Teaching Evaluation
~ Why Evaluate?
The information you get when you conduct an evaluation is primarily
used "summatively" or "formatively". That is, it is primarily used to sum up how
good or useful something was, or what to do to make it better.
"Primarily" is the key word. No evaluation activity is designed "exclusively"
for summative or formative use. All evaluations have a summative and a formative
value, and most information gathered by the evaluation methods provided by CEDAM
can be used both "summatively" and "formatively".
Evaluations which are conducted at or near the end
of a teaching and learning experience, and which provide a retrospective view
of the overall value of that experience are usually thought of as "summative". They
yield information of particular value in identifying areas in need of large-scale,
long-term development - development which will probably not take place until the
following semester or the following year. When this happens, the students who gave
you the feedback may not experience the benefit. The information yielded by "summative"
evaluations can be used to give a snap-shot of the quality of your teaching as it
is perceived by your students. A series of such snap-shots. gathered over time,
is often thought to be very useful in personnel decision making.
Evaluations which are conducted during a teaching and learning
experience are often called "formative" evaluations. The information gathered
by these means is of particular value in improving or maintaining the quality of
the teaching and learning experience from day to day, or week to week. If you act
promptly on information gathered for formative purposes, the students who gave you
the information will experience the benefit and will appreciate your attention to
their views and ideas. Information gathered for formative purposes may also be used
to supplement or complement information gathered expressly for summative purposes.
ANUSET, ANUDEQ and SEET
data are primarily used for summative purposes, but may also be used formatively
to give rise over time to significant improvements in the quality of teaching and
learning. Consult CEDAM staff members for assistance.
ANU's Online Feedback for Teaching Enhancement data, and data
gathered by TOOLKIT methods, are primarily used formatively, (i.e. to guide
you in making things better for you and your students) but can be used to supplement
and complement ANUSET data when documenting the quality of your teaching.
Consult CEDAM staff for assistance.
TOOLKIT methods - i.e. evaluation methods designed to gather
feedback from students, peers, 'stakeholders', and oneself, without using questionnaires.
The principal virtue of using non-questionnaire-based evaluation methods is that
they make it possible for you, sometimes quite quickly and easily, to get a far
greater volume and range of information to use when maintaining or developing the
quality of your teaching than instruments like ANUSET are able (or designed) to
gather. Consult CEDAM staff for assistance.
Another virtue is that, using ANUSET and two or more TOOLKIT
methods consistently over time enables you to "triangulate", i.e. consistently over
time to gather information in a number of ways from a number of sources about selected
aspects of your teaching, to contextualise, confirm, or simply shed light on the
information gathered in any one way from any one source.
Such triangulations are of considerable assistance when presenting
a case for promotion, tenure, or any award based on merit. The virtues of such triangulation
are discussed in which are designed to
assist you in documenting the effectiveness of your teaching.
