Lecturer teaching styles and student learning involvement in large classes: a Taiwan case study

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have indicated the challenges posed by large classes in promoting quality education and better student learning. This paper argues that empirically exploring other latent variables inherent in the pedagogical triangle of the teacher, the learner and the content hold a number of promises in elucidating the dynamics of large classes as an emerging phenomenon in global higher education. This study intends to examine how university lecturers’ teaching styles moderate the relationship between teaching job and student learning involvement in the context of large classes. A multi-aspect survey was conducted with 446 electrical engineering students from six public universities in Taiwan. The use of inferential statistics revealed marked differences in the lecturers’ teaching job involvement and teaching styles when grouped according to institutional types, positions at their respective universities, and years of service. Notably, among the various teaching styles, the expert-model and delegator teaching styles can significantly predict students’ learning involvement; the formal authority teaching style moderates the relationship between lecturers’ teaching job involvement and students’ learning involvement. General implications are drawn from these findings and are discussed as they apply to the teaching of large classes.

KEYWORDS:

• Large class teaching
• teaching job involvement
• teaching style
• learning involvement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chia Wei Tang

Chia-Wei Tang, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the International Graduate Programme of Education and Human Development, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C. Taiwan. He finished his Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. His research interests include Research Interests: Education Administration, Organizational Behavior and Higher Education.

Meng Jun Shi

Meng Jun Shi finished her Master in Education in Education from the Graduate School of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Allan B. de Guzman

Allan B. de Guzman, Ph.D. handles leadership and management and research courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels in the University of Santo Tomas. As a prolific writer in educational policy studies, adult learning and teacher education, he has extensively published a total of 173 articles in various ISI-listed journals and at the same time serves as editor, board member and reviewer in international journals. He has received various prestigious awards which included the 2007 SEAMEO-JASPER Research Award given by the Government of Canada and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), the 2006 National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP)-Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Achievement Award and the 2011 Metrobank Foundation Search Most Outstanding Teacher Award in Higher Education, among others. He was the recipient of the 2014 Australian Awards Fellowship on Curriculum Leadership at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.