Developing an evaluation system for undergraduate teaching.

ABSTRACT

Many teachers teach with very little concern about their own teaching skills. Thus they miss the opportunity to identify the lacunae in their teaching. Hence the present study was undertaken to develop an evaluation system for undergraduate teaching and to test its acceptability and workability. The evaluation system was aimed to identify lacunae in teaching and encourage the teachers to overcome them. An objective type questionnaire which could evaluate the teaching skills like set induction, content, presentation, student teacher interaction was designed. Five randomly selected teaching sessions of each teacher were evaluated. The anonymity on the part of students and teachers was maintained. The lacunae noticed in teaching and ways to overcome them were discussed with each teacher individually and confidentially. The teachers were encouraged to overcome them. The evaluation system was found to be workable, acceptable and easy to implement. It was useful and effective for evaluation and improvement of the faculty. It was also found to be inexpensive and less time consuming. The students’ feedback can form a workable and inexpensive system to evaluate and improve the faculty. Such a study is beneficial for the teachers, students as well as the institution. Such a regular system of evaluation can help considerably to develop the faculty as well as to improve the standards of teaching. When coupled with peer evaluation, the system established in this study can be used to assess and improve the individual / departmental teaching.