UMI Staff Publications

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Browsing UMI Staff Publications by Author "Aguti, Jessica N."

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    Academics’ perceptions of good teaching: Assessing the degree of parity with student evaluation of teaching questionnaires
    (Africa Education Review, 2018) Nabaho, Lazarus; Oonyu, Joseph; Aguti, Jessica N.
    There is a dearth of studies on academics’ perceptions of good teaching in transitional economies such as Uganda and the degree of parity between academics’ conceptions of good teaching and the items in the student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires. Against this backdrop, the article reports on a study that explored how academics at Makerere University, Uganda, perceive good teaching and compared the resultant perceptions with the items in the SET questionnaires. The study employed a qualitative approach and data was collected by using semi-structured interviews and reviewing documents. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data from the interviews while the data from the documents was analysed using content analysis. The findings showed that academics perceive good teaching as: being knowledgeable; being student-centred; demonstrating good communication skills; undertaking research-based teaching; demonstrating professionalism; being approachable; and being organised. Finally, the findings demonstrated a convergence between academics’ perceptions of good teaching and most of the items in the SET questionnaires
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    Good teaching: Aligning student and administrator perceptions and expectations
    (Higher Learning Research Communications, 2017-06) Nabaho, Lazarus; Oonyu, Joseph; Aguti, Jessica N.
    Extant literature attests to limited systematic inquiry into students’ perceptions of good teaching in higher education. Consequently, there have been calls for engaging students in construing what makes good university teaching. This interpretivist study investigated final year undergraduate students’ perceptions of good teaching at Makerere University in Uganda. Results suggested that students conceived good teachers as being student centered, demonstrating strong subject and pedagogical knowledge, being approachable, being responsive, being organized, and being able to communicate well. Most perceptions of good teaching by students depend on what the teacher does (the means) rather than affording high quality student learning (an end). The findings further demonstrate a troubling gap between students’ perceptions of good teaching and the items in the university’s student evaluation of teaching. We recommend ensuring congruence between perceptions of good teaching by the students and the items listed in Makerere University’s student evaluation of teaching.
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    Making sense of an elusive concept: Academics’ perspectives of quality in higher education
    (Higher Learning Research Communications, 2017-11) Nabaho, Lazarus; Aguti, Jessica N.; Oonyu, Joseph
    Objective: Since the 1990s studies on how stakeholders in higher education perceive quality have burgeoned. Nevertheless, the majority of studies on perception of quality in higher education focus on students and employers. The few studies on academics’ perceptions of quality in higher education treat academics as a homogeneous group and, therefore, do not point out cross disciplinary perspectives in perceptions of quality. This article explores how academics across six disciplines perceive quality in higher education. Method: The article is anchored in the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected from 14 purposely selected academics at Makerere University in Uganda and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings show that academics perceive quality in higher education as transformation, fitness for purpose, and exceptional. The findings further demonstrate that a stakeholder group or an individual stakeholder can subscribe to a notion of quality in higher education but voice divergent views on its variants. Similarly, the academic discipline, the perceived purpose of higher education, and the problems within a higher education system have an influence on stakeholders’ conception of quality in higher education. Conclusions: From the findings it can be inferred that quality in higher education defies a single definition and that stakeholders’ perceptions of quality do not take place in a vacuum. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: The multidimensional nature of quality and the contestations around it necessitate a multidimensional approach to assuring and assessing it.