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Faculty and Students’ Perceptions of Excellent Teaching: A Study in Ecuador Using the Teacher Behavior Checklist

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Abstract

Educational reform in Ecuador has created a need to recognize and assess excellent teaching from the perspective of both students and faculty. This study collected information on perceptions about excellent teachers in a sample of 183 faculty members and 470 students from a private university in Quito, Ecuador. We used an online Spanish version of the Teacher Behavior Checklist (TBC). Results showed that teachers and students held similar conceptions of excellent teachers: being respectful, confident, passionate, and effective communicator were the most valued attributes. We performed additional analyses comparing full-time and part-time professors’ responses. Also, we conducted comparisons based on students’ responses in their first and final semesters. We did not find significant differences in most of the TBC characteristics based on teachers’ positions at the university. However, we did find differences based on students’ number of years at college. Altogether, this study adds to the literature about context-specific and universal qualities of excellence in teaching.

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Data is available upon request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

This study was supported by the General Research Department at the Universidad de Las Américas (Quito, Ecuador).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), Redondel del Ciclista, Antigua Vía a Nayón, Campus UDLAPark, 170124, Quito, Ecuador

    Carlos Hermosa-Bosano

  2. Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23284, USA

    Jared W. Keeley

Authors
  1. Carlos Hermosa-Bosano
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  2. Jared W. Keeley
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Contributions

The first author was responsible for the study conception, design, data collection, analysis, and manuscript writing. The first draft of the manuscript was written by the first author. The second author commented and wrote on the first draft. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Carlos Hermosa-Bosano.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hermosa-Bosano, C., Keeley, J.W. Faculty and Students’ Perceptions of Excellent Teaching: A Study in Ecuador Using the Teacher Behavior Checklist. Trends in Psychol. 29, 752–765 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-021-00087-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-021-00087-x

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