Leadership and performance in higher education: a comparative analysis in Portugal and Spain

Abstract

In the last decade, many changes have taken place in the field of university education. Professional practice demands that future graduates design and market products, preserve the interests of their clients, take responsibilities in public administration or participate in politics. Universities must educate professionals so that they become social leaders, consultants, advisers, entrepreneurs; in short, people with the capacity to solve problems. Professors recognise this situation; however, they do not always apply participatory teaching styles to develop these capacities in the students. This paper offers a tool to evaluate the implementation of a transformational teaching style in the classroom, developing joint work between professors and students. Its main contribution is that it assessed several teaching techniques based on this transformational style. This research was carried out in Portugal and Spain.

Keywords:

• leadership
• performance of the professor
• transformational teaching
• higher education

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the Instituto de Artes Visuais, Design e Marketing (IADE), Portugal, and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain.