Effective Teaching from a Postsecondary Vocational Education Perspective

In this study the researcher investigated the nature of effective teaching at the postsecondary vocational education level. The researcher surveyed the technologies and trades instructors at two Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) campuses, Kelsey and Wascana, in order to find out their definitions of effective teaching and the skills, knowledge, values, and attributes that they perceived are needed to be an effective instructor. Furthermore, the study aimed to show if there were any significant differences in the instructors' views of teaching effectiveness and the attributes of effective instructors with respect to teaching discipline, years of teaching experience, gender, age, and level of postsecondary education. In addition to using a survey to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, the researcher convened a focus group. The study's findings indicated that there was general agreement on the skills, knowledge, values, and attributes that effective vocational instructors have and that there were in some cases, significant differences in the instructors' views of teaching effectiveness and the attributes of effective instructors with respect to the demographic variables. Several themes emerged from the respondents' definitions of effective teaching. These themes showed that there was a diverse range of meanings tha