An IPA analysis of effective teaching activities in China

Abstract

This study aims to explore students' perceptions of teaching activities both inside and outside the classroom. Data were collected in mainland China and a total of 212 valid data were obtained. To explore the detail information of students' perceptions of teaching techniques, importance performance analysis (IPA) method was used to analyze the data. It has been found that internship, practiced-oriented education, and field trip were regarded as the most important experiential learning. Students were satisfied with the learning environment in library, teachers' motivation and group works. A great gap was found between the expectation and performance of internship. The findings of this study may provide useful guidance to both academic and practitioners in terms of enhancing students' learning and skills. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.