Individual consultation over student ratings is recognised as an effective strategy to improve teaching effectiveness. Yet limited financial resources and rising costs in higher education renders this strategy as no longer feasible. This paper explores teacher perceptions on the efficacy of a peer-based model of consultation. It draws on a…

Use of portfolios as a tool for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher development and evaluation, using principles and practices borrowed from portfolio use to assess learner progress, is advocated. The origins of portfolios in art and other professions and their adaptation for teaching are outlined. The structure of such a portfolio is then…

The mechanisms, objectives, and uses of performance assessment in public service occupations in the United Kingdom and other countries are examined and their implications for use in higher education are discussed. It is suggested that politically, the relationship of professional providers and consumers will increase in significance. (MSE)

A survey of selected institutions concerning the use of performance evaluation for tenured and nontenured faculty suggests much confusion and opinion about the issue, but more receptivity than has been presumed, warranting further experimentation. (MSE)

This keynote address discusses ways undergraduate education is changing in terms of the diversity of students, financing education, and time required for graduation. How these changes affect academic advisers is the focus of the piece. The article is a response to a college administrator's charge to advisers to adapt to the new face of…

The Course Evaluation Scheme involved staff members from a variety of departments in the evaluation of one another's courses. Peer evaluation, as opposed to evaluation by senior colleagues, students or educational consultants, makes this scheme potentially most acceptable to staff for assessing university teaching. (CE)

Proposes improved, more computer-intensive statistical techniques using bootstrap and permutation tests for analyzing results of student evaluations of teaching. Application of these methods resulted in narrower (more precise) confidence intervals and larger significance levels than more classical methods. Results indicate the new techniques…

A support staff evaluation model is presented that incorporates existing evaluation theory into a system design, with educational specialists in mind. The six-step model includes needs assessment/identification, relationship of program expectations to job responsibilities, identification of staff behaviors, setting of performance standards,…

In an attempt to increase the quality and effectiveness of academic advising, an Auburn University task force examined the duties and responsibilities of academic advisors. Based on the job analysis, a behavioral/results-oriented appraisal system to assess advisor performance is recommended as valid, cost effective, and practical. (Author/MSE)

Summarizes a small-scale project that surveyed 17 faculty members' attitudes toward an appraisal scheme adopted at the University of Ulster, in Northern Ireland. Examines tensions between management's desire to ensure achievement of organizational policies and plans and individual staff members' career development wishes. Rationally structured…

The slow rate of promotion of female college faculty relative to their male counterparts is examined from the perspective of "socially expected durations," shifting emphasis from women's assumed shortcomings and constraints to the characteristics of academe's organizational structure. The model is seen as useful for examining other forms of…

The Nominal Group Technique, in which groups of students jointly evaluate a course, is proposed as an alternative to individual course evaluation questionnaires for student assessment of college teacher performance. Evaluation of a new course by three cohorts of students using the technique is reported. Strengths and weaknesses emerging in the…

Describes a faculty development program at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) designed to allow mid-career and senior faculty to effectively apply technology to teaching and learning. Considers implications of such faculty development processes for post-tenure review approaches. (Author/DB)

Responding to enormous enrollment increases, Mexican universities were forced to hire faculty without a Licenciatura degree (corresponds to a United States bachelors degree) and so initiated faculty development activities (FDA) to enhance the performance of underqualified and new teachers. This study assessed the impact of one of these FDAs at the…

It is argued that to judge faculty competence, the range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes constituting competence must be established, and that competence is composed of preparation for teaching, engagement in teaching, and professional development. Sources of evaluation data are discussed and increased documentation of teaching achievement is…