Relations between perceptions of the teaching environment and approaches to teaching.

BACKGROUND

Previous research has established substantial relations between students' approaches to study in higher education and their perceptions of the learning environment. More recently, there has been a growing body of research into teachers' approaches to teaching and conceptions of teaching. There has, however, been little research into their perceptions of the teaching context.

AIMS

This study aimed to develop an inventory of university teachers' perceptions of their teaching environment (PTE) and how those perceptions related to their approaches to teaching.

SAMPLES

The interview sample comprised 13 teachers of first year university physics and chemistry courses in two Australian universities, and the survey sample comprised 46 teachers from several Australian universities.

METHODS

In the qualitative study teachers were interviewed about the things they thought affected their teaching. The interviews were content analysed, and an inventory was produced. In the quantitative study, the results of the administration of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory and the PTE were analysed by correlational, factor and cluster analyses.

RESULTS

This exploratory study found systematic relations between the perceptions and approaches. The relations observed suggest that the adoption of a conceptual change and student focused approach to teaching is associated with perceptions that the teacher has control over what is taught and how it is taught, as well as perceptions that the department values teaching and that class size is not too large.

CONCLUSIONS

The paper concludes by arguing that if we are to improve the quality of teaching and learning in higher education we will need to take account of the perceptions teachers have of their teaching context.