A study of student completion strategies in a Likert-type course evaluation survey

This article investigates the motivations and strategies employed by respondents to a Likert-style course evaluation at a UK university. These attitude surveys, generating large amounts of quantitative data, are commonly used in quality assurance procedures across UK higher education institutions. Similar student survey results are now scrutinised by regulatory bodies undertaking external inspections, and by prospective students when making choices about their course and university of study. For respondents, I argue that the ubiquity of such evaluations has led to complacency, misunderstanding and apathy, with the adoption of completion strategies that lack deep engagement. This research also reveals that the recollection of specific key events and the existence of personal relationships are the strongest influencers in respondents allocating an attitude score. I conclude that the distinction between formative and summative evaluation could be articulated more explicitly to respondents, and that to genuinely inform future teaching and enhance satisfaction for respondents, substantive qualitative comments should be sought alongside attitudinal scoring.     

The Assessment of Higher Education Quality from the Perspective of Students through a Case Study Analysis

The assessment of quality in higher education from the perspective of students has three dimensions: students’ assessment of teaching, students’ satisfaction and students’ learning engagement. These differ in conceptions of quality, evaluation methods, evaluation content, evaluation purposes, traits and priorities. The authors conducted three rounds of empirical investigations to study higher education quality assessment from students’ perspective and concluded that students play multiple roles in higher education evaluation and assessment, all of which can be improved by strengthening students’ objectivity and participation, evaluating the added value of a college education oriented to student development and taking the students’ perspective as an important way to contribute to higher education quality enhancement, assurance and control, and make proper use of higher education evaluations and assessments.     

浅谈素质教育下高校课堂教学中的学生评价

课堂教学评价是对课堂教学效果的评价，以及对构成课堂教学过程各要素作用的分析和评价。我国现阶段高校课堂教学评价存在许多弊端，与素质教育、创新教育不相适应，需要改革，在课堂教学评价改革中应渗透学生主体、创新素质、学生发展等素质教育的要求。     

University Evaluations and Different Evaluation Approaches: A Finnish Perspective

Evaluation of higher education can be described a species of its own with only few connections with other fields of evaluation. When considering the future developments in higher education evaluation (quality assurance), it is useful to observe its similarities and differences with various evaluation approaches in other than higher education evaluation. The purpose of the paper is to consider the place of Finnish university evaluations on a more general “evaluation map”, by comparing them with other evaluation approaches, especially utilisation-focused evaluation, realistic evaluation and empowerment evaluation.     

韩国大学的社会评价探析

随着高等教育的发展,韩国的大学评价也逐渐多样化,其中社会评价受到人们越来越多的关注。韩国中央日报社的大学评价与企业视角中的大学评价在评价目标、评价内容、实施方法等方面各具特点,一方面为学生、家长及企业界等教育消费者提供了大学的相关信息,努力促进大学的发展;另一方面也受到大学的批评与质疑,其发展状况值得人们关注。     

Alice in Oman

The success of university-level education depends on the quality of underlying school education and any deficiency therein may be detrimental to a student’s career. This may be more glaring with Computer Science education, given its mercurial nature. In the developing countries, the Computer Science school curricula are usually stuffed with obsolete, unnecessary and dry contents. The problem is multiplied by the lack of qualified school teachers and separate media of instruction at the school and the university. In this paper we are focusing on the computer Science pedagogy at schools, with a possibility of introducing approaches, like Alice. The latter may on one hand be appealing to both the students and teachers and on the other hand may require a lot less training. With that in view, an experiment was designed to teach Alice, to sampled K-12 students, and study the ensued effects. The outcomes were realized in two ways. One, the attendees were required to furnish a small project/task in order to judge their understanding of Alice. Two, the students were surveyed for their views on Alice and possible inclusion of such approaches in their course. Given the brief contact time, the results were found to be promising as most of the respondents were in favor of a change in the approach Computer Science teaching. The tasks were well received by the respondents and most of them carried out the tasks assigned to them, enthusiastically. English language Comprehension was the single largest problem and that’s why the students demonstrated reluctance in adding dialogues on part of the characters. As far as the responses to the questionnaire were concerned, an overwhelming majority had a favorable opinion of the approach. They found it easy to use, understand, comprehend and considered it useful in initiating a novice to programming. They even rated it superior to their current syllabus. Some questions were chosen from the futuristic point of view and the responses were more than expected as the students felt motivated towards studying IT after coming across Alice. The only thing the respondents insisted was the inclusion Arabic language support in the future versions of Alice.     

中职学生积极心理品质现状调查和教育对策

积极心理品质培养是积极心理健康教育的核心内容.为了解当前我国中等职业学校学生积极心理品质发展状况,本研究使用《中国中小学生积极心理品质量表》调查了1942名中职学生,发现:(1)总体而言,中职学生积极心理品质的认知、情感、人际、公正、节制、超越等六大维度发展状况良好;(2)在15项积极心理品质中,中职学生发展最好的三项品质为爱、心灵触动和信念希望,发展最差的三项品质为真诚、创造力和领导力;(3)不同经济发展水平地区的中职学生在积极心理品质六大维度上存在显著差异;(4)积极心理品质六大维度存在显著的年级和性别差异,总体而言,除公正维度外,在积极心理品质的五个维度上,中职学生得分随年级的升高而提高;男生在公正维度上得分显著高于女生;(5)与全国高中生比较而言,除节制维度中职学生得分显著高于全国高中生外,在认知、情感、人际、公正和超越维度,中职学生得分均显著低于全国高中生;除求知力、思维与洞察力品质差异不显著外,中职学生与全国高中生在13项积极心理品质上均存在显著差异.最后,提出了培养中职学生积极心理品质的有关建议.     

A proposed methodology for contextualised evaluation in higher education

This paper aims to inspire stakeholders working with quality of higher education (such as members of study boards, study programme directors, curriculum developers and teachers) to critically consider their evaluation methods in relation to a focus on student learning. We argue that many of the existing methods of evaluation in higher education are underpinned by a conception of learning that is de‐contextualised. As a consequence, many data collection methods do not address aspects that affect students’ learning. This is problematic because the core aim of higher education is to facilitate student learning. We propose a contextualised evaluation methodology, guided by 10 key questions, which can help evaluators address concepts and questions of student learning in their evaluations.     

Widening participation on early childhood studies and early years education degrees

This paper describes an evaluation of a joint project in 2001 between Sheffield Hallam University, regional further education (FE) colleges and the Building Pathways team. The project's purpose was to develop clear progression routes into higher education (HE) for FE students studying on Advanced Diploma, Higher National Certificate and Higher National Diploma courses in childcare and education. The work reported here represents the first part of the evaluation and seeks to illuminate some of the key factors involved in translating principles and objectives associated with widening participation into reality. The main aims of this evaluation were to review the process by which a set of widening participation agreements were reached, to identify key factors for success and to ascertain any issues arising from and during the process itself. The evaluation also sought to elicit information from respondents concerning possible future strategies to further develop the agreed progression routes. The second phase of the evaluation (2002–2003) will focus on the student experience and seek to understand factors that enable or hinder the success of those students who take advantage of these routes. The paper is set in the context of national widening participation policy developments since 1997, with FE and university responses to these developments relating to early childhood studies and early years education degrees. The paper discusses factors, identified by participants in the project, that facilitated or hindered attempts to widen and improve access for regional FE students onto the HE early years provision at Sheffield Hallam University.     

‘Just enough to make you take it seriously’: exploring students’ attitudes towards peer assessment

The use of peer learning and peer assessment has gained considerable interest in higher education driven by both its educational value and by its ability to provide students with the opportunity to develop important transferrable skills. This paper reports on the use of peer learning and peer assessment with a cohort of four-year undergraduate physiotherapy students and an 18 month taught post-graduate teacher education programme. The study observed the students’ engagement in the process, surveyed their opinions on the activity at the end of the experience and conducted one focus group discussion with a subset of students from each cohort. The study found that the vast majority of respondents felt that the experience was valuable and enjoyable. However, when asked to indicate whether it was a fairer method of assessment there were more varied responses. Similarly when asked whether their peers should have a greater say in their overall grade the majority disagreed. Views on the educational value of the experience appeared to differ between the two cohorts of students. The study highlights the influence of a prevailing assessment cultures on students’ engagement in peer learning which requires consideration when including such pedagogical approaches.     

Student Teaching Feedback and Evaluation: Results From a Seven-State Survey

Recent surveys have provided some guidance and recommendations for the student teaching component in early childhood teacher preparation, but specific information on the focus of supervision and evaluation of student teachers is limited. The current study surveyed 128 early childhood programs in 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education across seven states. The study collected data in areas such as which students receive feedback, how students are supervised and evaluated, and what types of assessment tools contribute to the evaluation. Results indicate that across 2- and 4-year institutions, language and literacy are a strong focus of feedback for student teachers, as well as child development, planning, and adult–child interactions. Student teachers are typically supervised through on-site visits that range in number and length fairly dramatically across 2- and 4-year institutions. Finally, the use of specific tools for evaluation varies across programs; about a quarter of programs surveyed use a published tool to evaluate student teachers. The majority of programs use an evaluation tool that is based on local, state, or national standards. Findings are discussed in terms of early childhood teacher preparation programs and the continuing discussions of recommendations for student teaching.     

Eliciting student feedback for course development: the application of a qualitative course evaluation tool among business research students

Student evaluations of teaching and learning are playing an increasingly important role in the delivery of high-quality, student-centred education. Insights into student perceptions of their learning experience provide important information that can be used to inform course design and development. The majority of course evaluations take the form of quantitative surveys, but research suggests that a reliance on survey data alone can be problematic from a teaching and learning perspective. Qualitative course evaluations have been cited as a viable alternative to quantitative evaluations, but less research has been conducted into their efficacy when compared to quantitative evaluations. The study on which this article reports attempted to contribute to addressing this shortcoming by describing and assessing a novel approach to eliciting qualitative feedback from students in a research methodology course at a higher education institution in South Africa. Conventional content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative feedback received from students. The qualitative course evaluation approach was then appraised in terms of the degree to which it has the potential to overcome the shortcomings associated with quantitative course evaluations and the extent to which the information gathered could be used to improve the design and delivery of the academic programme.     

Tertiary teachers and student evaluations: never the twain shall meet?

Internationally, centralised systems of student evaluation have become normative practice in higher education institutions, providing data for monitoring teaching quality and for teacher professional development. While extensive research has been done on student evaluations, there is less research-based evidence about teachers’ perceptions of and engagement with student evaluations, the focus of the research reported in this paper. An interpretive approach framed the study in which data were gathered through questionnaire and interview responses from teaching staff at three New Zealand tertiary institutions. Results highlighted the general acceptance of the notion of student evaluations, recurring ideas about the limitations of evaluations and significant gaps in the way academics engage with student evaluation feedback. Recommendations for enhancing teacher engagement with student evaluation are made to optimise the potential for student evaluations to inform teaching development and to improve students’ learning experiences.     

Liberal Arts Core Curriculum Quality Assurance Based on Teaching Evaluation by Students: A Case Study of Fudan University

Abstract

After more than 20 years of exploring liberal arts education in Chinese universities, its curriculum development has been institutionalized. Efforts to build localized curricula that fit the realities at each institution have shifted from focusing on quantity and structure to emphasizing curriculum quality assurance based on teaching evaluation by students. An empirical analysis using Fudan University’s teaching evaluation data shows that some liberal arts core courses offered by technical and engineering departments are too specialized, while some offered by social sciences and humanities and languages departments lack rigor. Student evaluations of such courses therefore tend to be low. Improving the quality of liberal arts courses can begin by examining both teaching evaluations by students and course grading, starting with the less rigorous courses for non-majors. Improving the quality of liberal arts courses can begin with the courses that are too specialized or lacking rigor based on both teaching evaluations by students and grade distribution.     

教师和学生对“学生评教”的看法调查

本研究调查了52位外语系教师和116名公共外语研究生对于“学生评教”的看法。结果显示,大部分师生赞成“学生评教”。他们认为这种做法在一定程度上可以提高教学质量。他们对其他问题的回答也给我们提供了有益的信息,有助于进一步完善评估体系。     

Implementing Outcomes Assessment in an Academic Affairs Support Unit

While outcomes assessment has become a focus for institutions of higher education, assessment in academic support units remain sparse. Traditionally, assessment has been comprised of one-time student satisfaction surveys and/or supervisor evaluations tied specifically to job criteria. Although informative, these methods fail to account for or measure specific student learning outcomes completed by students via their interaction with faculty and staff. This article presents the development and implementation of a program of outcomes assessment at a 4-year public university in the northeast. Results indicate that students come to college with varying expectations of the role of academic advisors and range on a continuum of academic and social preparation to meet the demands of higher education. A majority of students are meeting the stated learning outcomes. Feedback from this assessment model is being used to improve the quality of services provided to successive cohorts of students at this institution.     

高职院校体育教学职业化模式的构建——以柳州职业技术学院为例

以柳州职业技术学院原有体育教学模式为基础,针对高职院校学生未来职业特点构建起体育教学职业化模式,探讨体育教学职业化模式在高职体育教学中的应用前景,借以更好地完善高职院校体育教学的实际功能。     

关于教育改革中的几个问题——刘佛年同志在全国普通教育整体改革研讨会上的讲话(节录)

在二十世纪八十年代的教育改革中,质量观和人才观是教育思想上值得考虑的两个问题。人才的培养质量受到评价标准的制约,我们的衡量标准要考虑多方面因素,基于全面发展的观点,帮助学生更好地适应将来的社会。我们既要充分发挥绝大多数学生的才能,又要能培养有特殊专长的尖端人才。教育内容方面,课程设置要多样化,将课内教学与课外活动相结合,同时重视校园文化建设。教师要根据不同的教学目标和条件选择相应教学方法,使学生变被动学习为主动学习,培养学生积极的学习态度,在掌握知识中发展能力;教育评价的目的在于通过反馈来改进教学,从而促进学生的学习。最后,在师生关系上,教师要吸引学生参与教学活动,鼓励他们取得成功,学生则要充分发挥其主动积极性。     

论高等职业院校开展劳动教育的主要障碍与推进路径

劳动教育和职业教育均具有同源性、实践性和教育性。但职业教育是一种教育类型,更具经济功能,其直接目标是培养个体的职业技能,而劳动教育则是贯穿于各种教育类型的一种教育形态,更具政治功能,其直接目标是促进个体劳动价值观的形成。高等职业院校开展劳动教育是扭转鄙薄职业教育的社会观念,提升职业教育生源质量,构建完善的现代职业教育体系的现实需要。然而,当前高等职业院校在开展劳动教育方面存在着三大障碍:劳动教育未能适应新兴劳动形态更新教育内容;专兼职劳动教育师资匮乏且职业发展前景堪忧;劳动教育评价过度以选拔性和结果性评价为导向。对此,高等职业院校亟需通过紧扣新时代发展特色更新劳动教育内容,打造高质量开展劳动教育的专兼结合的师资队伍,构建以发展性、过程性和质性评价为主导的劳动教育评价体系,实现高质量开展劳动教育的目标。