A growing body of literature has identified student evaluations of teaching (SETs) as introducing bias against minority faculty members and not serving as a reliable or valid measure of teaching effectiveness. This lack of reliability and validity presents issues for university tenure and promotion committees, as these institutional processes…

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) gather crucial feedback on student experiences of teaching and learning and have been used for decades to evaluate the quality of teaching and student experience of instruction. In this paper, we make the case for an important improvement to the analysis of SET data that can further refine its interpretation.…

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) are a ubiquitous tool in higher education. Though they are not effective means of evaluating teaching ability, they are useful in formative teaching development of a teaching career. We characterise the current formative use of and attitudes towards SETs by instructors across all disciplines (STEM and…

This study explores faculty beliefs about teaching and learning in different institutional settings and over time. This study surveyed faculty at two Canadian universities, one research-intensive, the other teaching-intensive, using a conceptual replication of a survey originally administered in 1976. Some results differ from the original survey,…

Pedagogical approaches in higher education are evolving. Instructors are tasked with meeting the needs and preferences of the modern student and their desire for increased input in higher education courses. As such, this study sought to provide a manageable example of how flexible weighting schemes can be incorporated into assessments for…

Holistic assessment is an evaluative approach in which assessors work backwards from an overall appraisal of work to determine the criteria relevant to individual student responses. One of the strongest proponents of this approach in higher education is Royce Sadler, whose theoretical contributions over recent decades provide a strong conceptual…

Professors create a positive learning environment for students through their interpersonal behaviour style in the classroom. High quality interpersonal interactions are associated with a number of positive student outcomes such as increased motivation, effort, learning, satisfaction, and higher ratings on formal student evaluations of teaching…

Cyclical program reviews (CPRs), also called periodic or academic reviews at institutions of higher education, are undertaken to ensure that academic programs meet a variety of objectives related to teaching and learning, as well as professional credentialing, quality assurance, and institutional requirements. Preparing, reviewing, and…

What do course evaluation questionnaires (CEQs) do to our teaching and to our perceptions of ourselves as teachers? We are all early- to mid-career academics at a midsized Canadian university who explore how course evaluation questionnaires have affected our academic identities. By using autoethnography and critical reflection, we examine how CEQs…

This qualitative study utilized episodic narrative interviews to investigate assessment thresholds involved in the development of assessment literacy. The goal of the study was to inform efforts toward quality improvements in higher education. Thirty-five academic staff from universities in Australia, Canada and Sweden shared stories of…

This research addressed ongoing academic concerns about whether assessment practices in higher education support student learning. Authors state that examinations have become the focus of assessment, which adversely affect learning. Effective assessment for learning promotes the active engagement of students. A web-based survey gathered…

Through a quantitative analysis using a cross-sectional survey design, we compared two faculty mentoring programmes (individual and group) that have run for more than 10 years at the Centre for Academic Leadership at the University of Ottawa. We did so to share the lessons with other higher education institutions that are looking at initiating or…

A series of worldwide projects concerning assessment, student outcomes and quality in higher education has revealed the need for a change in how higher education institutions assess student outcomes; however, many academics remain unconvinced. The success of assessment change arguably depends on the assessment culture within the institution. This…

This article analyzes data from a survey on faculty perceptions of a newly instituted assessment process at a small liberal arts campus in Canada. The survey results are compared with an analysis of the reports submitted to the assessment committee over a four-year period in order to determine whether a culture of assessment centred on students'…

This paper documents a case study examining collaborative transdisciplinary (TD) and interdisciplinary (ID) graduate programmes at the University of British Columbia (a large, public, research-intensive university in Canada) -- serving as a model for other universities globally. TD and ID programmes in higher education can ultimately create a new…