Date of Award
1-1-1986
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Dr. Linwood Powell
Abstract
This study sought to discover what sources of information the faculty at Tusculum College, a small liberal arts college, wanted to have used in a faculty evaluation program. This study was undertaken because it was observed that the faculty felt left out of the planning of faculty evaluation efforts at the college. The results of the study were based on data received from thirty faculty members who attended a Faculty Workshop on Faculty Evaluation during the Fall Semester of 1985. Participants in the workshop completed an instrument developed by Arreola (1979) in which they indicated what roles they felt were most important to them professionally, what activities they considered important under each role, and what importance they felt should be given to various sources of information that could be used in a faculty evaluation program. A wide range of activities were reported by the participants under the roles of advising, teaching, faculty service, publications, research, the arts and professional status. (These activities are listed in the results section of the study). Mean averages were obtained to indicate the weight the faculty felt should be given for each of the above roles listed in the matrix. Participants also reported the weight of importance they felt should be given to the sources of information that could be used in evaluating faculty. According to the data collected, Tusculum faculty reported that student evaluations of advising were most important. Student evaluations were also considered to be most important in evaluating teaching. Peer evaluations were regarded to be most important in areas of faculty service. Self-evaluations were considered most important in the area of the arts, research and publications and public service. A faculty member’s administrative skills, it was felt, could best be evaluated by the departmental chairperson under whom he or she worked. It was recommended that several new components be added to the faculty evaluation program at Tusculums: A Student Evaluation of an Advisor, a revised Student Evaluation of A Teaching Faculty Member and a Peer Evaluation of Faculty Performance. It was also recommended to the administration that a Subcommittee of the Faculty Affairs Committee be established to initiate and implement, in cooperation with the administration, future faculty evaluation programs at the college.