Evaluating
the Effectiveness of University Teaching: A Taiwan Validation Study
W.y. Lin, D. Watkins & Q.m. Meng |
This
study examines the applicability of two American instruments, designed
to assess students' evaluations of effective teaching, in Taiwan.
The results, based on a sample of 371 undergraduates, indicated that
the scales generally had high internal consistency reliability coefficients,
all items were considered appropriate by most students, and every
item was deemed important by at least some students. Moreover, all
but workload/difficulty items clearly differentiated between good
and poor lecturers. Factor analysis detected a strong main factor
reflecting most aspects of teaching effectiveness and two minor factors
revealing course workload/difficulty and group interaction. Further
analysis showed that there was some overlap among some of the scales
and thus provided limited support for the convergent and discriminant
validities of those scales hypothesized to measure similar or dissimilar
components of effective teaching. Hence, this study indicates that
evaluation instruments such as the SEEQ and the Endeavor can be used
reliably in Taiwan to discriminate between good and poor lecturers,
but that no conclusions can be made in respect of the cross-cultural
validity of a multidimensional model of teaching effectiveness.
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