The importance and issues of peer evaluation of teaching are discussed. It is suggested that a more tangible relationship between professional advancement and teaching effectiveness is necessary to motivate faculty to improve instruction, and that evaluation can provide essential information to a teacher to help improve teaching quality. Problems…

Addresses the uncertainties surrounding the evaluation of faculty work performance and reviews the conflicting studies of the two principal professorial roles, teaching and research. Research indicates reasonably high agreement between faculty peers and students on their assessment of professors and supports a psychological explanation of…

Eight of the most common faculty concerns about student evaluations of instruction are discussed: inconsistent student judgments, the perception that only colleagues are qualified to evaluate peers' instruction, student-rating schemes as popularity contests, unreliable and invalid student-rating forms, etc. Research shows that faculty concerns are…

When institutional personnel assess faculty research performance, they should consider the extent to which the institution rewards research, ways to encourage faculty to be productive, criteria for evaluating research performance, and the specific steps useful in reviewing research performance within academic units. (Author/MSE)

Research on the validity of student rating scales of teacher performance is inconsistent, and the issue of why the scales are used needs examination. Until their criterion validity is raised to correlations of .7 to .8 or construct validity can be established, results should not be used in making tenure decisions. (MSE)

Finding that lack of time was the obstacle to teachers' peer observations, one school district devotes inservice time for teachers to observe each other. (JW)

Results are presented of a nationwide study that examined the written criteria currently used by graduate schools of social work for the appointment, retention, and promotion of their faculties. A content analysis of the study is discussed, and a unique behavioral model for the evaluation of faculty competence is offered. (Author/LBH)

Two general dimensions of teachers' behavior--the teacher's personal relationship with students and his emphasis on course content and learning tasks--are studied in their relationship to organizational leadership behavior. (Author/KM)

An examination of student evaluation of course quality showed student evaluation to be the most powerful input variable. Lecturer and textbook evaluation had significant effects on whether the student would recommend the course to others. The quality of instruction in introductory courses has impact on future enrollment plans. (Author/MLW)

Although there are serious reservations regarding student evaluation, many of the students and teachers who have used evaluation instruments have found them to be effective in improving the learning process. The effectiveness of evaluation depends upon the quality of the climate in which it takes place. (MLW)

The correlation between teaching excellence and research efforts is investigated in a study done at the University of Maryland. Data suggest that productive faculty--as evidenced by their writings, addresses, and external funding--are among those identified by both their students and their professional colleagues as proficient instructors. (MLW)

Although teaching portfolios are now used widely in North American colleges and universities, origins can be traced to an initiative of the Canadian Association of University Teachers in the 1970s. Reasons for development of the teaching dossier are outlined, and the evolution of the concept is chronicled. Some unresolved issues in their use to…

Questions raised frequently by college and university faculty about use of portfolios to document effective teaching are answered. The questions address such issues as how the portfolio is organized, what it should reflect, how and by whom it is used, preparation time, the mentor's role, reliability, subjectivity, maintaining the portfolio's…

While student evaluations of teaching performance can provide useful feedback on faculty, particularly on dimensions of course delivery, there are serious limitations. Bias and distrust are often overlooked in interpreting student ratings. An inappropriate use is in rank-ordering faculty in a department. Student evaluation data must be integrated…