Which variables help define the teaching style at the University?

Abstract

Given university’s genuine educational mission, the civil society requires it to provide students with a more comprehensive education.  In order to fulfill this commitment, not only is it indispensable to develop innovative strategies in the classroom, but it is also necessary to take into account the community environment as an agent of this educational project. Thus, the purpose of this work is to find the variables in university professors that are related to an active teaching style, as well as to analyze whether their degree of social participation or the use of methodologies such as service-learning are linked to differences in their approach to teaching. We used a sample of 1550 university professors who filled in an instrument designed to identify their teaching style. Mean comparison tests were employed according to their respective profiles. The results show that it was women having completed training courses or worked in other sectors apart from the university who demonstrated a more active and student-centered teaching style. Higher scores on the scale were obtained by those who actively participated in civil society organizations, as well as by those who applied the service-learning methodology in their classes. We conclude that the study not only shed light on differences in teaching practice, but also favors a prospective edifying for the promotion of innovative and sustainable activities that support a model focused on student learning.