Class size and college students' evaluations of teachers and courses: A closer look

A systematic analysis of extant studies reveals, on average, a very weak inverse association between the size of class enrollment in a college course and students' overall evaluation of the course and its teacher, as well as between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's skill in presenting material and communicating information. Larger inverse associations are typically found between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's interactions and interrelationships with students. This pattern of findings is consistent with the accumulating evidence that the instructional dimensions of the first set have greater importance for students in forming their global opinions of teachers and courses than do those of the second set. The further finding in some studies of a negative curvilinear (roughly U-shaped) relationship between class size and evaluations is noted and discussed. Implications for the validity of teacher evaluations are considered and the related question of whether class size biases these evaluations is explored.     

Teachers'' Perceptions of a Learner-Centered Teacher Evaluation System

Promoting success for all students is the driving force to develop and implement sound teacher evaluation systems. As Stronge suggests, the two most frequently cited purposes of personnel evaluation are accountability and performance improvement (1997, p. 3). As a result, researchers are conceiving of teacher evaluation as a mechanism for improving teaching and learning (Danielson and McGreal, 2000). On the other hand, others affirm that the trend in teacher evaluation is toward more self-evaluation and expanding one's teaching repertoire (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1999, p. 8). However, teachers' voices relative to emerging teacher evaluation trends are missing. Thus, this study explored teachers' perceptions about the support for professional development available to them, the perceived potential benefits of a learner-centered teacher evaluation system to enhance their professional growth, and pitfalls. Only elementary school teachers participated in the study. The researcher analyzed teachers' written responses to open-ended questions, and generated categories by emerging themes to determine teachers' perceptions.Findings of the study suggest that teachers receive support from both campus level and central office level. Teachers also believe that a learner-centered teacher evaluation fosters walk-through observations, opportunities for professional growth, feedback, learner-centered dialogue, a holistic perspective, and teacher self-evaluation. On the other hand, findings suggest that teachers question the labels for each level of performance, and are concerned that the system might be somewhat subjective. Finally, suggestions are made to conduct additional studies to further illuminate teachers' voices associated with teacher evaluation and development at other school levels, and to expand our understanding of emerging teacher evaluation formats which aim at student success.     

Science in the Trenches: An Exploration of Four Pre-service Teachers' First Attempts at Teaching Science in the Classroom

This paper explores four students' attempts at teaching science in the real world classroom during their initial student teaching practicum, including their struggles and successes. When pre-service teachers enter their initial practicum experience they are confronted with differing teaching philosophies of their own, their university professors, and their school mentors (Sullivan, Mousley & Gervasioni, 2000; John, 2001; Fu and Shelton, 2002). Within this situation, preservice teachers struggle to find their own niche of teaching science and learn to reflect as both learner and teacher (Kelly, 2000). Our goal as science teacher educators is to help pre-service teachers have an easy transfer from personal university experiences to teaching science in the real classroom environment while maintaining the integrity of newly learned teaching strategies (Segall, 2001). This work adds to and helps guide science teacher educators in identifying difficulties pre-service teachers' experiences in the transition from methods courses to practice.     

Elementary Science Methods Courses and the National Science Education Standards: Are We Adequately Preparing Teachers?

Despite the apparent lack of universally accepted goals or objectives for elementary science methods courses, teacher educators nationally are autonomously designing these classes to prepare prospective teachers to teach science. It is unclear, however, whether science methods courses are preparing teachers to teach science effectively or to implement the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996). Using the Science Teaching Standards as a framework for analysis, this research proceeded in two phases. During the first phase, the elementary science methods courses, perspectives, and practices of six science teacher educators were examined to determine similarities and differences in the course goals and objectives, overall emphases, and their efforts to prepare their students to implement the Science Teaching Standards. The second phase of the study investigated the elementary science methods courses of a national sample of science teacher educators as reflected in their course syllabi. It was found that universal inclusion of content related to the Science Teaching Standards does not exist, nor are there clear linkages between course goals, activities, and assignments.     

Course withdrawals: A probit model and policy recommendations

Withdrawals from college courses prior to the assignment of grades, but after the add-drop period, are analyzed. In a probit model student withdrawals appear to occur randomly with notable exceptions. The more experience a student has in college, the more likely it is that he or she will withdraw from any given course. Students who have withdrawn from courses in the past tend to withdraw again. Student motivation measures are related to the withdrawal decision. Physical and mental disabilities affect withdrawals only in certain courses while athletes are no more likely to withdraw from courses than nonathletes. Finally, there appear to be economies of scale in teaching: The more students an instructor teaches in other courses, the less likely it is that students will withdraw from the course under consideration. The number of students enrolled in the course, however, is not significantly related to withdrawals.     

The significance of circumstances for college students' ratings of their teachers and courses

Although firm generalizations and conclusions cannot yet be drawn from the extant research on the effects on teacher and course ratings of the circumstances surrounding these evaluations, at least some studies have shown that college students' ratings of their teachers and courses are somewhat higher when students remain anonymous rather than identifying themselves, when the purported use of the ratings is an official or administrative one for use in salary, promotion, or tenure considerations rather than otherwise, and when the instructor is present rather than absent during the rating session. (The differences between each of these contrasted circumstances are usually rather small and do not inevitably appear across studies.) Certain variations in rating format have been found to make a difference in the ratings obtained, whereas other have not. From limited evidence, the exact timing (or occasion) of evaluation appears not to be important to ratings. Variability in sampling procedures, as it affects the composition of students available to complete rating forms, may or may not turn out to be a generally important element in ratings (as directly relevant data are collected). The analysis concludes with a discussion of (1) the presumed bias in ratings produced in certain of the rating conditions and (2) the more general issue of the comparability of ratings made in different circumstances of evaluation.     

Confronting the biases in connoisseur review and performance indicators in higher education: A structural modelling approach

Scholarly productivity and the research reputation of academic staff frequently dominate as criteria in the review of higher education courses, disciplines and institutions, a bias which represents a profound hazard for plausible evaluation. Three distinct outcome constructs were identified from analyses of performance indicator data gathered on the accounting discipline in Australia. They were the scholarly productivity of the academic staff involved, the quality of teaching and learning as perceived by students and graduates, and the academic efficiency, in terms of subject completion rates, with which the courses were conducted. Each outcome was shown to be related in a different manner to various characteristics of the courses investigated. The results challenge the orthodox view that scholarly productivity will lead naturally to other desired outcomes of higher education, question the usual surface level interpretation of performance indicators, and suggest that evaluation in higher education might combine connoisseur and performance indicator approaches within the framework of a realist epistemology, placing emphasis on the structures and mechanisms which generate the diverse and distinct outcomes of different courses.     

From conception to performance: How undergraduate students conceptualise and construct essays

Interviews with forty six undergraduate students enrolled in either first or third year of a Bachelor of Education explored how they conceptualised and undertook an essay writing task. The conceptual structure of their essays was analysed using the SOLO Taxonomy. Comparisons between students who wrote essays of differing levels of complexity revealed that there were major differences between students at every stage of the essay writing process. Compared to students writing essays with simple conceptual structures, students writing more complex essays engaged in processes of reconstruction rather than knowledge telling, put more effort into finding references, used organisational systems for integrating their notes according to topics or themes, built arguments rather than presented information when structuring and drafting their essays, were concerned with improving ideas and arguments as well as mechanics when revising their essays, had a more sophisticated understanding of the concepts underlying the assessment criteria, and expected and received higher grades. The results suggest a developmental process in underlying conceptualisations of both the body of knowledge forming the content of the essay, and the essay writing processes themselves. As such, attempts to improve students' essay writing skills need to shift from a focus on discrete skills to an emphasis on the relationship between students' understanding of the content and their ability to write about it. As part of the writing process, students need help building understandings representing the body of knowledge they are writing about, and this help needs to be geared to their current level of operation.     

Namewriting: A step toward writing and reading

Teacher, I can read all the names on the locker, said Nikki, and to her teacher's amazement, she did. The teacher had expected this class of three year olds to learn to recognize their own names, but she hadn't forseen that some would learn all the other children's names as well.Sally Hruska, a former early education teacher, is a doctoral student at Michigan State University in Lansing. The teachers from Marquette-Alger Head Start provided many of the teaching ideas in this article.     

谈高校理论课教学质量评价体系构建与实践

高校一般对教师都有最低课时工作量要求,但缺乏完善的教学质量评价体系,以致多数教师注重数量而忽视质量.文章结合以往实践经验,构建高校教师教学质量的评价体系.该评价从学生、教学督导、同行专家、管理者四方面,构建理论课堂教学质量评价体系.对15名相关专业基础与专业课教师按照上述评价体系进行评价,权值按学生0.5、督导0.25...     

Using a single score for summative teacher evaluation by students

In spite of the hundreds of studies done on teacher evaluation by student ratings, there are still several major controversial issues of how to construct evaluation instruments that best serve their purpose. The present study contributes to one of the ongoing debates of recent years that addresses the number of teaching dimensions to be considered in decision making, namely, whether to use a single score or multiple scores for teacher evaluation. The study demonstrates using a short form on which the global score overall teaching performance can almost perfectly predict the mean of all teacher-attribute items. The questionnaire used in this study was administered eight times—twice a semester for two years—for all faculty members and TAs in the departments of physics and chemistry at Tel Aviv University. The composition of teacher attribute items was different for the faculty members and TAs, reflecting their different teaching functions—lectures versus recitation problem solving. Results show that while for the faculty the global score can simply replace the mean of all instructor-attribute items and serve as a single score that faithfully represents all dimensions of teacher ratings, for the TAs, a linear transformation is needed.     

“The good university teacher” as perceived by the students

Many universities, recognizing the student as the main consumer of college instruction, have begun to seek his views regarding the quality of teaching. In this study the Israeli student's concept of a good teacher has been investigated. A sample of second year university students were asked to select the three most important characteristics of a good teacher from a list of fifteen.It was shown that students attached primary importance to method of instruction. Of secondary importance was the teacher's ability to spark intellectual growth. Research talents, personality, and academic status were of relatively little concern. Social science, life science, law and medical students all concurred in emphasizing the importance of the teacher's ability to communicate ideas, whereas humanities students stressed his ability to stimulate thinking.It appears that undergraduate students rate teachers by their ability to transmit knowledge rather than according to the university's criteria of research and publication.The concepts good teacher and effective instruction are used interchangeably in this article, although they are not identical.     

Antecedents of college students' study deficiencies: the relationship between course features and students' study activities

Students entering institutions of higher learning have been observed to be deficient in the skills and dispositions necessary for engaging in sustained autonomous study. Evidence from investigations comparing instructional features and students' study activities across different courses and grade levels suggests that (a) particular features of courses may act to prompt or inhibit the development of proficiency at academic studying; and (b) the difficulties experienced by postsecondary students may be traced to certain discontinuties between characteristics of courses at the secondary versus post-secondary levels. These discontinuities can be described in terms of three dimensions: (a) differences in the demands made on particular study activities associated with different coursework requirements; (b) the degree to which instructors provide supportive practices designed to facilitate or sustain students' productive study activities; and (c) the prevalance of teaching strategies designed to compensate students for their study deficiencies. Using evidence from extant research on studying and results from recent investigation of secondary-level courses, the claim is made that particular patterns of instructor-implemented demands (workload, test difficulty, and latitude for self-direction) and compensations (test review practices, overlap between test items and instructor handouts, and the presence of safety nets) might account for deficiencies in the study activities of postsecondary graduates. Further, improving the level of preparedness of secondary-level graduates for the demands associated with higher education courses is discussed in terms of the need for the provision of particular support practices (e.g., feedback, clear performance expectations, and guided practice) in secondary-level courses.     

No comparison: Distance education finds a new use for ‘No significant difference’

Media comparison studies have long been criticized as an inappropriate research design for measuring the effectiveness of instructional technology. However, a resurgence in their use has recently been noted in distance education for program evaluation purposes. An analysis of the research design will detail why such a methodology is an inappropriate approach to such an investigation. Increased access to such programming does not seem to serve as a satisfactory benefit for the implementation of distance education efforts. Stakeholders desire to prove that participants in distance-delivered courses receive the same quality of instruction off-campus as those involved in the traditional classroom setting. However, the desire to prove that the quality of such distributed offerings is equal to the quality of on-campus programming often results in comparisons of achievement between the two groups of student participants. Statistically, such a research design almost guarantees that the desired outcome will be attained—that indeed distance learners perform as well as campus-based students.     

Promoting active student learning in strength of materials with the aid of CAI

The objective of this paper is to discuss how active student learning is possible with the aid of a CAI package for a subject such as Strength of Materials. Multimedia is the latest innovation that can be utilized to improve learning. In this study, multimedia components such as hypertext, sound, graphics, video, and animation are implemented in a CAI package. These capabilities can capture students' attention, and can also illustrate the application of knowledge to real world problems more effectively than traditional teaching methods. The other features of this package include guided examples, theory, and application tests. Guided examples show the students problem solving techniques, and provide feedback according to their responses. The theory and application tests enable the teacher to gauge the students' understanding of the subject matter. Students who do well in the theory test are eligible to attempt the application test, which poses real-world engineering problems. The lesson that can be concluded from this study is that students' problem solving skills can be improved with the aid of CAI which emphasizes anchored instructions. However, to achieve maximum benefit, students also need to possess independent learning skills.     

Computers and the emancipation of students: giving control to the learner

The paper considers two basic models of the teaching-learning process, described as the didactic and the communication model. These are applied to Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) in order to demonstrate that CAL has generally embodied a didactic model of teaching and learning. This imposes an unnecessary restriction on the student's freedom to choose their (Note 1) learning style, and the paper discusses how it is possible for CAL to support a less didactic model and to give more control to the student.     

Characteristics and careers of Canadian university presidents

This statistical study of Canadian university presidents was prompted by the discovery that there is no systematic demographic information available on university administrators in Canada. The vitae of 98 current Canadian university presidents and their immediate predecessors were collected and statistics such as age and length of tenure were compared with those of American counterparts. The Canadian university presidents assumed office at about 49 years of age and held office for about eight years. They tend to be born in geographical proximity to the institution they will head and to circle it geographically during their careers. A former association with the University of Toronto, either as a student or teacher, was common. There appears to be a career ladder which includes a decanal and/or vice-presidential position, particularly in central Canada; few presidents move to a second presidency, although several move into what might be termed an academic superstructure. Few Canadian presidents majored in the field of Education as a student or teacher and there is generally poor representation from the Arts as compared to the U.S.; on the other hand, the hard sciences are well represented. The implications of these tendencies are discussed.     

Will Teachers Receive Higher Student Evaluations by Giving Higher Grades and Less Course Work?

This study investigated whether mean expected grades and the level of difficult/workload in courses, as reported by students, unduly influence student ratings instruction. Over 50,000 college courses whose teachers used the Student Instructional Report II were analyzed. In addition to the two primary independent variables, the regression analyses included 8 subject area groupings and controlled for such factors as class size, teaching method, and student perceived learning outcomes in the course. Learning outcomes had a large positive effect on student evaluations of instructions, as it should. After controlling for learning outcomes, expected grades generally did not affect student evaluations. In fact, contrary to what some faculty think, courses in natural sciences with expected grades of A were rated lower, not higher. Courses were rated lower when they were rated as either difficult or too elementary. Courses rated at the just right level received the highest evaluations.     

Creating and knowing mathematics through language and experience

The radical constructivist assertion that the student constructs his or her own knowledge as opposed to receiving it ready made echoes the classical debate as to whether the human subject constitutes the world or is constituted by it. This paper shows how the philosophical traditions of post-structuralism and hermeneutic phenomenology offer approaches to effacing this dichotomy and how this forces a re-assertion of the teacher's role in the student's constructing of mathematical knowledge. It is also shown how hermeneutic phenomenology provides an opportunity to ground constructivist mathematical thinking in the material qualities of the world.     

Learn & Shop: An innovation in college credit programming

In the spring 1979, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis launched the nation's first Learn & Shop College Credit Program in which college-credit courses are offered in training rooms of major department stores in Indianapolis suburban shopping centers. In the fall, 1980, 2, 040 students are enrolled in 86 courses.Convenience is perhaps the organizing principle for Learn & Shop. Beyond the unique opportunities of having regular university credit courses offered in neighborhoods is the extra convenience of being able to admitted, receive counseling, register for classes, pay fees, and buy required textbooks without having to go on campus. As stated in the program's motto, The University Goes to the People so the People Can Go to the University.