Quality of teaching in higher education: reviewing teaching behaviour through classroom observations

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations (Spearman’s rho) between domains of teaching behaviour, student engagement scale, and class size (N = 203)

	1		2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Cronbach’s α		M	SD	Mean inter-scale correlation
1. Safe and stimulating learning climate	-									.78	3.56		.41	.31
2. Efficient organisation	.49**		-							.45	3.18		.45	.40
3. Clear and structured instructions	.47**		.53**	-						.68	2.83		.49	.48
4. Intensive and activating teaching	.33**		.50**	.68**	-					.77	2.44		.63	.51
5. Differentiation	.06		.15*	.22**	.38**	-				.73	1.32		.47	.23
6. Teaching learning strategies	.20**		.33**	.49**	.64**	.33**	-			.83	2.27		.70	.40
7. Total score for teaching skills	.49**		.61**	.83**	.89**	.42**	.79**	-	.61**	-	90.67		14.44	-
8. Student engagement	.32**		.39**	.47**	.56**	.27**	.50**	-	-	.85	2.92		.66	-
9. Class size^a		.00	−.23**	−.18**	−.33**	−.08	−.20**	−.25**	−.27**	-	-		-	-

*p <.05 (two-tailed), **p <.01 (two-tailed).

^aClass size was coded as follows: 0 = small class (0–30 students), 1 = large class (˃30 students).

Table 2. Observed domain-wise teaching behaviour categorised as insufficient, sufficient, or excellent

	Domain	Criteria (% of lecturers) (N = 203)
		Insufficient (< 2.5)	Sufficient (≥2.5–<3.5)	Excellent (≥3.5)
Foundational	Safe and stimulating learning climate	0	31.5	68.4
	Efficient organisation	1.5	66.5	32
	Clear and structured instructions	26.1	65	8.9
Advanced	Intensive and activating teaching	52.7	42.4	4.9
	Teaching learning strategies	58.1	38.5	3.4
	Differentiation	95.1	4.9	0
	Total score for teaching skills	39.4	58.1	2.5

Table 3. Results of the independent-sample t-test for four teaching domains and the student engagement domain by class size

	Class size		95% CI for Mean Difference	t	df	p-value
	Small classes (n = 116)	Large classes (n = 87)
	M (SD)	M (SD)
Efficient organisation	3.27 (.46)	3.06 (.41)	.08,.33	3.34	201	.001
Clear and structured instructions	2.90 (.48)	2.73 (.49)	.04,.31	2.51	201	.013
Intensive and activating teaching	2.61 (.60)	2.20 (.59)	.24,.58	4.86	201	.000
Teaching learning strategies	2.39 (.71)	2.11 (.65)	.09,.47	2.89	201	.004
Student engagement	3.06 (.69)	2.72 (.59)	.15,.51	3.65	201	.000