Abstract

Background and Aim: Students' evaluations of instructors' lecturing skills have proved to be an essential component of quality management in higher education institutions (HEIs). Hence, this study intended to reveal the gender differences in medical students' perception of lecturing skills. Methods: The exploratory study design was adopted to explore the gender differences in medical students' perception of lecturing skills at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia. This study covers the entire population of students (n≤570) studying an undergraduate medical program at IAU during the academic year 2015-16. "Students Survey of Lecturing Skills (SSLS)" questionnaire was administered to these students using "UDQuest,". The data analysis was carried out using SPSS version-20. The SEM analysis was done using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software version 5.0. Results: The SEM analysis reveals that the variables used in SSLS are positively related to the students' overall perception of lecturing skills (p<0.05). The perception of female students towards lecturing skills is significantly better than the male students. Conclusions: Variables used in the SSLS questionnaire are adequately fit to assess the students' perception of lecturing skills. Policymakers can use these variables to evaluate and monitor the quality of teaching at HEIs. There is a significant difference observed between the gender concerning the perception of lecturing skills. Although this study was conducted in a single Saudi university, given the standard regulations governing higher educational programs at institutions in the country, the findings have broader implications.

Keywords: Lecturing skills · Saudi Arabia · Structural equation modelling · Students perception

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Peer review

Peer reviewed by 2 reviewers, who chose to remain anonymous.

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