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Ramsden, Paul --- "Evaluating and Improving Teaching in Higher Education" [1991] LegEdRev 9; (1990-91) 2(1) Legal Education Review 149

[*] Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia. This article is based on a keynote paper prepared for the Annual Conference of the Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia, held at Griffith University, 6–9 July 1990. The text of the keynote paper appeared in the Society’s conference proceedings, Research & Development in Higher Education Volume 13. 1 am most grateful to Elaine Martin for her valuable comments on earlier drafts.

© 1991. (1990–91) 2 Legal Educ Review 149.

[1] KE Eble, The Craft of Teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988); JB Biggs, Approaches to the Enhancement of Tertiary Teaching (1989) 8 Higher Educ Research & Development 7.

[2] JB Biggs, ‘Teaching for Better Learning’ (1990–91) 2 Legal Educ Review 133

[3] WW Sawyer, Mathematician’s Delight (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1943).

[4] Id at 9.

[5] P Ramsden and A Dodds, Improving Teaching and Courses: A Guide to Education (University of Melbourne: Centre for the Study of Higher Education, 1989).

[6] J Nisbet, Staff and Standards in GC Moodie (ed) Standards and Criteria in Higher Education, (Guildford: SRHE and NFER-Nelson, 1986).

[7] A Hartnett and M Naish, The Sleep of Reason Breeds Monsters: The Birth of a Statutory Curriculum in England and Wales (1990) 22 Journal of Curriculum Studies 1.

[8] C Pollitt, The Politics of Performance Assessment: Lessons for Higher Education? (1987) 12 Stud in Higher Educ 87.

[9] Hartnett and Naish, supra note 8 at 12.

[10] See for example, A Thomas, Further Education Staff Appraisal: What Teachers Think, (1989) 14 Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 149.

[11] See Biggs, supra note 2 for a description of different conceptions of teaching in higher education.

[12] The single more egregious example is the institution of prizes for good teachers.

[13] Ramsden & Dodds, supra note 5.

[14] JA Centra, The How and Why of Evaluating Teaching (1980) 71 Engineering Educ 205.

[15] WJ McKeachie, The Role of Faculty Evaluation in Enhancing College Teaching (1983) 63 National Forum 37.

[16] PB Medwar, Unnatural Science New York Review of Books Feb 3,1977 at 13–18.

[17] M Scriven, The Validity of Student Ratings, Annual Conference, Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australia, Sept 1987, Curtin University of Technology, Perth.

[18] There are numerous ways to cheat at tests that are as uncontrolled as the rating questionnaires used in Australian and British higher education. Techniques of cheating, well-developed in North America (which also has the worst as well as the best student rating practices), are easily obtainable from several sources.

[19] Centra, supra note 14 at 209.

[20] See Medawar, supra note 16.

[21] Centra, supra note 14 at 176.

[22] McKeachie, supra note 15.

[23] T Healy, “Labor’s higher education reforms: What will science look like by 1995?” Centre for the Study of Higher Education (University of Melbourne) Spring Lectures on Higher Education, 1989.

[24] These findings are from a continuing project funded by the Australian Research Council (Principal investigators Ingrid Moses and Paul Ramsden).

[25] See P Ramsden, Study Processes in Grade 12 Environment in BJ Fraser & HJ Walberg (eds), Educational Environments (Oxford: Pergamon, 1991) for evidence of this connection.

[26] P Ramsden, Studying Learning: Improving Teaching in P Ramsden (ed) Improving Learning: New Perspectives (London: Kogan Page, 1988); P Ramsden, What Does It Take To Improve Medical Students’ Learning? in J Balla, M Gibson and H Chang (eds), Learning in Medical School: A Model For The Clinical Professions (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 1989).

[27] See also Biggs, supra note 2.

[28] Biggs, supra note 1; T J Crooks, The Impact of Classroom Evaluation Practices on Students (1988) Rev of Educ Research 438; F Marton, D Hounsell and NJ Entwistle (eds), The Experience of Learning (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1984).

[29] See Biggs, supra note 2.

[30] See for example, A Leftwich, Room for Manoeuvre: A Report on Experiments in Alternative Teaching and Learning Methods in Politics (1987) 12 Stud in Higher Educ 311; N Eizenberg, Approaches to learning Anatomy in P Ramsden (ed) Improving Learning: New Perspectives (London: Kogan Page, 1988); K Robin and BJ Fraser, Investigations of exemplary Practice in High School Science and Mathematics (1988) 32 Austl J of Educ 75.

[31] Ramsden, supra note 25.

[32] A N Whitehead, Aims of Education and Other Essays (New York: Free Press, 1967).

[33] See Eble, supra note 1, at 192.

[34] It is helpful to distinguish between performance indicators, which are measures at aggregate level typically associated with decisions about resource allocation; and staff performance appraisal, which is focused on individual academics and concerned with matching organisational and personnel goals.

[35] P Ramsden, Report to the Higher Education Performance Indicators Project on the Course Experience Questionnaire Trial (Wollongong: Centre for Technology and Social Change, 1990).

[36] P Bourke, Quality Measures in Universities Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission 1986).

[37] M Warnock, A Common Policy for Education (Oxford: OUP, 1989).

[38] See R Yarde, Someone To Watch Over You, Times Higher Education Supplement July 6,1990.