Teaching services continue to meet the changing needs of the
University.
Such quality assurance agendas are based primarily on an
economic-rationalist interpretation of quality and seek to assure that such
teaching represents value for money.
Sought to apply performance based funding strategies to
university activities, including teaching
Such uses of student evaluation of teaching have generally
however been secondary to the use of such evaluation as a source of feedback to
support teachers in planning improvements.
It was usually difficult to relate data collected for
improvement purposes with data collected to demonstrate ‘quality’ teaching.
For students the student evaluation of teaching agenda is
likely to be one of providing a mechanism by which they can voice their
concerns about courses and teaching that do not meet their individual perceived
needs.
If teachers do gather student feedback, and are inclined to
make changes on the basis of such feedback, they may not do so as the changes
often do not get support from colleagues. If teachers do go ahead and institute
changes, they may happen in the face of criticism and resistance from less
‘enlightened’ colleagues.
That student feedback on teaching systems are increasingly
being called upon to fulfil both institutional prove and local/individual
improve purposes.
While the 3P model was not intended for the purposes, the
elements of the model provide a useful framework for tracking our evolving
understanding of student learning and how this has been mirrored in our work as
staff developers.
Since learning was the ultimate aim of teaching, then maybe
the quality of the learning outcome was relevant in any consideration of the
quality of the teaching. The characteristics of the student, as well as the
teacher’s teaching and quality of the course design, could really only be
considered from the perspective of the end result.
Teachers can only explicitly influence some components of
the learning process before it passes into the hands (or heads) of students.
Information on how students perceive and respond to teaching is possibly of
more importance than information on the inputs of teaching context and student
characteristics alone.
An alternative strategy might be to refocus some
questionnaire items on student perceptions as a particularly important and
predictive aspect of the teaching and learning process.
Australian universities reveals a preponderance of
teacher/teaching focused items.
Items focusing on student’s perceptions of the teaching and
learning experience yield information on teaching behaviours and the teaching
context but from the students perspective.
Australia has been a leader in recognising the importance of
student feedback in quality assurance at the national level.
At the university level, the gathering of student feedback
on the quality of teaching is ubiquitous; however, its use can predominantly be
considered as serving a quality enhancement role to inform personal and career development.
‘principles of effective evaluation’ is not much discussed
in this article although how Australian Universities introduced student
evaluation can be understood.
Interesting point – connecting evaluation and funding
(government’s approach
to quality assurance in higher education)
Good teachers are always evaluating themselves.
Teaching should be better, that students should enjoy the
finest possible experience, that opportunities for those able to benefit from
higher education should be widened, and that universities should be accountable
for public monies they spend.
What do we want our students to know (about the subject) the
equivalent question in the case of academic staff is : what do we want our
teachers to know (about teaching their subjects)? Evaluation that will really
improve teaching quality must follow similar principles to assessment that will
genuinely help students to learn.
The three most
important generic areas to evaluate are:
Positive attitude towards students;
Ability to communicate well with other people;
Lively interest in improving teaching through reflection and
action
The main reason concerns perceptions of reward and support
system
Based of course on evidence about the relations between the
quality of student learning and assessment. You can then check the list against actual practice in
order to identify areas for improvement and to monitor progress.
It is best if we see it as a kind of intellectually curious
activity, almost a form of research
The techniques of collecting evidence are less important
than the motivation for evaluative activity and one’s understanding of these
principles
The most significant challenging aspects of evaluation
comprise interpretation of results and the action that follows to improve
teaching.
Listening to and learning from your students is an essential
component of all teaching and of any evaluation
The potential of any method of evaluation or performance
measurement to improve university quality depends on professional activity
undertaken by lecturers
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