THE USE OF STUDENTS EVALUATIONS AND AN INDIVIDUALLY STRUCTURED INTERVENTION TO ENHANCE UNIVERSITY TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

The present investigation evaluates the effectiveness of students' eva luations of teaching effectiveness (SETs) as a means for enhancing uni versity teaching. We emphasize the multidimensionality of SETs, an Aus tralian version of the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (M arsh, 1987) instrument (ASEEQ), and Wilson's (1986)feedback/consultati on intervention. All teachers (N = 92) completed self-evaluation surve ys and were evaluated by students at the middle of Semester 1 and at t he ends of Semesters 1 and 2. Three randomly assigned groups received the feedback/consultation intervention at midterm of Semester 1 (MT), at the end of Semester 1 (ET), or received no intervention (control). Each MT and ET teacher ''targeted'' specific ASEEQ dimensions that wer e the focus of his or her individually structured intervention. The ra tings for all groups improved over time, but only ratings for the ET g roup improved significantly more than those in the control group, For both ET and MT groups, targeted dimensions improved more than nontarge ted dimensions. The results suggest that SET feedback coupled with con sultation is an effective means to improve teaching effectiveness, and the study provides one model for feedback/consultation.