The Evaluation Of Teaching Has Become A Widely Accepted Practice
In the last ten years the evaluation of teaching has become a widely accepted practice in higher education, but methods vary widely from school to school and from department to department. Recent national interest in the quality of teaching in higher education has spawned a movement to include teaching effectiveness in the criteria for promotion and tenure decisions, even in some research universities. Some departments already use teaching evaluations informally in promotion and tenure decisions, usually as a verification that minimum standards are being met. Many departments use evaluations to decide which graduate students will receive teaching assistantships. In the last twenty years, researchers have confirmed the stability, consistency, and validity of student ratings of instruction. Most factors that one might expect to influence student evaluations have little or no effect. Neither student characteristics (sex, age, class level), course characteristics (size, subject matter), nor instructor characteristics (sex, rank, age, etc.) have much effect on the