In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities which constitute an effective teacher and promote a positive learning climate, a field study methodology was employed to develop an evaluative instrument and to gain descriptive data. For the purpose of developing an instrument to describe and measure effective teachers, 24 actual learning sessions (classes) were observed, extensive notes taken, and tape recordings were made in order to isolate and describe the behaviors which seemed critical to the situation being studied. This was done by observing the teacher as he taught and the learners while they learned. The teacher was reputed to be an "effective" teacher and was chosen for this reason. At the end of the 24 sessions the perceptions, observations, and inferences of the investigator were measured against those of the learners in the same classroom situation to determine how congruent they were. The results of the study also confirmed the reputation of the teacher. This information was utilized in the development of scale items. In addition, a second study was designed as a measure of the same teacher, teaching another course, and different students (92 second year medical students). A questionnaire was designed to test the overall effectiveness of the teacher, by the students, and just as important as the rating was the information elicited from the students regarding the teacher and the class process. This was done by way of open ended questions, and the coding of these questions by the investigator. This information too became useful in developing scale items. Once the scale items were developed by the empirical method described above, the items were pretested on teachers teaching in the same department as the exemplar teacher. The results of the pre-test were statistically significant correlations between the scale items and a student rating of the overall effectiveness of the teachers being studied. The scale items were refined and tested on another larger and different samples of teachers. The teachers in this sample were teachers at Portland State University in various departments. Thirty teachers participated in the testing of the instrument. This part of the study was designed to compare the instrument developed by the investigator using the process of a trained observer (direct observation) against a study designed and developed by the traditional survey method of scale development which utilized factor analysis to select scale items. The correlation between the b10 scales (a split model design was used--one half the students answered the investigator's instrument, one half the students answered the criterion instrument) was nearly perfect.

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Prior to 1980, most research on performance appraisal focused on rating formats. Since then, most performance appraisal research has focused on the internal processes of raters. This study redirects the focus back onto rating format with a critical eye towards rating accuracy. Ninety subjects read several hypothetical descriptions of teacher behavior and then rated the teachers on different dimensions of teaching performance using computer-based rating formats. It was found that rating format does affect some measures of rating accuracy. In addition, support was found for the viability of a new rating format. Graphic rating scales with no anchors received higher accuracy scores on certain measures of accuracy, higher ratings for liking of the rating format, higher levels of comfort with the rating format, and higher levels of interrater reliability than either BARS or graphic rating scales with numerical anchors. This study supports the ideas that rating format research should be reexamined with a focus on rating accuracy and that computer-based graphic scales with no anchors should be considered as an alternative to more traditional rating methods. / Master of Science

Credit rating agencies judge the creditworthiness of the debtors and debt obligations and the relative probability of their default. Credit rating plays a very important role in the financial markets. It influences the behavior of all participants (investors, debtors and regulators) of the market transactions. The first part of the thesis deals with definition and function of the credit rating. The main controversial points in the activity of the credit rating agencies will be discussed, as well as how the industry is regulated. In the second part it is claimed that the opinions of the credit rating agencies on sovereign bonds (sovereign rating) contribute to the overheating of the economies or to the deeper recession due to procyclicity of the rating. The actual credit rating of the country will be compared with a rating based on a theoretical model designed with publicly available economic data.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

There are three purposes of this study: (1) to determine the degree of interaction between pupils and student teachers and teaching effectiveness as rated by pupils; (2) to determine the significance of difference of pupil ratings between those who express "more" and those who express "less interest" in the course taught by the student teacher whom they were asked to rate; and (3) to study other variables such as sex, age, and achievement in order to show how they relate to pupil and student teacher interaction.

Master of Science / Department of Psychological Sciences / Patrick A. Knight / Despite the functional importance of performance appraisals in organizational settings, rating inaccuracies persist and have been a widely researched topic for decades. Contemporary efforts to explore the problem have turned to components of accuracy to foster a more detailed understanding of the influence of situational factors and individual biases. In particular, a great deal of research has examined the role of rating purpose (e.g., administrative, developmental) on subsequent accuracy, consistently revealing greater leniency for administrative ratings than for developmental ratings. On the basis of spreading activation theory, rating purpose was conceptualized as a priming event, and in combination with rating strategy priming, was expected to prompt predictable enhancements to specific components of accuracy. Participants for this experimental study were 160 undergraduate students. Participants were randomly assigned a rating purpose with “real-world” implications, and exposed to a strategy priming task designed to promote specific rating cognitions. Students viewed video-recorded competitive marching band performances, and rated them. Participants’ ratings were compared to those made by experienced raters to compute accuracy estimates. Results were largely non-significant, but in the directions expected. Limitations and future research opportunities are discussed.