Abstract
The use of questionnaires for the evaluation of instruction in higher education has been receiving increasing attention in the last decade. Against the background of existing validity problems the construction and analysis of a new type of questionnaire for the EV Aluation of LECturing (Evalec) is described. Since good lecturing can be defined in terms of a teaching-learning model that is also appropriate for the construction of a content-valid evaluation instrument. However, students' views of good teaching use a more naïve notion of good lecturing and these more subjective dimensions can be explored through factor analysis in order to establish the construct validity of the same questionnaire. Evalec uses both approaches; items are classified in a two-dimensional matrix covering both the model component involved and the dimension concerned. Moreover, the five initially constructed perception scales, each reflecting one dimension, can be reduced into three second-order factors which are identified in terms of Osgood's EPA-dimensions; as such they appear to be congruent with students' implicit description of their own study behavior. Consequently student perceptions can be transformed, in accordance with the teaching-learning model, into particular educational advice for improving instruction. In this way the problem of giving relevant and feasible feedback to the lecturer is simplified.
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De Neve, H.M.F., Janssen, P.J. Validity of student evaluation of instruction. High Educ 11, 543–552 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00194419
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00194419