Types of faculty evaluation methods and criteria are examined, and a technique for the use of criterion referenced student evaluation of teacher performance is detailed. The system, called Assessment for Instructional Development, draws on earlier evaluation theory but is adapted to correct linguistic, statistical, and methodological problems.…

Colleges are encouraged to find innovative ways to meet institutional needs and the individual needs of faculty approaching retirement by offering such alternatives as phased retirement, part-time teaching, or contract employment within the institution or in the community, according to individual talents, maintenance patterns, and interests. (MSE)

Drawing on experiences of a Concordia University (Ontario, Canada) task force in considering the teaching portfolio as an instructional evaluation tool, several issues are discussed: the place of teaching in an academic culture; how teaching is and should be evaluated; and possibilities for changing the status quo. Issues in implementation and…

Circumstances leading to 1992 adoption of teaching portfolios for faculty evaluation at the University of Kentucky are outlined, the implementation process is described, and results of a faculty survey following the first round of portfolio development are reported. Despite some obvious difficulties, responses to the portfolio approach were more…

Student interviews provide valuable input into peer evaluation of teaching. The University of Georgia and Stanford University (California) have explored ways of using student interviews to gain student perspectives. The two approaches are compared here, with similarities and differences examined. Aspects of teaching that are best reflected upon by…

Societal and institutional sources and appropriate interventions for faculty burnout are examined, and an approach to faculty evaluation that rewards quality instruction is recommended. (MSE)

Problems generated by higher education institutional efforts to constrain faculty's instructional autonomy are evaluated. Given traditional administrative noninvolvement, such efforts can offend faculty expectations, leading to claims against the institution stemming from poor evaluations. Academic freedom values are examined as a heuristic for…

At a large university, faculty ratings in five academic areas were collected from two groups of students using paper-and-pencil or electronic survey administration. The two modes yielded similar factor patterns, with ratings influenced by academic area but not survey method. Students felt more anonymous using the paper-and-pencil method;…

A study investigated the applicability of 2 American instruments for student evaluation of teaching for university students in China (n=367). Results indicated high internal consistency; items were generally considered to be appropriate and to distinguish clearly between good and poor lecturers. Every item was important to some students. However,…

A means of documenting exemplary college teaching is the teaching portfolio, which offers a wider range of evidence than single measures. A proposed faculty development program has teachers prepare portfolios individually, discuss teaching issues as a group within the academic unit, and design and test a system for evaluating teaching. This…

Universities find it difficult to judge the teaching of academics and are reluctant to reward them on the basis of the scholarship of teaching. Continuing tension between teaching and research, in which research-based criteria usually take precedence, compounds this reluctance. Boyer's four-tiered scholarship model assisted the understanding of…

This paper advances 22 ideas for reducing the conflict between teaching and research demands of faculty at public research universities, based on suggestions generated by an ad hoc group of professors at the University of Iowa. Departments should try to make teaching as documentable as research, make teaching accomplishments as…

A university departmental merit evaluation plan and lessons learned from implementing the plan are discussed. The faculty evaluation plan was based on four principles: broad-based faculty and administrative support; informing faculty of expectations of them before the evaluation; providing a description of the primary decision-making and…

A user's guide for the McGill Evaluation System of instructional evaluation and a bibliography are presented. The guide covers the initial planning of an evaluation, data collection, and making changes in a course or program. The procedure used in the system contains the following sequential steps: describing the purpose of the evaluation,…

A model of the teaching/learning system that categorizes the essential activities of teaching and learning and shows their interrelationships is proposed. An illustration of a model being applied to a teaching program is provided. (Author/MLW)