Problems associated with peer observation and evaluation of teaching are examined, and practical ways to compensate for and overcome them in order to achieve the benefits of this form of evaluation are discussed. (Author/MSE)

Braskamp uses four questions to focus his discussion on the improvement of faculty evaluation: (1) Why do we assess? (2) What are the standards and criteria of quality and effectiveness? (3) What do we assess? (4) How do we assess? (JM)

Argues that teaching portfolios are time consuming and have not been shown to improve college faculty teaching skills. Raises some unanswered questions concerning teaching portfolios and reviews what is known about effective teaching at the college level. Suggests that constructing the portfolio often becomes the focus instead of instructional…

At the University of Nevada, Reno, lectureships developed out of a serious problem of staffing freshman composition. Almost all students take two semesters of freshman English, and in the late l970's, when the ability to staff these courses became severely limited, the new freshman sections were staffed by temporary faculty identified as…

Offers 16 guidelines for avoiding legal entanglements arising from new or revised staff evaluation programs. Offers a series of predictions about the future of staff evaluation in two-year colleges. (DMM)

Describes a theoretical model for evaluating college faculty that can improve faculty performance and resource allocation. Characteristics of the model, appropriate evaluation criteria for teaching, research, administrative, and other activities, and departmental procedures for determining evaluation criteria and weights are discussed. (AM)

Faculty evaluation must be seen by faculty as an improvement-and-reward system. The department chairpersons are seen as the key. Among imaginative rewards to consider: the Master Teacher and Distinguished Research posts; minigrants; internal sabbaticals; posttenure rewards. (Author/MLW)

Faculty members of small universities should be judged by their teaching ability, not by their publications. (Author)

Discusses the use of post-tenure review to help preserve the tenure system at colleges and universities, focusing on the use of such reviews to encourage faculty development and productivity, ensure faculty control over the review system, and help marginal faculty improve their performance. (MDM)

Presents recommendations of a faculty/administrator committee at Louisiana State University concerning faculty ranks and reviews, especially of nontenured full-time faculty who specialize in either teaching or research. It proposes rolling multiple-year contracts for instructors, new titles for non-teaching research scientists, university…

The author reflects on the process of assembling an evaluation dossier after a year as an assistant professor that examined questions of quality related to the traditional evaluation categories of teaching, research and service by performing a critically reflexive self-assessment exercise that applied action-research methodology of appreciative…

Maintains that creative teaching with effectiveness that is rigorously substantiated, demonstrated educational leadership, and use of educational methods that advance learners' knowledge are consistent with the traditional definition of scholarship and faculty who meet these criteria are scholars and should be recognized by promotion. Outlines an…

Menges identifies four areas of educational research in which data is substantial but much less useful than it could be: faculty behaviors and intentions; technology-mediated instruction; effective evaluative decisions and context-specific research. He suggests some directions for future research. (JM)

Ory emphasizes four processes in assessing faculty: examining the craft of teaching; faculty members reflecting on the quality of and standards for their work; receiving feedback from others with the expectation that faculty will improve and assessing the work of others by focusing on the value of the work. (JM)

The practice of student evaluation of college faculty is discussed in terms of the literature on social ritual. The following arguments that critics have raised are considered: student ratings of professors are neither scientific nor objective; feedback needed by professors to improve the quality of their work and data needed by administrators to…