Abstract
BackgroundHigher education institutions have executed policies and practices intended to determine and promote good teaching. Students’ evaluation of the teaching and learning process is seen as one measure of evaluating quality and effectiveness of instruction and courses. Policies and procedures guiding this process are discernible in universities, but it is often not the case for nursing colleges.ObjectiveTo analyse and describe the views of nursing students on block evaluation, and how feedback obtained from this process was managed.MethodA quantitative descriptive study was conducted amongst nursing students (n = 177) in their second to fourth year of training from one nursing college in KwaZulu-Natal. A questionnaire was administered by the researcher and data were analysed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences Version 19.0.ResultsThe response rate was 145 (81.9%). The participants perceived the aim of block evaluation as improving the quality of teaching and enhancing their experiences as students. They questioned the significance of their input as stakeholders given that they had never been consulted about the development or review of the evaluation tool, or the administration process; and they often did not receive feedback from the evaluation they participated in.ConclusionThe college management should develop a clear organisational structure with supporting policies and operational guidelines for administering the evaluation process. The administration, implementation procedures, reporting of results and follow-up mechanisms should be made transparent and communicated to all concerned. Reports and actions related to these evaluations should provide feedback into relevant courses or programmes.
Highlights
There is world-wide awareness of the significance of investment in higher education for economic growth and social development, resulting in great emphasis on quality assurance to ensure educational relevance (World Bank 1994:1)
Higher education institutions (HEIs) have executed policies and practices intended to determine whether service delivery is of good quality, as well as promoting and rewarding good teaching (Carr & Hagel 2008:153; Shah & Nair 2012:275)
According to Meng, Chea, and Nooi (2012:2), a successful evaluation process utilises a questionnaire with items that are relevant for purpose and agreed upon by the student evaluators and the lecturers to be evaluated
Summary
There is world-wide awareness of the significance of investment in higher education for economic growth and social development, resulting in great emphasis on quality assurance to ensure educational relevance (World Bank 1994:1). Various studies have reaffirmed the main purpose of student evaluation of teaching and learning as collecting information for making two types of decisions; formative and summative (Huxham et al 2008:675; Machingambi & Wadesango 2011: 167; Palmer 2012:975). Formative decisions are made by teachers to improve their teaching performance, whilst summative decisions are made by administrators to judge their personnel (Palmer 2012:976) These decisions need to be made on a fair basis because they are of crucial importance to a teacher’s career (Cleary et al 2013:63). The primary focus of this study is SET processes for formative use
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