Engineering students and their perceptions of good teaching

Abstract

This article seeks to deepen the knowledge of the characteristics of the good university teaching staff from the vision of its students. To achieve this purpose, an investigation was carried out to study and analyze the opinions and perceptions of students enrolled in the 1st and 2nd semester of the Systems Engineering Career of a private university in Montevideo, Uruguay. The field work took place during the 2014-2015 school year from a mixed approach that integrated quantitative and qualitative methodologies to achieve a greater understanding about the object of study. The first stage of the research was marked by the analysis of a database with 658 Satisfaction Surveys; In a second moment, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 59 students and, in the third place, 6 interviews were carried out in depth. The main findings show that the students consider that the good teaching staff is one who provides an agile, participative and practical teaching and develops pedagogical mediation based on participatory didactic strategies that promote meaningful learning and that comprehensively incorporates professional knowledge. The students expect the good teaching staff to awaken in them the curiosity to learn and develop knowledge that is perceptibly integrated into the professional tasks. According to the vision of the students, the teaching strategies used by the good university teaching staff have a direct impact on the learning outcomes and are integrated into the professional knowledge in the contextualized theoretical and practical activities. It would seem that good teachers are those who combine professional knowledge, methodological knowledge and personal skills. The motivation and passion of the good teaching staff will facilitate the incorporation of the knowledge on the part of the students, and will positively influence in the future exercise of the profession.