Abstract:

An Instrument called the University Students’ Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness Scale (USETES) was developed and validated. In validating the instrument, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses reflected eight factors of teaching effectiveness. The developed and validated instrument having an overall Cronbach coefficient alpha of 0.97 was used by one hundred and thirty -seven students from the Faculty of Arts, of the University of Ibadan in rating their lecturers. The students were asked to evaluate the best lecturer among those teaching them during the semester in which the research was carried out, by rating such lecturer on a five – point scale of very poor, poor, moderate, good and very good. The eight factors on the USETES are: Lecturers’ Interest in Students, Organization, Fairness, Preparation, Creativity, Assignments, Assessments/Appearance and Commitment. The study revealed that lecturers were comparatively rated low on Assignment.
The paper concludes that if excellence in teaching must be focused on (as it really should be), then students must be made/allowed to rate the teaching effectiveness of their lecturers. When lecturers know that they are being rated by their students and especially if such ratings count towards the professional upliftment of the teachers (lecturers), accountability may become better appreciated, teachers may take their work more seriously and this may reflect in enhanced academic performance of students in both internal and external examinations.

Keywords:

Teaching Effectiveness, Students'Assessment of lecturers, Students'evaluation of teaching effectiveness.