Lecturer and Student Perspective Regarding Teaching Public Aministration in Romania

Abstract

considerable progress in developing public administration teaching. However the need to increase student interest and involvement in the learning process is a largely widespread issue in all Romanian universities, which impacts on both teaching/learning methodology and student assessment methods. The present study aims to analyze (1) teaching practices, (2) students’ preferences and perceptions regarding these practices, and (3) the relationship between these preferences and real practices. I focused on teaching of public administration (or administrative sciences) as a discipline and the possible variations in students’ preferences as opposed to teachers’ beliefs and real practices. Moreover, I was concerned with educational effectiveness in terms of acquired competencies and aspects that could increase the effectiveness of students’ learning. In respect of these objectives I designed two questionnaires: one for students in public administration enrolled in undergraduate programs and another for the teaching staff. The two questionnaires addressed comparable research questions. Some questions were similar in order to allow the comparison of responses for both categories of respondents. Seven public universities were selected through a convenience sampling method from more than 32 Romanian universities which have developed accredited public administration programs. I have chosen the seven most important programs according to student numbers, from all geographic areas of the country. The last part shows that the three hypotheses were not fully validated and for a further research, I should investigate the problem of poor results of my students by a qualitative research among the students with poor attendance and lower than
average academic performance.