CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON IMPROVING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN ENGINEERING HIGHER EDUCATION- A STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVE.

The ultimate criterion of effective teaching is effective and successful learning. The paper focuses on an ascertaining research that investigates the students' opinion about the effective teaching characteristics through a survey based on a questionnaire that was sent to 233 first year students from Technical University of Cluj- Napoca, Romania, attending classes to prepare for a teaching career. The revised set of characteristics of effective teaching according to the Griffith University's PRO-Teaching project (Klopper, C., Drew, S., 2015) presented originally as 'eight dimensions of good teaching' (Nulty, 2001) provided a structured framework that has been the basis for our study in students' evaluation of effective teaching. The data collection procedure was based on a survey with a 5-point Likert scale and an open-ended question with comment box. The students in the contemporary educational system prefer interactive teaching strategies, suitable personal characteristics of teachers and a good teacher-student relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]