Student perceptions of the most desirable attributes of good university teachers: have times really changed?

This paper focuses on the characteristics or attributes associated with effective teachers. While a large body of research has been cited, specific reference has been made to a study conducted by Charles L. Odem: “An Objective Determination of the Qualities of a Good College Teacher”. The author identifies 36 personality traits of a good teacher and ranked these traits on the basis of the weightage assigned by the surveyed students. The study was carried out in 1943 at Southern Liberal Arts College,, and data were acquired from 121 students of which 40 were freshmen, 37 sophomores, 24 juniors and 40 seniors. This study hence forth will be referred to as “the original study”. Considering that the tremendous developments over the years in the educational, socio-cultural technological, and intellectual environments, an attempt has been made to observe how students view pedagogical excellence in current times. A study was therefore conducted at the Riphah International University (RIU), Pakistan, with 290 students who assigned attributes that they perceived effective teachers needed to possess. This will hence forth be referred to as “the present study”. Based on the findings, a comparison between the original and present study was made to determine the converging or diverging aspects of the present and the past.