The professional development and evaluation of university academic staff members is discussed in an attempt to clarify the processes by which evaluation and professional development activities may become acceptable and helpful. Also presented are the student evaluation of teaching and the interrelationship between evaluation instruments and the professional development program at the University of Queensland, Australia. Four sections focus on the following: (1) the interview study (the Australian context, teaching and research, attitudes to evaluation, experiences and expectations of professional development at departmental level and attitudes to centrally provided professional development); (2) a case study of introducing change (change and universities--a literature survey, establishing a student evaluation of teaching system, and feedback value of the questionnaire); (3) specific purposes and contexts for evaluation and professional development, introduction (evaluation for feedback purposes, rationale for a current professional development program, evaluation and professional development during probation, and evaluation in the promotion context); (4) appraisal of evaluation and professional development (some factors affecting impact, impact of evaluation and professional development at the University of Queensland, and making evaluation constructive and acceptable). An appendix provides the questionnaire for evaluation of teaching. Contains about 200 references.(SM)