Abstract:

The teaching observation experience, conducted over the past two academic years within Humanitas University, an international University dedicated to the Life Sciences in Milan, is carefully mapped also thanks to a survey offered to the teachers involved in the project.

One of the elements of attention within this survey is the perception of the concept of "quality teaching".

Teaching observation is a key action of the university's faculty development proposal because it makes it possible to achieve various kind of objectives (individual and institutional, short-, medium- and long-term).

The output of the experience as well as the data collected, allow the academic development staff to design, above all, a faculty development offer that could be truly tailored to the needs of the university's teachers. To make this action even more effective, survey the perception of the effectiveness of teaching observation is fundamental, and within this survey one question in particular is relevant, the one that asks the lecturer: “what is your definition of good teaching? what do you consider to be the key components of teaching that can be defined as high-quality teaching?”.

The answers to this question are here analysed and discussed.
Understanding what criteria and characteristics define quality didactics for teachers enables, in fact, the direction of the training action design. Only a true sharing of the representations of the concept of quality, when speaking of teaching and learning into an academic context, can allow its effective improvement.

Keywords:

Teaching observation, faculty and academic development, quality of teaching.