Evaluation of higher education teaching with the questionnaire student response to instruction

Abstract

The evaluation of teaching quality by students is currently a common event at universities. There are many different methods of getting feedback from students. Various forms of questionnaires belong to the most commonly used methods, because they are practical. The need to streamline the process of evaluation of teaching at a specific university department resulted in a year-long project which was aimed at testing a new evaluation system using the questionnaire Student Response to Instruction. The questionnaire was first validated in 2004 in the Czech university environment. It focuses on individual school subjects and their teachers. It monitors the following areas: understandability of teacher's explanation, preparation for classes, timekeeping, teacher's attitude to students, feedback in the classroom, interaction in the classroom, stimulating students' interests and global ratings. The study aims to evaluate the usability of the tested questionnaire in the current conditions of the selected university department. The secondary objective is to present the results of evaluation achieved by applying this evaluation tool in the academic year 2014/15. We concentrate on the actual assessment of the questionnaire's validity and reliability. We present descriptive and inductive statistical analysis. Furthermore, we present proven methods by which we were able to increase students' interest in the evaluation of teaching, while ensuring the most relevant statements from their side. We also concentrate on the limits that are within the application of the questionnaire in practice.