Lecturers on demand: Student perceptions within Student-Led Teaching Award nominations
Keywords:
Student Voice, Student-led teaching awards, Teaching excellence, thematic network analysis, student evaluations of teachingAbstract
Student-Led Teaching Awards allow students to nominate their lecturers for various awards, such as Best Lecturer, Outstanding Student Support, Most Innovative, and many more. They give students the opportunity to recognise the lecturers whom supported their university experience in that academic year. This research study contributes to the growing literature in Student-Led Teaching Awards that, has previously mostly focussed on lecturers’ perceptions of the Awards. This research study is an original contribution as it analyses how students perceive their lecturers and their teaching practice as written in the student nominations about their lecturers. This research study analysed Student-Led Teaching Award nominations for 750 lecturers, over a four-year period (2016-2020) from a UK teaching-oriented university. A thematic network analysis was used to decipher how students perceive their lecturers and found four distinct areas: students as consumers, students as learners, lecturers as academics and lecturers as educators. Throughout these four areas, it is clear that lecturers are expected to undertake duties that fall outside their normal duties, expected to perform, and expected to be on demand. Overall, this research study claims that students are experts in teaching excellence and their viewpoint gives us an insightful view into lecturers’ teaching practice, and it warns of the Higher Education sector perpetuating the unhealthy work-life balances of lecturers.
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