Evaluation of Instruction

Using Multiple Measures in the Interpretation of Student Ratings of Instruction

This study investigated a multiple measurement approach to validating the inter pretation of student ratings of a medical school course. Concerns of priority to students were isolated from the ratings and data on student opinion collected by an open-ended question and student faculty documents. An interpretation consonant with all data was derived. Influences on student opinion, including demographic, academic, and personal characteristics of students, teaching practices, and the instructional context were explored through a comparison of the present class with a previous class. Ratings of the course by the two classes differed in the absence of significant differences in the students or teaching practices. Divergences in the ratings were attributed to changes in the instruc tional context reported in the multiple measures of student opinion. It was concluded that a multiple measurement approach allows greater precision in the interpretation of student opinion than is afforded by ratings alone.

Supervisor evaluation : from theory to implementation

The evaluation of supervisors and assessment of teaching effectiveness are vital for academic psychiatry programs. The literature on teaching evaluation in classroom settings is reviewed briefly, followed by a summary of the available literature on supervisor evaluation in clinical medicine and psychiatry. While student evaluation forms of supervisor's teaching ability may be reliable and valid, this popular form of assessment is insufficient to fulfill all the purposes required of such evaluations. The development and implementation of a new process for supervisor evaluation is described for the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry.

Student evaluation of instruction. A comparison of medicine and engineering

The study examines the structure of student satisfaction with instruction. Two professional schools are compared: medicine and engineering. Also the relationship between student ratings and their performance, as perceived by themselves, is explored. Medical students are significantly more satisfied with their courses than engineering students. A positive correlation exists between student satisfaction and student self-evaluation in the School of Engineering. In the Medical School, no relationship is found between satisfaction and perceived performance.

Validity of students' ratings of clinical instructors

The validity of students' rating of clinical instruction was correlated with students' performance in a clinical examination. One-way analysis of variance showed that the students' ratings discriminated among instructors, and that the instructors were a significant source of variance in their students' adjusted examination scores on a written clinical simulation. There was no significant correlation between students' performance in the examinations and their ratings of the clinical instructors.

Evaluation of instructional skills of medical teachers: the participant observer in the Medical School

A model for the evaluation and development of instructional skills utilizing a participant observer is presented. Examples from a medical school context are provided. Other sources of evaluative information on performance of teachers including student based surveys are reviewed.

The relationship between student ratings of course effectiveness and student achievement

For many years student ratings have been used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of various courses and the teaching abilities of the instructors involved. Investigators have either supported or attacked the validity of this assessment procedure on the basis of the direction and degree of the relationship found between student rating of a course and student achievement in that course. This validation study supplemented correlation analysis with analysis of variance to compare groups at various achievement levels and to control for the possible confounding effects of overall group analysis. Medical students responded to a Likert attitude scale about aspects of an anatomy course. The mean attitude scores for a high and a low course achievement group were significantly different at the 0.005 level; the high achievement group had a more positive course attitude.

Student-Faculty Evaluation

Desirable attributes of SFE can be vitiated by its premature utilization in a formal and quantitative sense. This is because it is possible to teach for a specific student evaluation, given a particular questionnaire. Consequently, because of the importance of SFE, the questionnaire must be designed to meet the expectations of the students, as well as the aspirations of the respective institutions. Indiscriminate use of SFE will increase the gap between first-rate and second-rate institutions-first-rate institutions will continue to attract more demanding students, a fact that will be reflected in SFE's, whereas second-rate institutions, in an effort to maintain levels of enrollment, may tend to formulate SFE's that emphasize popularity and mediocrity of education. Careful construction of the format of SFE, on the other hand, could do much toward increasing the quality of teaching, as well as the motivation of students and teachers, in many institutions.

Student Ratings of Teaching: Validity of Several Rating Factors

Students' ratings of their instructors in undergraduate classes in calculus were correlated with class performance on a common final examination. Ratings on several instructional factors were highly related to class performance even though they appeared to be independent of the students' own grades.