Abstract:

The aim of the article was to find out the influence of teachers on students, the evaluation of teachers’ work, some opinions on education in Slovakia and other teaching aspects. The research was realised at two Slovak universities. Those were Slovak University of Agriculture and Slovak University of Technology. Together 586 students of both universities participated in the research. The first-year university students evaluated their teachers at their elementary and secondary schools. The first part of the research (Part I) presents the definition and the structure of engineering pedagogy in Slovakia, some thoughts on teaching as well as learning generally. During the research, the following research methods were used: the questionnaire method, the interview method, the method of discussion and the statistical interpretation. The results have shown that there was approximately a half of teachers who had influenced their students positively and the second half who had influenced them negatively. More than 70 % of respondents definitely thought that a teacher can influence their future. When assuming that someone who passed elementary and secondary education in Slovakia could have met with approximately 50 different teachers, it is very sad that more than 65 % of students knew only 1 to 5 teachers who they considered to be qualified and considered them to be good teachers. On the other hand, more than 65 % of respondents knew from 16 to 20 teachers who they marked to be unqualified and considered them to be bad teachers. The detailed results can be found in the article. This topic has been solved within KEGA Project 031-035 STU-4/2010: “Models of project-based learning at secondary vocational schools”.

Keywords:

Engineering education, engineering students’ opinions, elementary and secondary schools.