Weighed in the Balance: Evaluating Teaching in Higher Education
November 30, 2015 - 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Ambassador Auditorium
Keynote Presenter Dr. Nira Hativa
At this forum, hosted by Provost Douglas Kneale, university instructors, staff, and administrators explored how teaching is documented and evaluated, here and elsewhere. The forum was a collective opportunity to take stock of our experiences, our beliefs and doubts, the challenges we face, and some of the research in the field.
Our goals were:
- to begin the process of identifying fair and effective evaluation practices that legitimately contribute to teaching improvement and to a more comprehensive, sophisticated understanding of teaching quality; and
- to explore how universities have successfully taken on the task of doing evaluation better.
The Forum was free for all members of the University of Windsor community.
Keynote Presenter:
Nira Hativa
School of Education, Tel Aviv University (TAU)
Almost everything you ever wanted to know about Student Ratings of Instruction (SRI)…
Abstract
Student ratings of instruction are one of the most controversial issues in institutions of higher education. Faculty and administrators have been engaged in extensive debates on countless concerns, beliefs, and misconceptions regarding potential biasing factors affecting student ratings. Although there is impressive research evidence of the reliability and validity of the results of student ratings, misconceptions and beliefs persist, leading faculty and administrators to question the appropriateness of their use or misuse, particularly in making personnel decisions.
This presentation addressed faculty misperceptions, concerns, and reservations about various aspects of SRI, and provided valid and reliable information on these issues, based on extensive research that took place mainly in American colleges and universities, as well as studies performed using the extensive SRI database at TAU.
Presenter Bio:
Nira Hativa had her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mathematics from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and her Ph.D. in Math education from Stanford University. She has been a (full) professor of teaching in higher education in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and worked as a teaching consultant and faculty developer at both TAU and Stanford University. In the last decade, she's served for seven years as the director of The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and as the director of the online SRI system, at TAU. She has published 7 books in English, 3 books in Hebrew, and almost 200 articles and book chapters related to effective teaching in higher education and to student ratings. For the last 15 years she has been the editor of a journal in Hebrew for teaching in higher education, funded by a prestigeous governmental agency. She has also served as the head of the Israeli network of teaching centers, and as the Israeli rep to ICED (International Consortium of Educational Developers).