Education at Flinders

A guide to the principles and policy framework
for education and teaching and learning.

EDUCATION PRINCIPLES:
REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF TEACHING

Flinders University aims to provide its students with effective teaching at undergraduate, honours and postgraduate levels. To facilitate the receipt of information about and to promote improvement in the teaching practices of all teachers, the University expects its academic staff to seek, reflect upon and respond constructively to all valid and reliable information about their teaching, especially student feedback. It also encourages its academic staff to avail themselves of a range of methods, especially peer reviews, that will better inform them about the impact of their teaching practices upon students' learning, participation and achievement.

The University believes that effective evaluation of teaching and appropriate responses to such evaluation are fundamental to good educational practice. The University regards this as a positive process to be used for the enhancement of staff development and student learning (formative evaluation). At the same time, it recognises that judgments must be made on the effectiveness of teaching (summative evaluation).

Accordingly, the University requires its academic staff, for both formative and summative purposes, to participate in the evaluation of their teaching, at a minimum through regular use of a standard instrument for gathering data from students. However, it accepts that evaluation can take many forms. Therefore, the University acknowledges that the data derived from an evaluation process must be interpreted carefully and used in an appropriate manner.

The student and peer evaluation that relates to the teaching performance of individual staff members is provided for the use of those staff and their supervisors, and is treated separately from the student evaluation of topics and courses.

Key Principles

1. Good teaching promotes good learning. The nature of, and support for, the environment in which the learning occurs is crucial to the achievement of good learning outcomes. Accordingly, Flinders University makes the achievement of good learning outcomes a matter of highest priority by implementing effective means to support, develop and evaluate teaching and individual teachers.
2. The University has promulgated a Policy on Evaluation of Teaching. This provides a framework within which appropriate processes for the evaluation of academic staff teaching may be used. This policy will guide all such evaluation. To assist its academic staff to be good teachers and to improve their teaching, the University will inform them about such matters as the nature and purposes of the evaluation of teaching; the range of tools and methods available for its conduct; how to use these effectively; how to interpret the results of evaluations; and generally it will support staff in their efforts at teaching evaluation.
3. The University intends evaluation of teaching to perform a range of functions. These include:
   - enhancing understanding about teaching and learning;
   - enabling staff to reflect upon their teaching skills;
   - providing staff with information about their teaching performance that will be useful for planning in respect of their own professional development;
   - assisting Academic Organisational Units to achieve and maintain high standards of teaching; and
   - enabling the University to demonstrate effective quality assurance processes in relation to the teaching and learning environment.
4. The minimum requirement for an academic staff member with teaching duties is for student evaluation of teaching, using a standard evaluation instrument, to be undertaken every two years. Staff may need to conduct more frequent student evaluations or additional forms of evaluation, especially soundly-based peer reviews, to assist them in improving their teaching or in their professional development.
5. Unless the staff member concerned consents otherwise, information derived from individual evaluations of teaching normally will be provided only to the staff member concerned and to his or her supervisor. It will remain confidential to them and will be retained by the supervisor for not more than 3 years.
6. Interpretation by supervisors of the results derived from student evaluations of teaching will be in accordance with guidelines developed by the Staff Development and Training Unit. The supervisor should be open to moderating his or her conclusions based upon other available information about teaching and learning.
7. Information derived from individual evaluations of teaching may be used only for certain specified purposes, namely:
   - to assist staff members to develop and evaluate their teaching approaches and practices by obtaining feedback from students about their teaching practices and the perceptions of students about aspects of the teaching and learning environment;
   - as a basis for discussion between supervisor and staff member in performance reviews conducted in accordance with the Academic Staff Performance Review Scheme, as specified in the provisions of the Scheme;
   - by the staff member concerned, for professional development purposes, and in processes relating to promotion, confirmation of continuing appointment and conversion to continuing posts, in accordance with provisions specified in the Collective Workplace Agreement and relevant human resources policies.

Flinders University Policies and Plans

• Academic Profiles Policy
• Academic Staff Performance Review Policy
• Policy on Evaluation of Teaching
• Promotions Policies

Other Key Documents

Flinders University documents

• Student Evaluation of Teaching Instrument
• Collective Workplace Agreement

Nov 07