Effects of a teaching evaluation system: a case study

Objectives: This study aims to identify the effects of evaluation on teaching and discusses improvements in the work of the evaluation office. Methods: Teaching evaluation data from 2006 to 2009 was collected and analyzed. Additional surveys were conducted to collect the perceptions of students, faculty members, peer reviewers, deans and chairs about teaching evaluation. Results: Evaluation scores for more than half of faculty members increased, significantly more for junior compared with senior faculty, over the period of the study. Student attendance and satisfaction with elective courses increased after interventions identified by teaching evaluations. All participants believed that teaching evaluation had positive effects on teaching quality and classroom behavior. Seventy-three percent of faculty believed the evaluation helped to improve their teaching skills. Faculty perceptions of the helpfulness of teaching evaluation were related to the speed in which evaluations were reported, the quality of comments received, and the attitudes held by faculty towards evaluation. All the faculty members, chairs and deans read evaluation reports, and most of them believed the reports were helpful. Conclusions: Teaching evaluation at SMMU was perceived to improve both the teaching quality and classroom behavior. Faster feedback and higher quality comments are perceived to provide more help to faculty members.