Students’ perception about their own learning experiences and about their teachers’

Thus far, discussions of results about CTE were made with particular reference to teachers’ and leaders’ perspectives, but the students’ perspectives cannot be overlooked in this regard. One of the basic outcomes of high CTE is that students are highly motivated to learn and consider themselves as capable to learn and able to undertake challenging learning goals. In relation to this, Manthey (2006) suggests that when high levels of collective efficacy exist in an academic institution, students are much more likely to develop their own sense of personal efficacy. Moreover, the outcome of CTE can be seen from the perspectives of the students. To this end, Leithwood et al. (2010:676) assert that CTE:

“creates high expectation for students’ learning and encourage teachers to set challenging benchmarks for themselves…High-CTE are more likely to engage in student-centred learning…High CTE is associated with teachers adapting a humanistic approach to student management, testing new instructional methods to meet the learning needs of their students, and providing extra help to students who have difficulty.”

Accordingly, to explore the outcome of CTE in terms of students’ learning experiences and from their perceptions of the teaching-learning environment in the context of the EPrUs, they were also asked to comment about their teachers and about themselves. Previous studies about CTE largely focused on teachers’ perceptions alone and no attempt was made to corroborate with students’ feedback about this situation. In fact, there are few studies (e.g. Manthey, 2006) which found out that, in a context where high CTE exists, students would also become confident and ready to undertake high educational goals. So, an attempt was made here in the study to corroborate teachers’ perceptions of their collective efficacy with students’ reflections about their learning experiences and about their teachers’ educational initiatives. To this effect, 18 sets of questions were addressed to student respondents and the results are discussed in this subsection.

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The 18 items were grouped into two groups. The first group constitutes what students perceive about their teachers’ level of motivation, commitment and intellectual capability needed to teach. The second group deals with students’ perception of their own efficacy and whether the student-centred approach has been perceived to be in place. In relation to the first group, eight items were incorporated. Results obtained about these items show that the mean score in each case was below 4-point. The mean scores range from 3.3 to 3.8 which were concentrated to average score. The maximum score obtained was about “The majority of teachers are intellectually capable to teach their assigned courses.” This is consistent with the result obtained from the teacher respondents about “Teachers in this institution have what it takes to get students to learn.” The mean score in these two items is 3.8 and 3.95 respectively. These scores are relatively close to the high score, which is 4-point.

The minimum obtained score (3.33) was about “You will receive extra support from most teachers when you find topics that are so difficult for you to get through.” This question is meant to assess the teachers’ perceived educational initiatives in terms of providing extra help to students who have learning difficulties. In relation to this, teachers were asked about their CTE as “If a student doesn’t learn something the first time, teachers will try it another way.” The obtained mean score was 3.49. So, results from these two items are complementary in that teachers’ perceived readiness to handle students’ learning challenges is at a moderate level. Here also, teachers tended to rate their confidence with regard to their educational initiatives to provide extra help to needy students more than what students tended to rate the teachers’ educational initiatives in this regard.

However, although there are mean score differences among these eight items, there is a significant mean difference in all cases when 4-point is taken as a test value of the difference. A one-sample t-test was also made for these eight items in aggregate. Results obtained reveal that there is a perceived gap in relation to teachers’ commitment, motivation and capability from the perspectives of the students. Had all

the respondents rated “agree” for all the eight items, the result would have been 32 (eight times four). Hence, 32-point was taken as a test-value. The actual obtained mean was 28.66 and the mean difference was -3.34. Accordingly, the significance of the difference was computed and found to be significant at a t-value of -18.57. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a perceived gap in terms of attaining a high level of CTE which is powerful enough to influence students’ learning experiences at the EPrUs. This implies the need to devise a leadership strategy that would foster CTE.

Furthermore, students’ were also interviewed to describe their learning experiences or the learning environment. With respect to their learning expectations, the following were the major issues addressed by the participants about learning at a higher education institution: It provides background knowledge for whatever they might encounter in the future. It is considered as a base for a better tomorrow. It is a means to win a decent job and other opportunities. In would enhance their interactive skills. It also helps them to gain some knowledge and problem solving skills with which they can contribute to the community and to their own lives. In line with these expectations the participants were asked to describe or evaluate the institutional efforts made towards helping the students to achieve their personal goals. The results revealed that, though there are some fragmented efforts, they are not strong enough in terms of addressing the expectations of the students. Therefore, from the major findings presented thus far, it can be inferred that there is a perceived gap about collective teacher efficacy as directly reported by teachers and as seen in terms of its perceived outcomes.

Obviously, there are many factors that can be linked to CTE. However, the current study attempted to relate this concept to VBL. It is asserted in this study that CTE can be fostered through institutionalising VBL. It can be recalled that the aim of this study is to develop a model to foster CTE through institutionalising VBL. To institutionalise VBL so as to foster CTE, the sets of behaviours perceived to be amenable in the process and the institutional contexts desired to be in place need to be explored. Accordingly, the

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findings explored these issues which were presented in the previous chapter and the major findings are discussed here in the next sections.

5.5.2 Sets of leadership behaviours desired to institutionalise values-based