Year: 1979
Type: article
Abstract: During the last decade, teaching effectiveness at universities in North America has experienced increased attention.Interest has swung back and forth between an almost exclusive concern about the content of instruction to an over-emphasis on process over content.Fueled by fires of student discontent at first, and tightening financial support for universities later, the improvement of university teaching is now becoming institutionalized.Evidence of this can be found, most prominently in Canada, in the establishment of organizations such as the Ontario Universities Program for Instructional Development, and of programmes offered by the Centre for Learning and Development at McGill University.Most efforts to improve instruction have focused on one, or a combination of three areas.First, many innovations have focused on changes in curriculum design, in many cases incorporating new technologies such as computer-assisted instruction or audiotutorial methods.A second thrust is the now widespread practice of students rating instructional performance.In fact, many universities have adopted the use of student rating forms, and require favorable ratings or other evidence of good teaching for positive tenure and promotion decisions.The use of student rating forms has been the subject of considerable debate, with Murray (1977) supporting their qualified use, and McKeachie and Kulik (1975) and Wittrock and Lumsdaine (1977) looking on them with even greater reservation.The third focus has been to improve instruction by teaching university professors to be better teachers.These range from yearly seminars on teaching, such as those offered by the University of New Brunswick, to more intensive courses on skills of teaching and techniques for analyzing teaching, such as the courses offered by the University of Manitoba.
Authors: Ronald W. Marx, John F. Ellis, Jack Martin
Institutions: Miami University, Simon Fraser University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2993781906