The evaluation of lecturers and students as perceived by both

Abstract

The goal of the study was to investigate the attitudes of lecturers (71 from various academic institutions in Israel) and students (138 from the University center in Ariel) regarding the process of evaluation of both — the lecturers and the students. The subjects responded to a questionnaire, composed by the investigator, consisting of two parts. The first one investigates the attitudes towards the evaluation of the lecturers and the second one — the attitudes towards the evaluation of the students. Both parts include five point scale questionnaires. In addition each part has an open ended question, asking the subjects to choose the five most preferable criteria for evaluating both — the lecturers and the students from lists of characteristics. Through the use of t2 and χ2 the responses of the lecturers and the students were compared. In general the students exhibit more agreement with most of the attitudes regarding the evaluation of the lecturer (those stating the relationships with the students). In contrast to the lecturers, the students assign great importance to the preparation for their future careers, while the lecturers, unlike the students, assign great importance to the development of thinking. No clear tendency is seen in the case of the attitudes towards the evaluation of the students. Though both the students and the lecturers don't assign to research skills the utmost importance, the lecturers assign to it significantly much more importance