ASSESSING TEACHING BY A QUESTIONNAIRE

A questionnaire with two open and 17 closed items was developed for th e evaluation of the acceptance of teaching. The statistical analysis r eported is based on a total of 1,579 questionnaires filled in by medic al students. The responses to the two fopen questions were classified applying categories with a satisfactory intra- and inter-raterreliabil ity. A principal component analysis with varimax rotation was conducte d on data provided by two independent samples of students (n(1)=245, n (2)=331) and resulted in the identification of four factors, called mo tivation for the topic (6 items), teaching method and organization (6 items), professional competence (2 items), and motivation for an activ e participation (3 items). The internal consistencies of the scales va ry between .74 and .86. Given that the quality of teaching is subject to change, the test-retest reliabilities are satisfactory. The validit y of the scales is supported by experts' judgments as well as by empir ical research reported in the literature. Furthermore, the assumption of a significant relation between the responses to the open and closed questions is supported by the analysis of the data. From an economic perspective, filling in the questionnaire only requires 10 minutes, al though, on the other hand, the categorizing of the responses to the op en questions cannot be done automatically. The procedure will be most beneficial if it is integrated in an overall concept for the improveme nt of teaching methods. For methodological reasons, it cannot be used to supply rankings of lecturers.