STUDENT EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHING - A STUDY OF PHARMACY FACULTY ATTITUDES AND EFFECTS ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES

This study examined the attitudes of pharmacy faculty toward student e valuation of classroom teaching and the effects of student evaluations on classroom instructional practices. A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 1,600 pharmacy faculty, and 43.6 percent responded. Nineteen statements measured attitude on a five-point scale (1=strongl y disagree). After item analyses, the statements were combined to prod uce a mean attitude of 3.07, indicating the faculty tend to not commit themselves on the issue of student evaluation of classroom teaching. For each of 22 instructional activities, faculty indicated changes, i. e., increases in the activity, decreases, or no change, attributable t o student evaluations. Over half the faculty (52.4 percent) reported m aking changes in eight or more of the activities and 96.6 percent repo rted making at least one change. Relationships between academic and de mographic characteristics of the faculty and attitudes and instruction al changes were examined. Where statistical significance was found, th e authors felt the differences were too small to be of practical conse quence. Despite a noncommittal attitude on the part of faculty toward student evaluation of classroom teaching, these evaluations do contrib ute to instructional change.