The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the current requirements of teacher evaluation at Saudi Arabian universities and to develop a teacher evaluation program that would fit the current need and support Saudi social and religious values. The site of the study was Ring Abdulaziz University (R.A.U.) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Population of the study included a random sample of senior students and faculty from the Women's Section of the university. Of 350 surveyed students, 224 responded, and 55 out of 150 surveyed faculty responded. The Dean and the Vice Deans of the Colleges of Science, Medicine, Arts and Literature, and Economics and Administration in the Women's Section were interviewed. The study involved two phases. The first phase was the assessment, for which interviews and surveys were employed. Interviews of top administrators at R.A.U.'s Women's section had two aims: to get top administrators' views of the current requirements of teacher evaluation at K.A.U., and to define the need for employing a formal system of teacher evaluation. The faculty survey sought faculty members' views on the methods of instructor evaluation currently employed and their preferences regarding a wide range of instructional evaluation techniques. The student survey sought to ascertain students' wishes to improve the process of learning by participating in teacher evaluation. Development of a proposed teacher evaluation program followed an analysis of the interviews and surveys. The second phase of the study was the field review. The proposed teacher evaluation program was reviewed by a selected sample of 13 top administrators at K.A.U. in both the Men's and Women's sections and by two top administrators in both King Saud University and King Faisal University. Field reviewers were asked about program clarity and the feasibility of its employment. Findings from phase one, the assessment, indicated the need for a formal evaluation system to replace the currently employed practice of teacher evaluation. This finding led to the development of a teacher evaluation program that takes into account the felt need of students to participate in the evaluation process without fear of any kind of reprisal from faculty and the desire of faculty not to have their status within the university system compromised by such a process. Findings of phase two, the field review of the program, resulted in a revised and final version of the program. The final teacher evaluation program contains three major components: (1) campus orientation, designed to acquaint faculty and students with the program and help them to understand its purpose and adjust to its employment; (2) students' rating, which includes a questionnaire to be used by students to evaluate instruction, along with various options for administering the questionnaire; and (3) data analysis, interpretation and improvement strategies.

The professional development of teachers is a continuing issue that concerns both teachers and organisational administrators. This study is concerned with one aspect of this broad issue: the manner in which teachers determine their professional development needs in the context of the varying individual and organisational changes they face. To conduct this study a process to assist teachers determine their professional development needs was developed, implemented and evaluated. This occurred as a series of case studies with a group of teachers drawn from the N.S.W. Department of School Education. Throughout the study a number of key issues are considered. These include teachers' responses to professional and personal change, an examination of a holistic range of potential needs, and techniques that teachers are able to use to appraise and validate their needs. The study sought to gain new understanding of the processes used by teachers in their professional development needs analysis, and to develop a model that can be used by teachers and schools for these purposes. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This paper argues that credit ratings have contributed to the current financial crisis. In United States, the previous “reputational model” as well as the current proposals aimed at reducing reliance on rating agencies, enhancing competition and increasing transparency is not sufficient to improve the integrity of rating agencies. This paper suggests that imposing stricter liability on rating agencies is necessary. The proposal to eliminate the exemption of NRSROs under Section 11 of the Securities Act is necessary but not sufficient for holding rating agencies accountable. The first amendment defense always shields rating agencies from legal liability, while the absence of a common standard make it hard to impose liability for negligent ratings. Finally, this paper suggests that the courts should not award the rating agencies First Amendment protection and consider the distinguished characteristics of rating agencies, when examining the professional liability of the agencies.

This paper argues that credit ratings have contributed to the current financial crisis. In United States, the previous “reputational model” as well as the current proposals aimed at reducing reliance on rating agencies, enhancing competition and increasing transparency is not sufficient to improve the integrity of rating agencies. This paper suggests that imposing stricter liability on rating agencies is necessary. The proposal to eliminate the exemption of NRSROs under Section 11 of the Securities Act is necessary but not sufficient for holding rating agencies accountable. The first amendment defense always shields rating agencies from legal liability, while the absence of a common standard make it hard to impose liability for negligent ratings. Finally, this paper suggests that the courts should not award the rating agencies First Amendment protection and consider the distinguished characteristics of rating agencies, when examining the professional liability of the agencies.

Universal screening for behavior is the use of a measure of social, emotional or behavioral function across an entire population with a goal of preventing future difficulties by intervening with students identified by the screening protocol. Multiple screening procedures have been used, with most including behavior rating scales in the selection process. The purpose of the present research was to investigate two central questions related to the use of universal screeners for behavior in school settings: first, can scores on universal screeners be used as an outcome measure investigating program based interventions, and second, what evidence of teacher bias exists when an external criterion of behavior is included. The purpose of study one was to determine if differences in teacher-rated behavior could be detected between a sample of students that attended public preschool and a nonattending peer group matched for ethnicity, gender, and a gross measure of socioeconomic status (total n= 138). Results of Study One indicated no significant differences between preschool-attending and nonattending groups (p=.61) or between Hispanic and Caucasian participants. Limitations related to sampling and measurement were discussed. In study two, a best-evidence synthesis of peer-reviewed articles investigating teacher bias in behavior ratings of students was conducted. Strict inclusion criteria were chosen to allow for inferential judgment of teacher accuracy. Results of Study Two found a final total of 25 studies of teacher bias that suggested mixed evidence for bias due to student ethnicity or gender and stronger evidence for bias due to expectancies (disability label), teacher culture, unrelated behaviors (halo effects), and teacher training and experience. Limitations, implications for practice and directions of future research were discussed.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and interpret the results of fall term student ratings of faculty teaching performance (n= 40,000) in order to determine whether relationships exist between a range of demographic variables and the ratings professors receive from students enrolled in their classes. A population of 645 full-time faculty and 273 teaching assistants from 11 colleges across Oregon State University were evaluated in fall term 1989-1990 by students who completed the university's Student Assessment of Teaching Instrument (SATI). The results from an analysis of demographic variables and faculty ratings revealed that students rated faculty significantly different in major and non-major courses. No differences were found between faculty ratings and student variables of GPA, expected grade, and percent of classroom attendance. Overall faculty ratings in large and small classes were not significantly different, although differences were found on several SATI instructional dimensions. Students in large classes rated faculty higher on clearly presenting course objectives/requirements, being well prepared and organized, clearly presenting subject matter concepts, and relevancy of examinations. Faculty in small classes received the highest ratings on the sensitivity of the instructor to student understanding material presented in class, or having more opportunity for student/faculty interaction. Statistical differences were found between graduate and undergraduate ratings of faculty teaching performance. Freshman class level in undergraduate courses and graduate students gave significantly higher faculty ratings than other levels. Significant gender differences were also found in student ratings of faculty in the Colleges of Engineering and Home Economics. Female faculty in Engineering received significantly higher ratings than male faculty by male students. Conversely, male faculty in Home Economics received significantly higher ratings than female faculty by female students. There was no significant difference between tenure status and faculty ratings; however a difference did appear when tenure was compared with faculty productivity rates (publications in refereed journals). No significant differences were found between publication rates and faculty rank. Differences in faculty publication rates appeared when gender of the faculty was analyzed. There was no significant difference between teaching performance ratings for all academic ranks of full-time faculty and non-international teaching assistants (NITAs). Statistical differences were noted for international teaching assistants (ITAs) and all academic ranks. Significant difference were found between NITAs and ITAs overall ratings as well as along several instructional dimensions of the SATI. / Graduation date: 1992

Ratings of e-auction sellers have been an important index for e-auction buyers to form their trust. Many researches show that trust impacts the success of e-auction. Reputation or ratings have significant impacts on trust in e-auction. In order to investigate the phenomena of ratings and trust, this research adopts the diffusion of innovation model to perform an empirical data fitting analysis for the trends of seller¡¦s ratings. The results show that the rating grows slowly in the beginning, and it accelerates when the ratings are accumulated. The maximum growth rate change usually is in the range of 240 to 320 for the numbers of ratings. It implies the sellers with ratings of the amounts sell more and grow quicker. It implies they have gained more trust from the e-auction buyers. The other possibility is that those sellers become more familiar and skillful to perform e-auction.

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Promptness of a reward and penalty system is critical to effectively serve the purpose of incentive provision or prevention from repeating a mistake for judiciary officials. Exactitude of the implementation, on the other hand, depends on whether the resultant verdict is over-crediting the reward or the penalty. As to the scrupulousness of verdicts, it can be evaluated through the consistency of the criteria and the compliance of procedural justice. The fundamental principle to establish a reward and penalty system for civil servants, through internal management activities in government agencies, is to reward those who have an outstanding performance on job duty, an excellent record of service, or a great contribution to the agency, and to punish those who abuse their power, infringe human rights, or have a moral misconduct. Judiciary officials are part of civil servants and their job duty is to assist the proceedings of judiciary cases. They are expected to comply with a higher moral standard than other civil servants. The reward and penalty system has long existed and practiced for centuries. Its importance to manage a vast body of civil servants is undeniable. Various sources of literature on personnel administration also show that a good system design will have a positive effect to improve job performance and increase morale. However, the number of rewarding case for judiciary officials is far less than that for other civil servants, and very few rewarding cases are proposed. Moreover, no accounting item of the prize for the rewarding cases is officially budgeted. As a result, all of the rewarding cases in the end are treated by giving over-time working salary. This thesis will discuss why the reward and penalty system is designed as a quota system in which the number of rewarding cases has a cap in proportional to the total number of personnel in the court, and whether this is the reason for applying stringent criteria to those whose job is transferred from other government agencies. This thesis is to study the promptness, exactitude, and scrupulousness of the reward and penalty system for judiciary officials based on the framework of five theoretical aspects, administrative theory, administrative organization, administrative privilege, administrative remedy, and administrative supervision. The difference of the actual practices in the court administrative system versus in other civil-servant agencies will be also discussed. International comparison with the judiciary system in the United States and China is provided, as well as suggestions for future research.

Ruhr-Universiẗat, Diplomarbeit--Bochum, 2006.