Recent changes in the role of Spanish lecturers in economics and business: an empirical analysis based on their own perspectives

ABSTRACT

In recent years many changes have taken place in the Spanish University system and, as a consequence, the university lecturer’s role has evolved and a new teaching style prevails. The present paper focuses on University teachers of Economics and Business studies. It explores the teachers’ perception about the new methodologies that they have implemented, the extent to which the process of change has modified their way of working and, finally, the benefits and drawbacks encountered. Moreover, we examine whether differences of opinion arise depending on the distinct personal and professional characteristics of each teacher. The results reveal that most of the methodological changes undergone by the teachers stem more from the new profile of their students than by regulatory obligations. There is a unanimous opinion that the time and effort dedicated to teaching is now notably greater and that it is necessary to develop a rigorous system of teaching evaluation.

KEYWORDS:

• Transformed role of teachers
• European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
• economics education
• university teaching
• teaching methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Once the replies were analyzed, problems with the expected frequencies were found in some contingency tables as they were too small and, therefore, a group by levels was applied. This measure could help to solve most of the problems arising in the frequencies of contingency tables, allowing us to ensure the robustness of the analysis results with the chi-square statistic.

2 Standardized residuals are available upon request, but they have not been shown due to space limitations.