Students' Experiences With Good and Poor University Courses

Abstract

This collective case study describes preservice teacher descriptions of good and poor university instruction. A criterion-based sample of 60 education students was selected. They describe and compare the teacher, teaching, and the context of instruction in a 3-part essay. Essay responses were read holistically and then fractured into clauses and submitted to open coding to inductively generate concepts, and organize related concepts into categories and their dimensions. Good and poor instruction was markedly different on all major categories and dimensions. Student conceptions of good and poor instruction emphasized emotions more frequently than academic learning outcomes or personal enjoyment.