The ultimate criterion of effective teaching is evidence of impact upon student learning. Three purposes of evaluations are identified: to help faculty improve, to make personnel decisions rewarding good teachers and getting rid of those who are not, and to help students choose courses more wisely. (MLW)

Students should have input about the teaching that affects them, but, as faculty often assert, students are not competent judges of a professor's expertise. However, an instrument which elicited students' nonjudgmental descriptions of their teacher's behavior could add valuable information to an evaluation dialogue with the professor concerned.…

A study is discussed that examined: the instructional weaknesses and strengths of a teacher education curriculum course, the specific teaching behaviors that students liked and disliked, and specific recommendations which students felt would promote greater teacher effectiveness and improve learning. (Author/MLW)

A certification system for college faculty must effectively balance supply and demand, be criterion-referenced, choose criteria that command community confidence, be known throughout the market in which a given faculty member will operate, protect academic freedom, and provide a visible mark of distinction for faculty. While such a system has…

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is developing a program to assist in teaching skills instruction for pharmaceutical faculty, help faculty assess their own and peers' teaching, create criteria for determining teaching excellence, and institute a certification system for the designation Master Teacher in Pharmaceutical Education.…

This paper contends that the survey research approach is limited for generating substantive data to improve college teaching, because it is impersonal, lacks opportunities for probing, suppresses the idea of discourse by offering fixed-choice and yes-no questions, disregards respondents' social and personal contexts of meaning, and is dependent on…

The formal evaluation process (FEP) is the primary tool provided by most two- and four-year colleges and universities to create more effective teachers. Yet, the FEP has little impact on teaching practice. The FEP serves merely to classify a teacher as a success or failure based on written records and rating scales from observations conducted…

A survey of the literature of instructional evaluation, highlighting appropriate methods for encouraging, assessing, and documenting effective higher education English instruction, can aid English departments in search of valid measures of teaching effectiveness. Before a department can formalize any system of assessment, it must first establish…

Approved by the city's board of education in July 1982, Houston's Quality Assurance Program is intended to help assure continual professional growth for teachers. By establishing a system of faculty performance assessment, the program seeks to identify teachers' strengths and weaknesses, improve communication, and develop priorities for…

The use of arbitration to resolve faculty appointment, retention, promotion, and tenure disputes is addressed, based on a review of specific university arbitration decisions. The arbitration literature reveals that faculty employment status decisions are made almost exclusively with reference to academic judgment. Attributes that are frequently…

Education, training, and employment are addressed in 33 papers from a 1984 conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. Papers are grouped in the main categories of professional education and the influence of industry, course development for vocationalism, teachers and teaching, learners and learning, higher…

In 1984-85, a study was conducted to gather information about current professional development policies in New Jersey's county colleges, professional development activities and opportunities, the effectiveness of these activities, variations among campuses and disciplines, and incentives for participation. The study involved surveys of the…

A study based on a randomly-selected sample of 41 Ohio State University faculty was conducted to examine faculty member's receipt and use of feedback about instruction-related activities. The faculty was also asked to identify issues relevant to evaluation practices and improvement of instruction. Faculty reported relatively little effort directed…

An overview of current approaches and perspectives for assessing faculty performance is presented. The evaluation principles and models are applicable for assessment goals of providing classroom feedback to an instructor, developing promotion, tenure and reappointment procedures, and offering an interface between faculty assessment and career…

Brief, two-page papers are presented on 33 educational topics of interest to community college faculty, administrators, and staff. The following topics are considered: (1) strengthening the humanities; (2) common behavioral cycles evidenced in student-teacher relations; (3) irreducible factors for teaching and learning; (4) understanding problems…