جامعه شناسی کاربردی (Dec 2023)
Qualitative Description of Students' Experiences of Attending University Classrooms in Isfahan University
Abstract
Introduction The university classroom serves as a multifaceted setting that provides insights into the evolving landscape of higher education. In its most basic form, it offers a window through which one can comprehend the developments, transformations, and overall happenings within universities. To gain a comprehensive understanding of these shifts and evolutions, as well as intricacies of the university environment, the ideal starting point is observation of activities within university classrooms. The classroom serves as somewhere more than just a place for learning and teaching. It also functions as a social environment where students can form new relationships and enhance their communication skills, thereby shaping their identities and promoting their socialization. There is a growing body of evidence and research pointing to the crisis faced by university classrooms, the shift towards decentralization, and, in the extreme case, the "death of the classroom" or "death of the teacher" in the Iranian university system. Given the inadequate amount of research conducted in this area, the aim of this study was to provide a qualitative description of female students' experiences in relation to their attendance in university classrooms and their overall living condition in this educational and social setting. Materials & Methods The research utilized a qualitative description approach. The study was conducted at Isfahan University, specifically targeting undergraduate female students majoring in sociology. The participants were selected based on three criteria: having enough experience, being female, and studying sociology. The purposive sampling method was employed to select the participants. The data were collected through in-person and online semi-structured interviews and analyzed by using thematic analysis. Discussion of Results & Conclusion In the last one or two decades, Iran's university system has experienced a growing demand for admission, while being driven by global trends. As a consequence, university image and purpose have undergone significant changes. These transformations have had numerous implications for the classroom learning environment and have called into question the traditional meaning, concept, and functions of a university. The findings suggested that the university classrooms predominantly prioritized teacher's role rather than student's involvement. The teaching methods commonly employed in these classrooms were traditional and lacked a problem-solving approach, focusing more on surface learning rather than deep understanding. Many students, due to various reasons, tended to prefer being passive listeners during discussions and only occasionally engaged actively. This lack of participation, along with disinterest and detachment from the classroom environment, could be viewed as a form of resistance against the ineffective nature of the educational system and an attempt to avoid learning. Many students lacked enthusiasm for group work and had a low level of cooperation, as well as sharing of knowledge and experience among each other. Furthermore, the connections between the students that fostered learning were minimal, inconsistent, and primarily non-cognitive. Additionally, the research findings revealed that the students were more content with their teachers’ social qualities of rather than their scientific expertise and teaching methods. This suggested a shift in the students' preferences and expectations in the classroom and towards their instructors. A large majority of students expressed their dissatisfaction with several aspects, such as the outdated nature of the course materials, minimal link between these materials and real-world issues, and lack of learning skills necessary for entering the labor market. Additionally, they found it challenging to comprehend the relevance of classroom subjects, particularly the general ones, to the wider society. This disconnection between the lessons taught and the labor market was prevalent. This demonstrated a significant shift in the purpose of the classroom, leading to the loss of its traditional educational and scientific nature. Furthermore, the job market now required university graduates to have updated skills, prompting students to question the relevance of the classroom to the society and seek knowledge and abilities elsewhere. Briefly, the utopian vision of the classroom had faded away with the crucial focus on learning and motivation being pushed aside. This shift could be attributed to various factors, which were both academic and non-academic factors, including the lack of job opportunities for graduates, lack of understanding about the labor market, and a sense of hopelessness. Consequently, the classroom's purpose as a place for the exchange of knowledge, learning, and social interaction had been decentralized with its role now primarily limited to certain social and cultural functions. The findings indicated that the university classrooms had encountered difficulties in serving as effective learning and teaching environments, as well as social spaces, falling short of the students' desired ideal classroom. These problems highlighted the importance of focusing on the changes in students' social and academic lives and utilizing a wider range of methods and ICT technologies outside the traditional classroom setting. This should be done to improve and transform students' learning and increasing the efficiency of higher education.
Keywords
