What Is an Excellent Teacher? Perspectives of Teachers and Students from a Higher Education Institution in Colombia

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the meanings that teachers and students attribute to the characteristics that they consider to be priorities in an excellent teacher (for example, expertise in the discipline, being a good communicator) and the relationships that establish between them. A questionnaire on the characteristics of excellent teachers was administered to 44 professors and 37 university students from different disciplines (Sciences and Law) and a semi-structured interview on the essential characteristics to define excellence in teaching. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) was used as an analytic strategy. The results indicated that participants consider three main characteristics in this topic: being an effective communicator; being competent in your discipline and being respectful to students. Similarly, for both teachers and students, expertise in the discipline does not exhaust the concept of excellence, but other relational aspects (respect, communication) are equally important. These results coincide with those proposed by other Latin American authors who use both inductive and deductive models on the evaluation of teaching excellence. It is recommended that future studies evaluate the conceptions of students at different times of the academic year and have more representative samples from different disciplines to establish comparisons by areas of knowledge.