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In an ever increasingly competitive global marketplace, a concern exists that American students are not being adequately prepared with the skills needed for the 21st century. As a remedy, improving quality of teacher instruction is a current national focus. Stakeholders are questioning current infrequent and inefficient methods of evaluating teacher performance. Many states are looking at using a 360 model of evaluating through multiple perspectives including the students themselves as key stakeholders. One method of accessing student voice and adding another perspective to teacher evaluations would be to include student evaluations in the rating of teacher performance, Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET). While using student evaluations of teacher performance is wide spread in higher education, the practice has been limited in public school settings until brought to light by the publication of the recent Gates Foundation MET (Measures of Effective Teaching) Project (2010). Currently, states across the nation are considering adding a student input component to teacher evaluations. With the validity and reliability of student evaluations in the university settings still under debate by professors, public school teachers also fear punitive measures and public judgment based on the verdicts of adolescents. This research examined the archival data from a program study of one high school's student evaluation implementation process, accessing teacher feedback from the initial evaluation process and then an adjusted implementation of student evaluations according to teacher feedback the following year. Based on mixed method design using both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze teacher questionnaires, focus group open-ended responses and statistical analysis of close-ended agree/disagree statements from teacher questionnaires, this study used triangulation to explore teacher reflections on their anxiety levels created by the student evaluation implementation process, the value they found in student evaluations, and the degree to which student evaluations facilitated change in their teaching instruction. Exploring possibilities through the eyes of teachers to reduce their anxiety and increase their value of student input, this study suggests ways to tap into the potential but underutilized resource in schools that could come from developing a mutually beneficial partnership between students and teachers to improve teacher instruction and increase student learning.

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Declining enrollments and continuing tuition increases are having major impact on all universities. It is a commonly accepted fact that the quality of a university can be directly related to the quality of its faculty. With this assumption in mind, a university must then determine the best method for evaluating the teaching effectiveness of its faculty members. The study is an examination of certain student characteristics that might affect the attitudes of students when evaluating instructors. Seven individual student characteristics (sex, age, academic level, major, nationality, teaching preference and leadership experience) were examined to determine if there was any relationship between these characteristics and the student's attitude toward the instructor evaluation process. In addition, the responses obtained in the study were compared to those in similar studies previously conducted at Kansas State University and the University of Southern California. The research population consisted of 567 students enrolled at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida. Students who participated in the research were enrolled in courses offered by the Management Department and they were requested to evaluate their instructor at the completion of each course. The data for the study were obtained from a 27-item questionnaire titled Student Attitude of Evaluation Questionnaire. Ten of the items related to demographic data and 17 items related to student attitudes toward different aspects of the evaluation process. Information from the returned questionnaires was evaluated and tabulated utilizing the SPSS/PC program Analysis of Variance: Procedure ANOVA. An analysis of variance at the .05 level of significance was employed to examine the research questions. On an overall basis, there was no significant difference in students' attitudes toward the evaluation system based on individual student characteristics. However, the research did reveal some significant differences on individual items, i.e., one group feeling much stronger about a particular issue than another group. It was concluded from the research that students are strongly in favor of student evaluation of instructors, especially female students and lower-level undergraduate students.

No / This study investigates an inclusive curriculum design based on student-centred approach. This proposed design approach has been applied to Open Channel Hydraulics module (CSE6008-A) at School of Engineering, University of Bradford, United Kingdom. This paper will introduce in step-by-step manner the full curriculum design and how the student-centred approach is being adapted in each step of the design. The required criteria will be designed based on learning outcomes design, curriculum organization, assessment strategies and student achievement evaluation. Besides, a key discussion will also be allocated for the inclusive practice that allows the vastly diverse student group to benefit from this approach, and a separate section will also be utilized to fully discuss this inclusive approach in the proposed curriculum design. This paper proposes a useful student-centred curriculum design concept, which is adaptable for different engineering modules.

This dissertation investigated the relationship between course characteristics and student ratings of instruction at a large research intensive university. Specifically, it examined the extent to which academic field, course level, and class size were associated with variation in mean class ratings. Past research consistently identifies differences between student ratings in different academic fields, but offers no unifying conceptual framework for the definition or categorization of academic fields. Therefore, two different approaches to categorizing classes into academic fields were compared - one based on the institution's own academic college system and one based on Holland's (1997) theory of academic environments. Because the data violated assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance, traditional ANOVA procedures were followed by post-hoc analyses using bootstrapping to more accurately estimate standard errors and confidence intervals. Bootstrapping was also used to determine the statistical significance of a difference between the effect sizes of academic college and Holland environment, a situation for which traditional statistical tests have not been developed. Findings replicate the general pattern of academic field differences found in prior research on student ratings and offer several unique contributions. They confirm the value of institution-specific approaches to defining academic fields and also indicate that Holland's theory of academic environments may be a useful conceptual framework for making sense of academic field differences in student ratings. Building on past studies that reported differences in mean ratings across academic fields, this study describes differences in the variance of ratings across academic fields. Finally, this study shows that class size and course level may impact student ratings differently - in terms of interaction effects and magnitude of effects - depending on the academic field of the course. / Ph. D.

Learning technologies in computer science education have been most closely associated with teaching of programming, including automatic assessment of programming exercises. However, when it comes to teaching computer science content and concepts, learning technologies have not been heavily used. Perhaps the best known application today is Algorithm Visualization (AV), of which there are hundreds of examples. AVs tend to focus on presenting the procedural aspects of how a given algorithm works, rather than more conceptual content. There are also new electronic textbooks (eTextbooks) that incorporate the ability to edit and execute program examples. For many traditional courses, a longstanding problem is lack of sufficient practice exercises with feedback to the student. Automated assessment provides a way to increase the number of exercises on which students can receive feedback. Interactive eTextbooks have the potential to make it easy for instructors to introduce both visualizations and practice exercises into their courses. OpenDSA is an interactive eTextbook for data structures and algorithms (DSA) courses. It integrates tutorial content with AVs and automatically assessed interactive exercises. Since Spring 2013, OpenDSA has been regularly used to teach a fundamental data structures and algorithms course (CS2), and also a more advanced data structures, algorithms, and analysis course (CS3) at various institutions of higher education. In this thesis, I report on findings from early adoption of the OpenDSA system. I describe how OpenDSA's design addresses obstacles in the use of AV systems. I identify a wide variety of use for OpenDSA in the classroom. I found that instructors used OpenDSA exercises as graded assignments in all the courses where it was used. Some instructors assigned an OpenDSA assignment before lectures and started spending more time teaching higher-level concepts. OpenDSA also supported implementing a ``flipped classroom'' by some instructors. I found that students are enthusiastic about OpenDSA and voluntarily used the AVs embedded within OpenDSA. Students found OpenDSA beneficial and expressed a preference for a class format that included using OpenDSA as part of the assigned graded work. The relationship between OpenDSA and students' performance was inconclusive, but I found that students with higher grades tend to complete more exercises. / Ph. D.

The problem of this investigation is to determine the relationships between certain cognitive, conative, and demographic variables and student ratings of instructors and introductory economics courses at North Texas State University. In addition, the study seeks to determine whether significant, interactive effects exist among the seventeen main variables: pretest, posttest, sex, age, college major, required course, actual grade, residence, SAT, socioeconomic class, Opinionation, Dogmatism, instructor, course rating, instructor rating, expected grade, and attitude. The principal sources of data are students' test scores on the Test of Understanding in College Economics, Rokeach Scales of Opinionation and Dogmatism, Modified Purdue Rating Scale, Personal Data Sheet with Hollingshead Index, and Questionnaire on Student Attitude Toward Economics-Revised. The organization of the study includes a statement of the problems, a review of the literature related to student ratings of courses and instructors, the ethodology used in the statistical analysis of the data, an analysis of the data, and the findings, conclusions, implications, and recommendations for additional research. Chapter I introduces the background and significance of the problems. Hypotheses are stated in the research form, terms in the study are defined, and limitations are delineated. Chapter II is a topically-arranged review of the related literature, including both experimental and descriptive studies. Literature is included on student ratings of courses and instructors, attitude, achievement, grades (actual and expected), and student characteristics. Chapter III includes information on the population of the study, the Test of Understanding in College Economics, Modified Purdue Rating Scale for College Instructors, the Rokeach Dogmatism and Opinionation Scales, the Questionnaire on Student Attitude Toward Economics-Revised, Hollingshead Two-Factor Index of Social Position, the variables used in each study, methods of data collection, and stepwise multiple linear regression, the basic statistical design employed in the study, with a nonlinearity factor added. In Chapter IV, data were analyzed and reported in tables of regression coefficients on Studies One through Six: actual grade, course rating, instructor rating, expected grade, student attitude, and posttest. A summary table is included for the significant, absolute beta coefficients for these six studies. Chapter V concludes that grade expectations, Opinionation and Dogmatism, ability levels, and attitude influence student ratings. For example, very bright students tended to be more discriminating in their ratings of their courses. Students who liked the instructor and were less open-minded tended to rate the course high. Grade expectations tended to exert a negative influence on course ratings; students with high grade expectations rated the course low, and students with low grade expectations rated the course high. The combination of a student with high grade expectations and a student with high SAT score resulted in a low rating for the instructor. A student's background (Dogmatism, Opinionation, and place of residence) influenced his attitude toward economics. Higher grade expectations were correlated significantly with a favorable attitude toward economics. Significant demographic variables related to conative and cognitive variables were SAT, expected grade, actual grade, Hollingshead socioeconomic class, residence, Dogmatism, and Opinionation. The implication from these findings is to use student ratings cautiously as a consideration for university merit raises and/or faculty promotions. Reasons for caution stem from the significant findings of the influence on student ratings of several cognitive, conative, and demographic variables. Too much appears to be happening in the teaching-learning process which cannot be measured accurately.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The substantial growth of online education has increased the demand for faculty who possess online teaching skills. Many institutions of higher learning offer training programs to teach faculty ways to facilitate online learning. However, the literature on online educations lacked studies demonstrating how those who complete training programs apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate how online faculty apply the training principles and strategies learned in an online faculty-training program and how students perceive teaching effectiveness. Using a case study approach and collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data determined the: (a) frequency with which faculty applied effective teaching practices learned in an online education training program; (b) barriers to using effective teaching practices in online teaching after completion of an online faculty-training program; and (c) perceptions of online students concerning faculty teaching effectiveness. The researcher used the Instructional Practices Inventory (IPI) to collect information from faculty concerning their online teaching strategies, including frequency and ease of use and proficiency of application. The researcher employed the Student Evaluation of Online Teaching Effectiveness survey (SEOTE) to determine student perception of teaching effectiveness. Data included follow-up faculty interviews, the IPI, and the SEOTE responses to create an in-depth investigation of the application of the strategies learned in the online faculty-training program. The IPI faculty survey identified the frequency of use, the ease of use, and level of proficiency of instructional strategies using the Seven Principles of Good Practice. Faculty tended to use principles that related to the online course they taught and identified time constraints as a major barrier to incorporating some of the instructional strategies. Means for instructional strategies were generally higher on ease of use and level of proficiency than they were on frequency of use. Follow-up faculty telephone interview confirmed this finding. The SEOTE results determined student perception of faculty use of the Seven Principles of Good Practice. Principle 3, active learning, ranked highest and Principle 2, cooperation among students, ranked lowest. Due to the small sample size, the finding of this study should not be generalized to other institutions.