Exploring Students' Perceptions Of The Quality Of Teaching And Learning In Institutions Of Higher Education In Eritrea

In many developing countries,including Eritrea,addressing issues of quality of education is still the major challenge whereby students usually complain about it.Therefore,this study was conducted to explore students' perceptions of the quality of teaching and learning in Institutions of Higher Education in Eritrea.For this reason,third-year and fourth-year students from all the six colleges were included in the study to explore the factors that affect the quality of teaching and learning,namely the resources,lecturers,teaching methodology,course evaluation,and program relevance.This topic is discussed within the framework of constructivist theory,service quality theory,and progressivity perspectives of the curriculum.The study utilized a mixed-methods approach,in which both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to collect data.The data were collected from participants of 46 departments of the colleges under study.A total of 476 responses were gathered from the survey participants using a questionnaire,and six focus group discussions were conducted to obtain the qualitative data.Then,both data were analyzed concurrently,the quantitative data using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences software,and the qualitative data using top-down thematic analysis.The results of the quantitative data are presented in the form of tables and charts that indicate mean,standard deviation,frequency,and percentage of each item of the questionnaire,and the results of the focus group discussions are presented in the form of texts and direct quotes.According to the findings,the majority of the students' moderately agreed on the qualities of lecturers,teaching methods,and course relevance.However,students hold lower agreement on the quality of resources and quality of fairness and feedback.Moreover,the findings of the t-test analysis indicated that there is no statistically significant difference between third-year and fourth-year students on the quality of resources,lecturers,teaching methodology,course assessment,and relevance of the program.Nevertheless,concerning the quality of fairness and feedback,fourth-year students have a higher perception than third-year students.Furthermore,a one-way ANOVA results reveal that there are significant differences among college students in the quality of resources,lecturers,teaching methodology,course assessment,and relevance of the program.In order to examine the specific differences among colleges,a multiple comparison test(Tukey's HSD)was performed.The findings indicate that students in the College of Education,College of Science,and College of Business and Social Science had higher perceptions of the quality of resources,their lecturers,and the teaching methodology practiced in the colleges,while students from the College of Engineering and Technology and Orotta College of Medicine and Health Science had lower perceptions of all constructs.Finally,the findings indicated that there is a significant positive correlation between the five constructs that measure the quality of teaching and learning.Based on the findings,it can be concluded that the overall quality of teaching and learning services delivered by colleges in Eritrea is moderate.Besides,the study concludes that for the fulfillment of the current demands of 2lst-century education and also to compete with the businesses in the world,educators and curriculum developers must prepare flexible curriculum,provide adequate resources,and initiate creative pedagogies.Unless the teaching and learning conditions promptly improved,the provision of effective services to students could not be achieved.