QUALITY ENGINEERING TEACHING FOR QUALITY ENGINEERING LEARNING

Objectives:
The teacher personality represents one of the most important factors when we study the quality of the educational process.The aim of our recent survey (2016) was to make the outcomes of an analysis of engineering student essays "What makes a good engineering teacher" available on a convenient form to those who might be interested, i.e. engineering teachers and faculty management. We also intended to compare results of this survey with a similar one we had conducted in 2007.

Methodology:
The method of a qualitative analysis was used in both cases. The engineering students were asked to write a 500-1000 word essay where they expressed their opinions on characteristics of a good HE teacher. The main attributes of a good engineering teacher were derived after 3 phases of qualitative evaluation. After all relevant semantic formations were registered and assorted and the synonyms were set aside, all the characteristics were included into 3 categories: teacher expertise, human qualities and didactic and presentation qualities. The level of consensus was expressed as: strong consensus - referred to in virtually all the essays, good consensus – referred to in more than half essays and some consensus – referred in several of the shortlisted essays.

Research Results:
Survey I (2007)
Strong student consensus – virtually all the essays referred to these characteristics: that a good engineering lecturer is enthusiastic, gives clear, well-structured presentations and uses real-world engineering examples backed up by industrial experience. Friendliness, tolerance and mental flexibility were indicated as the most important personality characteristics.

Survey II (2016)
Strong student consensus - virtually all the essays referred to: a good teacher is the one who masters his/her subject and gives positive messages to the students. He/she is genuinely interested in the subjects he/she teaches, The teacher is ..."a knowing guide to the wanderer". He/she is able to impart technical knowledge and to foster the development of technical skills, is able to manage rapidly growing knowledge base.

Conclusion:
Similar results were received in the essay analyses of two cohorts of students - despite of the lapse of time. Students presumed high expertise of their teachers, but also underlined importance of the real-world engineering examples. Enthusiasm and ability to motivate were perceived as essential. In the second survey, the students indicated teacher support at the utmost importance.