A brief introduction to the evaluation of teaching and learning

1. EVALUATION OF TEACHING
By ANNE OLSEN
http://therealsingapore.com/sites/default/files/field/image/teacher-evaluation-feature.jpg

2. Food for thought
• Why do we teach?
• How do we know we are teaching
well?
• Is our students’ success our success?

3. http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2007/12/electronic-devices-in-schools-please.html

4. Why evaluate?
Teaching and Learning Policy:
“Encourage and enable staff and
students to take co-responsibility
for the quality of the learning
experience provided.”

5. And the purpose?
To create and sustain a responsive
learning environment conducive to
excellence in teaching and learning and
fostering holistic student success

6. It’s a process
Evaluating one’s teaching encourage academics to
engage in a process which has become known as
reflective practice, which entails using one’s
experience as an opportunity to consider both one’s
teaching philosophy and practice
Hammersley-Fletcher, L & Orsmond, P. (2005), “Reflecting on reflective practices within
peer observation. In. Studies in Higher Education Vol 3, No. 2, April 2005 pp. 213-224

7. http://www.lisaendersby.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/reflect_cartoon.gif?maxWidth=500

8. What does the research say?
• a prerequisite to improving teaching is having
an effective way to evaluate it
• a valid evaluation of teaching is based on a
portfolio containing assessment data from
multiple sources
– ratings from students
– peers
– administrators
– self-ratings
Brent, R & Felder, M. (2004) A Protocol for Peer Review of Teaching. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for
Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Available online:
http://www.lmu.edu/Assets/Centers+$!2b+Institutes/Center+for+Teaching+Excellence/Brent+Felder+Protocol.pdf
reflect on every aspect of
teaching, including course
design, classroom
instruction, assessment of
learning, advising and
mentoring

9. A successful evaluation:
• Valid
• Reliable
• Indicates directions and actions for
improvement
Which teaching practices are more effective
than others in a specific context?
• Responsibility for each individual academic

10. The benefits?
• Improves the teaching and learning experiences for students
and academics
• Engagement in a scholarly review of teaching
• Promotes professional development through professional
conversations
• Provides the individual student with an opportunity to offer
constructive criticism to his/her lecturer
• Provides the student body with a voice in developing and
maintaining an effective lecturing and curriculum
• Provides the individual academic with data that may be used
in support of his/her considerations for promotion
• Provides data to benchmark teaching and learning quality
within and beyond the NMMU;
• Provides data that may assist in making curricula decisions
• Provide evidence that academics can use as indicators of
teaching performance

11. Brookfield’s 4 lenseshttp://edtechsally.blogspot.com/2011/05/message-in-online-bottle.html
Some Sources of
Data for Evaluating
Teaching and
Courses:
• Self-Reflection
• Students
• Colleagues
• Literature

12. Self-evaluation
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSaWmOZkhqGUAotF068jMR1003Je6MNFOy_rIbPR2m4csFK1x7q

13. Student feedback
• Student feedback questionnaire
• Small Group Instructional Diagnosis
(SGID)
• 1 minute papers

14. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~exet2581/teach/teach.html
Valuable but subjective
Inspiring
I can ask
questions in
class
Makes me
want to work
by
myself

15. Peer / teaching observation
Sullivan et al. BMC Medical Education 2012 12:26 doi:10.1186/1472-6920-12-26
Download authors' original image
It is good practice for peer evaluation to be a planned and
structured process, involving these separate stages:

16. Literature
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/files/sotl-spotlight.png

17. Which one?
• Why only pick one?
• Consider:
– obtaining student feedback
– conducting a SGID and other focus
group/interviewing techniques
– setting up a peer review
– reqiesting teaching observations
– finding literature on teaching and learning
– deciding how to respond to feedback you
have received building a portfolio

18. Questions?
http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/craft/teac
her-appreciation-gifts-teacher-quote-in-frame/
Thank you
Anne-Mart Olsen