Student and Faculty Perceptions of Innovative Teaching

Abstract

This study explored student and faculty perceptions of innovative teaching. Forty-eight faculty and 52 students at a southeastern university participated in interviews during which they were asked to free-list characteristics of innovative teaching. At the second stage of the study, separate lists for faculty and students were developed and e-mailed to participants, which produced faculty and student profiles of perceived characteristics of innovative teaching. Interestingly, although cultural consensus analysis indicated within-sample agreement for the faculty and student samples, the descriptors/characteristics of innovative teaching and their rankings differed for the two samples. Implications for education are discussed.