Teachers’ perceptions about their practices and needs for improvement: A qualitative research project at the University of Padova

The aim of the paper is to present the results deriving from the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions included in the Prodid Project Questionnaire. Prodid (Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation) is a research project conducted in 2014-2015 at the University of Padova, which aimed at developing strategies to support academic teachers to enhance their teaching competences. The questions were formulated in order to collect teachers’ points of view on excellence and innovation, perceived critical aspects in their teaching practice and the need for support to improve teaching. The analysis was conducted through the use of software Atlas.ti 7 in order to highlight, on the one hand the strengths and weaknesses of current teaching practices, and on the other hand, the need of support to improve teaching skills and enhance teachers’ professionalism. Findings are presented by illustrating the distributions based on the different Schools in the universities as well as the thematic issues that emerged from teachers’ answers. These results informed the professional development activities organized at the University for junior and senior staff in 2015.