Abstract:

Assessment of faculty members in universities and institutes of higher education in Iran is usually done in a standard manner and based on a specific questionnaire with standard questions. These questions have several major parts and equal weights, including main criteria such as academic ability, classroom management ability, innovation and creativity in teaching method and motivational assessments of students.
The main drawback of this assessment method is the equal weights of assuming questions. For example, the weight of the professor's academic ability is assumed equal to student's interest in attending in classroom.

In this study, a survey method was developed to design a weighting system for faculty members’ assessment questions. Participants in this survey were 70 faculty members in five colleges. The proper weights for 16 questions of the faculty assessment questionnaire were derived by members on a 4-level scale (high, medium, low, and without effect) with maximum 3 points.

Results showed that, according to respondents, the scientific ability should have the highest weight (2.7 out of 3) and the student's personal motivation for attending in class should have the lowest weight (1.3 out 3) among other assessment criteria.

Also, the average of faculty members’ assessment scores in two consecutive semesters with questions of equal weights and balanced questions with different weights have been compared. The results showed that the average scores of the assessment of faculty members with the balanced questions were significantly more than the similar average with standard questionnaire for university faculty members in 5 colleges (P < 0.05).

In fact, it can be concluded that the reasons for students' dissatisfaction or satisfaction with faculty members are not related to scientific characteristics of them, and student’s tendency and mentality is reflected in the university environment and their personal problems.

Keywords:

Educational assessment, faculty members, higher education, assessment questionnaire.