Explores the faculty evaluation process at Oklahoma State University using a survey and interviews. Finds support for the judgmental aspects of appraisal but a desire for greater focus on faculty development. Suggests that a combined approach to evaluation, while diminishing the focus of both forms, can have positive results both for faculty and…

Discussed is a method of small-scale course evaluation that is performed as part of a larger, integrated process of course review and redesign and carried out by a team including an external evaluator and the course teaching staff. (MSE)

Discusses issues concerned with diversity and selecting peer institutions against which institutions of higher education attempt to "benchmark" themselves. Suggests diversity and peer selection can be closely linked conceptually within single scales of similarity and dis- similarity. A case study illustrates connections between diversity and peer…

Began the development of the evaluation of a new "capability based" undergraduate curriculum in which generic or transferable capabilities are offered across all courses through integration into disciplinary contexts. Discusses questions of performance indicators, measurement, and educational outcomes and their implications for the…

A discussion of the use of performance indicators in evaluating higher education institutions in the United Kingdom argues that significant factors have not been adequately considered. A framework for designing a linkage between intrainstitutional and extrainstitutional indicators of performance is offered. The relationship between qualitative and…

Interviewed Australian professors about the assessments they employ in undergraduate classes. Found that their global orientations to assessment practice (described as a matrix of six orientations made up of six beliefs) could be ordered along a continuum from emphasis on knowledge reproduction to emphasis on knowledge construction/transformation.…

Issues in the debate over student evaluation of college faculty are discussed, including appropriate measures of teaching effectiveness, reasons for assessing teaching, reliability and validity of student ratings, and how assessments are conducted. Guidelines for implementing a system of regular, institutionwide evaluations are outlined. (MSE)

The unique characteristics of institutional management in higher education and the type of information management required to improve institutional performance are examined. The criteria that information must meet to be useful for management purposes are discussed. (MLW)

Critical issues in the evaluation of instruction are reviewed. The purposes of evaluation (for reward and accountability, or improvement of instruction) and identity of the evaluations (students, reporters, peers, administrators, consultants) are discussed and a plea is made for tying evaluation to systematic training schemes. (Author/LBH)

Three approaches to external evaluation to help align an institution's general and specific goals with its administration are suggested, including evaluation by accreditation agencies and evaluation research, governance audit, and optimization review. (MSE)

Two explanations of the underlying process in faculty self-evaluation by videotape recording are outlined and integrated into one conceptualization. One theory is based on affect: self-confrontation, dissonance, stress, distress, and eustress. The second is based on a cognitive and information processing approach and includes feedback,…

A new questionnaire entitled "Evalec" (for evaluating faculty lecturing) incorporates principles of both the appropriate teaching-learning model and the students' more subjective dimension. This allows for transformation of student perceptions into constructive advice to the teacher. (MSE)

Curricular strategies for preventing examination anxieties, developed by the University of Newcastle medical school rather than adopting medical or psychological treatment methods for students, are discussed. The changes and students' satisfaction and the school's attitude towards program improvement are reviewed. (Author/MLW)

An alternative technique, cost-effectiveness analysis, is proposed as a more appropriate way of evaluating the Open University. A rudimentary application of the technique to the cost structure of OU indicates that it could result in a substantial reduction in OU's costs. (Author/LBH)

A conceptual scheme is provided for the evaluation of instruction and ways are suggested for analyzing evaluation in terms of (1) those components of the scheme that pertain to the instructor and his institutional context, and (2) those that pertain to the institution and its societal context. (Author/LBH)