Abstract:

The concept of classroom management is a complex, interdisciplinary determinant of the educational process at all levels of education, including universities. This consist in particular of the pedagogical, didactic, psychological and socio-psychological characteristics of the instructional process. One of the dimensions of the current classroom management is the so-called instructional management, emphasizing the didactic area of education and being the subject of academic discourse. The effectiveness of instructional management is a fundamental predictor of students' school success, and thus the didactic strategies of teachers can influence the attitudes of university students to the course and their interest in the chosen study programme. In this context, the paper focuses on the application of accountability within the educational institution concerned, with an emphasis on the quality of selected courses from the perspective of students, across the faculties of a university in the Czech Republic. The observed period was significantly affected by the transition to a fully distance educational environment in line with the covid-19 pandemic crisis measures. In this regard, the aim of the paper is to reveal instructional management through the subjective opinions of the students, namely to find out how they perceive the teaching unit with respect to the evaluation of teachers' performance and their approach to teaching. As for the methodology, the target group consisted of 294 university students of one institution enrolled in full-time study programmes oriented to agriculture, forestry, economics, environment, engineering, and social sciences. A quantitative empirical survey was conducted in the environment of the university online information system using the method of an anonymous questionnaire, with 12 items examined through subjective opinions using Likert scales (e.g. appropriate concept of the lesson content, stimulating students' interest, encouraging students' independence, emphasis on team cooperation, provision of relevant feedback, use of activating teaching methods, etc.). Data collection was carried out in both winter and summer semesters of the academic year 2020/2021. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency (mean, mode). Based on the results, it can be concluded, that the findings are satisfactory in favour of the following aspects of instructional management (a scale in the range of 1 minimum to 4 maximum): students feel to be evaluated objectively by teachers (mean 3.52, mode 4), the teachers perform an effort to encourage students' independence as perceived by the students (mean 3.49, mode 4), and the teachers use time in the lessons efficiently (mean 3.44, mode 4). On the other hand, certain limits have emerged in the instructional management. The results suggest that the educators and university leaders should focus on improving the provision of sufficient feedback to students' performance, attention should be paid to encouraging students to present their own results and opinions, also, the students can see certain reserves on the part of the teachers in insufficient incentive to teamwork.

Keywords:

Classroom management, instructional management, student evaluation, university, quality of education.