Recently, I've conceived a research idea to conduct a case study evaluating the performance of lecturers from two or three faculties at my university. The data will be sourced from the academic papers produced by each lecturer, aiming to gauge their significance. However, a pivotal question arises: how can their meaningfulness be effectively evaluated?
I've always strongly believed that much of the research in my faculty might be lacking in practical applicability, not sufficiently serving societal or student needs. However, establishing this belief on a solid, objective foundation poses a challenge.
My desire to pursue this research stems from noticing that many lecturers are perennially occupied. Despite their apparent busyness, I'm uncertain about the fruits of their labor, as tangible learning outcomes in students often seem elusive. Do you have any suggestions to address these observations into a scientific paper?
How can we evaluate whether certain papers are meaningful or not? From one point of view, heterocitations play a role.
Dear Esmaeil,
If you have access to the "Teaching Evaluation Survey" data from your school, you can easily answer this question.
However, if you don't have access to such data, you can collect literature to create a customized set of criteria and request students' assistance in answering this question at the end of the semester.
Sincerely,
Tzu-Hsiang Peng
Aristidis Matsoukis it is really a good approach. but does that really indicate whether these papers have value for the society? i beleive their certain area of research that might get a lot of attention by the researcher. but the relevency or the importance of these area are quiet questionable. but still a good starting point to evaluate the quality of the study.
Tzu-Hsiang Peng my concern wtih this approach is two things. firstly, as students who deal wtih many other studetns. many of them do not really care regarding this evaluation. perosnally i rarely fill this evaluation because it is long and i am lazy. and if i did i just check whatever nonsene. the other concern is related to the culture itself. in malayia and southest asian countries students tend to be scared from their lecturer. and based on my observation many of them has this mentality that they cannot argue or disagree with their lecturer, otherwise their mark and future will be affect. the last concern is whether students are qualified to evaluate thier teaching. many students are mainly concern with getting an easy mark. so even if the lecturer teach them nothing but give them a good mark would have a good evaluation( in general).
Therefore, in questionnaire design, it is advisable to create a simple template or employ engaging mechanisms (some schools also use a lottery system to incentivize student responses). The focus should be on "what students have learned" rather than "how well the teacher taught." Additionally, privacy of data should be a priority. Encourage students to complete online surveys (with a lottery system) after grades have been submitted to ensure the confidentiality of their information.
If there are doubts about whether students can answer this question, further triangulation methods can be employed, including seeking input from colleagues, referencing their published research papers, and more.
I hope this response is helpful to you.
Tzu-Hsiang Peng i totally agree with you. this is really how should the evaluation be constructed. and you know what, i can this approach as part of data collection. thank you a lot, i do really appreciate your response.
Ahmad azmi Esmaeil,
Thank you for the feedback. From another point of view, papers with practical implementation seem to make a difference (many if not all).
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