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The employment of native teachers of English in countries where English is a foreign language, coupled with a growing concern over teaching effectiveness, has led to collecting data about teachers' performance through student feedback. Not much research has been carried out in Turkey to evaluate the process and output of language teaching by native and non-native teachers from students' points of view. The aim of this study is to identify university students' perceptions of native and non-native teachers of English as well as to identify deficiencies and needs in the teaching process so that some suggestions can be made. A data pool of 311 university students participated in this study and evaluated 38 native and non-native teachers of English. A questionnaire was used as the instrument and it consisted of 30 items related to in-class teaching roles, in-class management roles, in-class communication roles, and individual features. The results indicate that there is a meaningful difference between native and non-native teachers of English from the students' perspective. The results suggest that non-native teachers fulfil in-class teaching and in-class management roles better than native teachers do while native teachers fulfil in-class communication skills and present more favourable qualities. The results will be beneficial for native and non-native teachers in terms of realizing their deficiencies and raising awareness. For further research, using student achievement level along with the results of student ratings would lead to more convincing results. The evaluation of teachers by their students is not a widely used approach in Turkey and further research in this area would benefit from a wider subject base.

KeywordsThe purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of both students and faculty members on teaching quality in higher education, taking nationality, gender, GPA and faculty members' perceptions of university priorities into consideration. The mixed method approach was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously in the study. The quantitative data were collected from two countries: The United States and Turkey through a questionnaire developed for the study. Qualitative data were collected through focus group meetings; two with the faculty members and two with the students. The results indicated a difference between the perceptions of the student and faculty groups, regardless of nationality. In contrast to the students, faculty members perceived themselves competent in the three areas of delivery of instruction, rapport, and assessment. It was also found that nationality and GPA had an impact on students' perceptions whereas gender had an insignificant effect. As for perceived priorities, although both groups stated that teaching is important, it was interesting to note that Turkish group also emphasized administrative work and research/publication as priorities for the university. The results of this research suggests that more work is still needed to reach the high expectations for teaching quality in higher education such as in-service training and professional development activities, particularly on as self-reflection, improvement of teaching skills, and innovative teaching methods with an emphasis on technology. Teaching qualityHigher education PerceptionsArticle Info

Student evaluations of teaching and teacher (SET) have become the focus of extensive data collection, due to high levels of competition in education. Yet, analysis of the data collected from students has been relatively neglected in favor of evaluation. Furthermore, heterogeneity of student population with different academic background may require advanced statistical techniques, such as Latent Class Analysis (LCA), used in the context of Latent Variable Models, to disclose latent classes or structures by the manifest variables. The purpose of the study is to identify distinct groups of students based on their SET ratings and use the LCA method to discover whether there is a discrepancy in the identified classes in terms of level of success and gender. The study also aims to present a descriptive examination regarding the students who evaluated the instructors and which classes they belonged to. The following three conclusions have been drawn from this research; that different typological structures of student exist in the institution, that there are differences in the identified classes in terms of gender, and that, regardless of whether they were successful or not, students were generally positive about teachers.

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