Abstract:

There is no doubt that motivation plays an important role in the learning process and also affects the nature of the learning outcomes. Research also shows that students' motivation depends on the quality of the teacher-student interpersonal relationship (Maulana, Opdenakker, Brok, Bosker, 2011; Nugent, 2009 and others). The quality of the teacher-student relationship is important not only during the early years of school education, but also in the last years of formal education. University students naturally expect the teachers to treat them as communication partners. It is therefore important that university teachers act as good motivators and have a high degree of empathy for the needs of their students. In addition to this characteristic, the American professor of psychology R. Wlodkowski (2008) claims, that every adults educator should also possess a high degree of enthusiasm. The authoress of the paper focuses on these two characteristics of a university teacher. It uses data from an extensive survey within the initiative Learning Makes Sense by a not-for-profit organization MESA10, in which she participated. The initiative carried out an extensive qualitative and quantitative survey in 2017–2019, with more than 650 interviewed respondents and 15,000 survey respondents from among various educators and employers (MESA10, 2018). The paper presents the findings of a questionnaire completed by 3835 university students from Slovakia.

It answers the questions, whether:
1) the students perceive their teachers as educators, who mainly focus on making sure the students understand the study subject,
2) the teachers treat them as partners,
3) teachers actually enjoy the teaching.

The findings have shown that almost one third of the respondents find that only a small portion of their teachers actually pursue to make the study subject understandable for them. This opinion was consistent across the whole group of students regardless of the field studied. Students of the 2nd level of university study were more inclined towards this alternative. Almost 40% of the surveyed students claimed that only a small proportion of teachers or none of them treated them as partners. Students in the technical fields, natural sciences, mathematics, IT and medical field reported worse experience or expressed a more critical opinion. This result is emphasized by the finding that more than a half of all the questionnaire respondents have experienced humiliation by the teacher in front of other study colleagues. When surveying the opinions that indicate the degree of teachers’ enthusiasm, we attained similar results. More than a third of the survey participants confirmed that only a small portion of teachers or none of them actually enjoy teaching. Even in this case, more critical were students of technical fields, natural sciences, mathematics, IT or medical fields. However, this question also showed differences between the students of the 1st and 2nd degree of university studies, where future masters reported worse experience than their younger colleagues. The findings of the research not only reveal weaknesses within the work of a certain portion of university teachers, but also open a discussion about the conditions in which they carry out their educational activities.

Keywords:

Adult educator, university teacher, learning motivation, teacher-student relationship, teacher´s enthusiasm.