Instructional Effectiveness in History Classrooms: An Analysis of Students’ Perceptions of Instructional Practices of University Teachers

This qualitative case study was conducted to explore the perceptions of History research students about the effectiveness of instructional practices of university teachers. This study assumes that research students are active stakeholders and keen observers, so they perceive their teachers’ professionalism very deeply. All students who had completed their coursework and were working on their research work at the MPhil level in the Department of History at a public university were selected to conduct this study. An interview guide was constructed to collect the data, which included three significant dimensions: students’ engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 students who volunteered to participate in the study. Interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings of the study suggest that most students perceived that teachers used a variety of techniques to motivate the students who showed low interest in the class. Moreover, they perceived that the instructional strategies of teachers were diverse, catering to various learning styles of students. However, students also perceived that some teachers had discouraging behaviour on students’ questioning and also waste class time gossiping with students due to lack of proper planning. It seems there is a need to develop mechanisms for the professional development of faculty members. In addition, there is a need to find ways to motivate teachers to bring effectiveness to their instruction in higher education classrooms. Keywords: Students’ Engagement, Instructional Strategies, Classroom Management, Instructional Practices, History Education, Students’ Perceptions