments: Guardian, Artisan, Rational and Idealist (Kiersey & Bates, 1984).^ Applications of rank-order statistics and MANOVA, along with analysis of variance, Scheffe. tests and regression analysis revealed that students regarded as excellent those professors who communicated effectively, evaluated fairly, had a thorough knowledge of the subject, and were concerned with student learning.^ Multivariate analyses revealed significant differences according to gender and, to a greater extent, according to temperament and major.^ The findings suggest that students have some valuable input in defining teaching excellence. A first step in adopting TQM in academic divisions would be to understand their perceptions.^ Further study involving samples from other types of colleges and other specialties was recommended. Also recommended was research involving professors who attempt to identify perceptions of teaching excellence among their students at the beginning of classes and who make a conscious effort to engage in teaching behaviors appropriate to these perceptions. ^

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