Ways of Studying Students’ Opinions about Their Classes

Abstract

The article discusses the contents of 49 different questionnaires which are used in higher education institutions to gather students’ opinions about their classes or about the academic teachers. We obtained these questionnaires in 1994 during realization of the study on quality assessment forms and procedures. Students’ opinions are supposed to show the drawbacks and weak sides of teaching in a higher education institutions, thereby contributing to raising the quality of academic teachers and improving their work. We observe very different approaches to the study of students’ opinions. In individual questionnaires students were asked to evaluate 3-15 features of the classes or teachers. These questionnaires also differ considerably depending on the school, the academic discipline and also on which aspects of the teaching process the authors of the questionnaires regarded as essential for quality assessment on the basis of students’ opinions. Most often students were asked what they think most generally about their teachers and their teaching skills, less often about the content of the courses taught, their objectives and usefulness for a career in education or some other profession. The least attention was paid to the technical aspect of the classes, that is, to the availability of literature, the selection and use of auxiliary and audio-visual materials, the outfitting of classrooms.