Assessment pledge by new dean of science
THE Chinese University's newly elected and first female science faculty dean pledged to boost the teaching assessment process by incorporating students' opinions in overall evaluation of lecturers.
In January, the Faculty of Science will install a new evaluation procedure known as 'Classroom Feedback' in which undergraduates are given the chance to assess the performance of their lecturers by filling in questionnaires and adding brief comments. It will be carried out in mid-term of the second semester.
But Dr Lau Oi-wah told Campus Post that students' comments and opinions in the questionnaire still would not count as an official indication of lecturers' teaching quality.
'Students' opinions have to be really rational and objective if they are to affect the assessment of lecturers' teaching standards. And the classroom feedback questionnaire can't really ensure that,' she said.
She pointed out that some lecturers, after getting their overseas academic qualifications, had a penchant for adopting overly difficult lecture content over a relatively short period.
'In such cases, students who expect an 'easy course' will develop negative feelings for the lecturers and their comments and questionnaire results will then not purely be based on the teaching quality.' This classroom feedback survey will operate on a 'voluntary' basis meaning that the lecturers have the right to determine whether to implement it or not.
Dr Lau stressed that the faculty had a more reliable 'Course Evaluation' procedure which focused on assessing the course structure and related aspects. This evaluation will be carried out at the end of each semester.
