Collection 2011

DIDACTIC PERFORMANCE IN THE UNIVERSITY: AN ANALYSIS AT THE BEHAVIORAL LEVEL

Written by Dana OPRE on . Posted in Volume XV, Nr. 3

ABSTRACT

In the context of the contemporary requirements for quality assurance in higher education, the development of didactic expertise has become a key priority. Optimizing the teaching act requires, nevertheless, the knowledge in advance of the factors that can sustain efficient teaching. In line with such preoccupations, the present study sets out to provide a comparative analysis between expert and veteran with regard to the strategies employed by them in teaching. In order to enhance the accuracy of the analysis, for our study we opted for complementary research methods, thus hoping to ensure the prerequisites for an investigative triumvirate. More precisely, we decided to corroborate the extracted information by three research methods: the individual interview, video recordings of classes, and students’ course evaluations. The processing and interpreting of the collected data revealed that the differences between expert and veteran are reflected both in the number of efficient/inefficient strategies employed by each in the course of the teaching act and in their frequency of use. The results obtained come to probe the extensive and varied practical applicability relative to the main concern of our study – the development of didactic expertise at a university level.

KEYWORDS: didactic performance, novice – expert –veteran teachers, higher education

PAGES:385-401