Characteristics of Good teachers in Engineering education in India
Assuring and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning is currently of major concern. It is widely known and accepted fact that the teaching has a great impact on the learning processes of the student. Recent research suggest that all teacher thinks they are good teachers(Prince 2006),however that not all student think every college teacher is a good teacher. It is universally accepted that the teacher is the most important component of education (Sikora1997).Varies and Beijaard (1999) state that good teaching is effective teaching, that is, teaching that leads to high student achievement. The question “What makes a good teacher?” is just about the most important in education. . . .We do know some of the answers to the question . . . and our most urgent objective should be to establish the conditions under which the best existing practice can be spread more widely. (Lord Boyle, Introduction to Kemble 1971, pp.9, 11).
Literature Review-Some researches argue that good teaching is a matter of engaging students and thus content knowledge is and students ‘understanding (Schifter, 1998) is very much important.
Most studies stress knowledge and organization of subject matter, skill in instruction and personal qualities and attitude useful to working with student. If the mastering of a good subject matter and emphasize, clarify, point out relationship, can motivate students, pose and edict questions and are reasonable, imaginative and fair in managing the details of learning(In the Craft ofTeaching,Eble,1988)Many studies have investigated effective teacher or good teacher characteristics. As Korthagen (2004) pointed out that trying to put the essential qualities of a good teacher into words is a difficult undertaking. Nonetheless, many researchers (Brophy, 1979; Guskey, 1985; Beishuzien, Kutnick and Jules, 1993; Hof, VanPutten, Bouwmeester and Asscher, 2001; Kiziltepe, 2002; Korthagen, 2004; Buchel and Edwards,2005; Yates, 2005; Elnicki and Cooper, 2005; Küçükahmet, 2006; Kelly, 2007) have also investigated this issue. Most of the research regarding the perception of the good teacher has pointed to two important components of the ideal teacher: professional knowledge, both of the subject taught and of didactic knowledge and an appropriate personality (Arnon and Reichel, 2007). On the other hand there are also some researchers investigated effective or good or ideal teacher characteristics. Minor, Witcher; James and Onwuegbuzie (2002), for example, purposed to examine preservice teachers’ perceptions of characteristics of effective teachers.
After going through a variety of literature and questionnaire used in different educational institution for student evaluation as well as teacher evaluation it is found that most of studies have only single effect i.e. either they are concerned with the view of faculties member or the student but very little work done in this area, one Pilot Study done by Dr.Bani Bhatacharya,2004 in India, where student,were compared against data gathered on the teachers, and therefore, I chose this as my field of inquiry.
We have identify three different aspect of a good teacher which basically deals with the given phenomena-
1- Cognitive level (Pedagogical Knowledge and competency, instructional attributes).
2- Affective domain(Personal attributes)
3- Skill(Professional attributes)
Objective of the study- The present study has some objectives. It can be listed as—
1-The present study will analyse and investigate student, teachers as well as alumni’s perception of good teaching.
2-Identifying the characteristics of good teachers.
3-Selecting the indicators from among the characteristics that determine the quality of teachers.
4-Measure the gap between Expectations of student and experience (actual delivery of instruction).
5-To determine the qualities of good teaching that are best for instructional purposes. Quality of instruction refers to the variables of clarity and the structure of instruction.
Significance of study
Concerns have increased over the years regarding raising standards of professional training and academic qualifications in order to improve teachers ‘effectiveness (Buchbergeret al., 2000). For that reason, the researcher hopes that the findings from this present study might encourage the Ministry of Education to train teachers as professionalsin order to improve educational effectiveness, this study encourages policy makers in education and strategic education planners to explore the “best practices” used elsewhere. Itis also important to state that this current study contributes to the understanding of educational effectiveness in engineering education in India.
Methodology
This part explains the research methodology proposed to use in this study. This is followed by a description of the research design, population, sampling, and samplesize; it also involves a compact description of the research instruments used in this study. This study employed both qualitative andquantitative techniques. Precisely, the methodology used in this research to reach conclusions revealed the strength of this research work. The study is empirical; although it will use documents and observation, it relied heavily on data from interviews and questionnaires. This study is a process of reasoning which draws a general conclusion from a set of premises based mainly on experience and empirical evidence (Strauss, 1987; Miles &Hube).
Design- qualitative research focus provided the methodological basis for this study designed to identify the characteristics of a good teacher. Past researchers have found the method of qualitative research to be one of both substance and validity when concluding results to a study. The qualitative design will employed Most educational research methods are descriptive (Cohen &Manion, 1994).
Sample and Sample design- The Systematic Random Sampling design will be used to collect the data for proposedstudy. Teachers, student and alumni from the various Engineering Institution in India will the sampling unit.
Instrument- Likert type of scale with 7 rating scale will be used to collect the data through questionnaire. The questionnaire will be three types each referring to student, teacher and alumni.
Variables- The dependent variables for this study will be the quality of the teachers which will be divide in three different area Cognitive domain, affective domain and skills.
Independent Variables- Teaching experience, learning experience, effectiveness of instruction.
Control Variable-The control variable employed in the study include the following categories: Age,sex,choice of educational institution, specific domain (as we are proposed to work on engineering education.
Sources of data collection- Primary source of data will be collected from questionnaire and secondary source of the data will be collected for national and international publications, journals, books, and internet.
Scope and Limitation of the Study- Present study has the utility in formulating theoretical review, organizational input for participatory and empirical investigation examining the differentials impact of good teaching in the higher education in India. The study will help to identify the research gap in proposed area. By doing this study, the researcher can participate in the global debate of educational improvement and students’ academic achievement from the viewpoint of a developing country.
Since the proposed study will focus on the characteristics of good teachers in engineering education in India, there are other domain which have the same emphasis but they are not covered under this study due to broad area of proposed study,time,fund and in order to achieve even and specialized responses from a particular domain.