Perceptions of teaching in students and in teachers' point of view: Implications on students' learning skills in higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the educational perceptions of students and teachers in portuguese Higher Education. 20 hours of lessons were analyzed during a curricular unit of a course of a Higher Education Institution. The information was recorded on a descriptive grid for classroom observation and also obtained from interviews, of a semi-structured nature to the teacher and focus group to five of the students. We used content analysis with input from webQDA software. According to the results, teachers and students have different perceptions of how teaching is managed. A strategic orientation of student-centred teaching requires the promotion of a variety of learning environments, flexibility, capacity of valuing students' participation, including tasks and activities that develop cognitive skills of higher level. These results show that, in similar contexts, the teacher-centred teaching, correlated with the interaction among students, can be a learning improvement strategy.