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香港中文大學五十周年傑出學人講座–Herbert W. Marsh 教授主講:「學生對大學教學的評鑑: 優化政策和實踐」
2013年7月2日
下午四時三十分
香港中文大學康本國際學術園二樓六號演講廳
(English version only)
Professor Herbert W. Marsh holds a joint appointment at the Centre for Positive Psychology and Education at the University of Western Sydney and at the University of Oxford. He is an “ISI highly cited researcher” with 340 publications listed in the World of Science with more than 18,000 citations, and an ISI-H-index = 69, and recently achieved a Google Scholar H-Index of 100. He founded and directs the Self-concept Enhancement and Learning Facilitation (SELF) Research Centre that has 450 members and satellite centres at leading Universities around the world, and co-edits the SELF monograph series. He coined the phrase substantive-methodological research synergy which underpins his research efforts. His major research or scholarly interests include self-concept and motivational constructs; evaluations of teaching effectiveness; developmental psychology, quantitative analysis; value-added and contextual models; sports psychology; the peer review process; gender differences; peer support and anti-bullying. He was a Wei Lun Visiting Professor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
3943-6903
(English version only)
Students’ evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETs) have been the topic of considerable interest and a great deal of research in universities all over the world. Based on reviews of research by Professor Marsh and others, SETs are:
- multidimensional;
- reliable and stable;
- primarily a function of the instructor who teaches a course rather than the course that is taught;
- relatively valid against a variety of indicators of effective teaching;
- relatively unaffected by a variety of variables hypothesized as potential biases, such as grading leniency, class size, workload and prior subject interest; and
- demonstrably useful in improving teaching effectiveness when coupled with appropriate consultation.
Although SETs have a solid research base stemming largely from research conducted in the 1980s, it is surprising that research conducted in the last decade has not done more to address critical limitations previously identified and incorporate exciting methodological advances that are relevant to SETs research. Perhaps the most damning observation is that most of the emphasis on the use of SETs is for personnel decisions rather than on improving teaching effectiveness. Why do universities continue to collect and disseminate potentially demoralising feedback to academics without more fully implementing programs to improve teaching effectiveness? Why is there not more SETs research on how to enhance the usefulness of SETs as part of a program to improve university teaching? Why have there been so few intervention studies in the last decade that address the problems identified in reviews of this research conducted a decade ago? These, and other issues, are addressed in this presentation.
