Teacher Evaluation, Research Paper Example

Here, we have obtained a copy of a tool that is used to evaluate teaching in a higher education setting. The instrument is summarized and explored as to how the organization uses the tool as part of teacher performance evaluation. Furthermore, how this tool can be used to monitor the effectiveness of learning plans is described. The tool that is studied is the NIU (Northern Illinois University) Course and Instructor Evaluations (NIU, 2011).

The evaluation is administered at the end of every semester in every course (NIU, 2011). The evaluation is used to get student opinions about the performance of instructors and the quality of courses (NIU, 2011). It asks students to evaluate the following:

1. How well an instructor uses class time
2. The logical organization of the course
3. The quality of examples used
4. The level of preparedness of the instructor
5. How well the instructor uses the material
6. The quality of instructor presentations
7. How well course objectives were accomplished
8. How available the instructor was
9. How much class participation was encouraged
10. How well lecture complimented text
11. The quality of test materials
12. The students’ individual nuances (NIU, 2011)

In principal, these measures are used to the university and departments to grade instructors and develop methods for improving courses and their instruction (NIU, 2011).

After grades are submitted, each department of the university is responsible for doing distributing the results to the faculty (NIU, 2011). In the event that a course or instructor warrants significant improvement, the department is responsible for confidentially counseling the instructor (NIU, 2011). The aim is to improve the instructor’s performance and the course if necessary (NIU, 2011). Furthermore, the data is used to recognize the achievements of individual instructors (NIU, 2011). As part of the process, the performance of each instructor as evaluated by students weighs on decisions with respect to tenure, advancement and raises (NIU, 2011).

Although such evaluation processes are better than no such process at all, people should understand their limitations. They are only as valid as the number of respondents for each instructor or course (NIU, 2011). Plus, it is important to note that in some respects they may be political. I have personally witnessed times when one, two, or three students attempted to get the rest of the class to give the instructor a poor evaluation because they were unsatisfied with previous grade. This is just one such example of how the evaluation process may be misused. Here, we have obtained a copy of a tool that is used to evaluate teaching in a higher education setting. The tool that was studied is the NIU (Northern Illinois University) Course and Instructor Evaluations. The instrument was summarized and explored as to how the organization uses the tool as part of teacher performance evaluation. Furthermore, how this tool can be used to monitor the effectiveness of learning plans was described.

References

Northern Illinois University. (2011). NIU Course and Instructor Evaluations. Retrieved from http://www.niu.edu/testing/evaluations/CourseEvals.pdf