Some Comments and Useful Remarks on Faculty Evaluation

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Some Comments and Useful Remarks on Faculty
Evaluation

• By
• H. Bahlouli, A. S. Al-Harthi and M. S. Kariapper
• Physics Department, KFUPM.

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Abstract

• Faculty evaluation by students is becoming an
  integral part of the education process.
• Relies on the quality of the questions as well as
  on the information drawn from the answers.
• Suggest some potential alternative questions.
• Summarize the outcome of a research work done in
  US-Universities regarding the effect of possible
  bias on the student evaluation.

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Purpose of the Evaluation

• Provide regular feedbacks to faculty members
  regarding their teaching performance.
• It also provides, as a consequence rather than a
  primary objective, an opportunity to assess
  strengths and weaknesses of faculty performance.
• Reward superior performance and identifies ways
  to improve lower ones.

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Instructor Evaluation Questions

• Display a personal interest in students and their
  learning.

• Discipline Does the instructor care about the
  learning atmosphere, how students behave in class
  and attendance of students on time.

• Provided timely and frequent feedback on tests,
  reports, projects, etc. to help students improve.

• Demonstrated the importance and significance of
  the subject matter and made it clear how each
  topic fit into the course.

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Instructor Evaluation Questions ..

• Encouraged students to use multiple resources
  (e.g. data banks, library holdings, use of
  internet and cooperation with friends) to improve
  understanding.

• Found ways to help students answer their own
  questions

• Explained course material clearly and concisely
  and relate course material to real life
  situations.

• Gave tests, homework, projects, etc. that covered
  the most important points of the course.

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Instructor Evaluation Questions ..

• Introduced stimulating ideas about the subject
  and inspire students to set and achieve goals
  which really challenged them.

• Encouraged student-faculty interaction outside of
  class (office visits, phone calls, e-mail, etc.).

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Correlated Questions

• Do you use office hours frequently ?Is the
  instructor helpful during office hours ?
• Textbook ( e.g. Did it correspond well to the
  syllabus ? Was it readable ? Did it contain
  sufficient examples ? )Does the instructor
  encourage the usage of the textbook ? ( e.g.
  Assigns reading material regularly ? Refer to the
  textbook during lectures ? Assigns homeworks from
  the textbook ? )

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Things to Avoid !

• Change from the standard ( ABCDF ) grading
  system.
• Letting the students answer unrelated questions
  and then discard them in the counting process.
• The textbook has many mistakes.
• The instructor seems knowledgeable in the subject
  of the course.

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Variables related/not related to evaluation

• Age of student
• Level of Student
• GPA of student
• Class size
• Time of the day course taught
• Time the evaluation is done

• Expected grade
• Grading leniency of instructor
• Faculty rank
• Expressiveness
• Student motivation
• Level of the course
• Academic fields
• Workload
• Presence of instructor
• Non-anonymous

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Conclusion

• In general, student evaluation, if the questions
  are more scrutinized, tend to be statistically
  reliable, valid, and relatively free from bias.
• The hope is that by better defining and selecting
  evaluation questions we will improve our teaching
  assessments.
• Will be able to develop a system to identify and
  reward effective teachers.