This study examined the core components and semantic structure of good teaching from a learner-centered perspective by applying keyword network analysis to university students' essays. The data consisted of 121 reflective essays on good teaching writt...
This study examined the core components and semantic structure of good teaching from a learner-centered perspective by applying keyword network analysis to university students' essays. The data consisted of 121 reflective essays on good teaching written by undergraduate students at a university in 2024. After text preprocessing and refinement, noun-based keywords were extracted for analysis. Frequency analysis, TF-IDF weighting, N-gram co-occurrence analysis, and degree centrality analysis were conducted, and the results of the quantitative network analysis were interpreted in an integrative manner. The findings showed that key keywords included class, presentation, learning, participation, communication, activity, experience, and feedback. Furthermore, the students' perceptions of good teaching were structured into three core meaning domains based on the semantic connections and centrality of keywords: instructional design and teaching strategies, learner participation and activity experiences, and growth and reflective learning. By presenting good teaching as a semantic network grounded in students' narrative data, this study offers practical implications for learner-centered instructional design and for improving teaching and learning in higher education.