Student perception of teaching effectiveness: development and validation of the Evaluation of Teaching Competencies Scale (ETCS)

A major criticism of student evaluations of teaching is that they do not reflect student perspectives. Using critical incidents job analysis, students identified nine teaching effectiveness competencies: communication, availability, creativity, individual consideration, social awareness, feedback, professionalism, conscientiousness and problem‐solving. The behaviourally anchored Evaluation of Teaching Competencies Scale is a highly reliable (alpha = .94), unidimensional measure that correlated strongly with an instructor‐related composite of the Students’ Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ, r = .72), but not to a SEEQ composite related to instructor assigned work (r = .04, N = 195). The results are discussed in the context of other measures of teaching effectiveness and transformational leadership theory.     

Mapping the classroom emotional environment

Harvey and Evans (2003) have proposed that teachers’ emotional skills, as required in the classroom, can be organized into a five-dimensional model. Further research is necessary to validate this model and evaluate the importance of each dimension of teacher emotion competence for educational practice. Using a statistical method for mapping psychological constructs, teachers’ emotional practices were transformed into a ‘map’ with three spatial dimensions, which was supported by comparative validity checks. The nature of emotional practice was further investigated by administering a Q-Sort of emotional practice items to 100 teachers. Ten highly applicable clusters of emotional behavior across six profile patterns with teachers were identified. Authors’ model and the applicability of emotions were generally supported.