Evaluating teaching effectiveness: where we are and where we should be

Although many studies have examined techniques used to evaluate faculty performance, the literature has generally provided mixed results regarding the proper ways to measure teaching effectiveness. This paper provides the results of a survey of 1300 administrators and faculty of AACSB International accredited institutions. Respondents were asked what they believe is currently being used, and what should be used, to evaluate overall faculty performance and teaching effectiveness. Differences in responses are evaluated across school types, respondent positions, and respondent years of experience. The findings of this study provide a ‘benchmark’ of measures administrators can use to evaluate faculty performance.     

Assessment of Classroom Environments in Reformed Calculus Education

Research was conducted to determine if current reforms in calculus education are more inclusive of students of different genders, personalities, attributional beliefs, mathematical abilities, and computer attitudes. Two types of calculus reform are examined: a computer-assisted, student-centred and inductive reform based on the Calculus and Maple (C&M) package; and a teacher-only, teacher-centred and deductive reform. Both methods emphasise student participation in the learning and employ collaborative-learning groups mixed by ability and the assessed sociometric measures, but not mixed by gender. The classroom environments of the reform classes were assessed qualitatively using free-form surveys, interviews and classroom observations, and assessed quantitatively using the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI). The classroom environment of reform classes was compared qualitatively to the normal lecture environment. Students assessed the classroom environment as being significantly less favourable than preferred, confirming general dissatisfaction with socio-emotional aspects of university classes, even when adopting modern educational reforms. Differences in the actual and preferred classroom environments were observed in all class sub-divisions (i.e. gender, personality) and across all environment scales of the CUCEI. The research illustrates the psychosocial diversity of reforms for university classrooms and the desirability of evaluating such reforms using a learning environment inventory as well as conventional qualitative measures.     

Television viewing at home: age trends in visual attention and time with TV

The TV-viewing behavior of 99 families with young children was videotaped by automated time-lapse recording equipment placed in homes for 10-day periods. The 99 families comprised 460 individuals from infants to 62 years of age. Time-sample analyses of 4,672 hours of recordings indicated that the TV-viewing room contained no viewers 14.7% of the time that the TV was on. There were no age trends in time spent with television. Percent visual attention to television increased greatly across the preschool years, leveled off at about 70% during the school-age years, and declined in adulthood. Men looked at the TV more than women. There were no significant correlations between time spent with TV and percent of visual attention to TV. The increase in visual attention to television during the preschool years is consistent with the theory that TV program comprehensibility is a major determination of attention in young children.     

Ally,Advocate, Activist: Semester-long civic engagement in the basic communication course

Courses: Basic communication course.

Objectives: Using the Ally, Advocate, Activist framework in a basic communication course will help students apply course concepts to their lives and communities. This framework helps students practice civic engagement while mastering the skills that are typically tested for assessment purposes in the basic communication course.     

A note from the general editor

A note from the general editor     

Call for papers for the Sixth International Conference on Cultural Economics,Sweden, 1990

Notes

Call for papers for the Sixth International Conference on Cultural Economics, Sweden, 1990