a comparison of teachers and students opinions toward effective teaching standards in urmia university of medical sciences

a comparison of teachers and students opinions toward effective teaching standards in urmia university of medical sciences     mohaddesi h [1] , feizi a [2] *, r salem safy [3]     received: 2august, 2011 accepted: 6 september, 2011     abstract   background & aims : undoubtedly, taking the influential factors in effective teaching and learning into consideration improves the quality of education . the present research aimed to identify and compare teachers' and students' opinions about effective teaching principles and standards in improving educational achievement.   materials & methods : in this descriptive-comparative study, 284 senior students from different majors and 79 teachers from four schools were selected through simple random sampling. we used a two-part questionnaire for data gathering. the data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods such as mean, standard deviation, student's t-test, and anova. a p-value of less than 5% was considered significant.   result : according to the results, teaching methods and communication and consultation skills were the most important factors in effective teaching from the perspective of teachers and students, respectively. although there was not any significant difference between teachers' and students' mean values in teachers' personal characteristics, there were significant differences in some items of this domain. there was a significant difference between teachers' (6.86) and students’ (8.29) mean values in establishing a friendly relationship with students. (p=0.000)   conclusion : according to the findings, teachers of urmia university of medical sciences mostly prefer traditional teaching and classrooms. they prefer teacher-centered classes to student-centered ones. on the other hand, students expect to be the center of teaching-learning process .   keywords : teaching standards, university teacher, effective teaching     address: urmia nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran tel: +98441-2752317, +98 9144462770   email: [email protected]   [1] instructor of midwifery , nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [2] assistant professor of nursing, nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran. (corresponding author)  [3] master in educational management, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran