Evaluating University Teaching: time to take stock

Abstract

In the chapter that Dunkin and Barnes wrote for the Handbook of Research on Teaching (1986), they made the observation that evaluation and the improvement of teaching have always been linked concepts in higher education. This assertion is questioned and it is argued that since student course ratings are the predominant way of evaluating teaching in most universities, the link between evaluation and improvement is at best, tentative. It is argued that in order for the evaluation to lead to improvement, there is a need to have a measure of all the elements that together make teaching what it is. This paper attempts to extend the existing conceptualisation of teaching and proposes a model that shows the underlying processes that influence action. The model highlights the significance of conceptions and belief structures, knowledge and the context within which the instructional event takes place. The paper concludes by suggesting activities and instruments which may have greater potential in providing information about the quality of teaching and are more likely to lead to change in thinking about teaching and subsequently practice.