A Study on the Needs for the Evaluation Knowledge and Skills of University On-site Evaluators in Taiwan

[[abstract]]The main purpose of this study are to explore the importance, actual possession condition and needs of the evaluation knowledge and skills of university on-site evaluators, and to plan appropriate evaluation workshop and the teaching methods suit to the needs of evaluation knowledge and skills. The study is conducted through questionnaire survey. The reacher targets are experts of educational evaluation, professor who used to be the dean with high reputation, and top administrative management members in the university. Questionnaires were sent to 382 persons, and 152 of which were returned. The returning rate was 68.59% and the valid rate was 67.28%. All the data were processed by SPSS. By means of Mean, Standard, Deviation, t-Test, ANOVA, and Pearson’s Product-Moment Corrrelation, the findings of the analysis are as follows. 1. The evaluation knowledge and skills which university on-site evaluators should have are 3 evaluation knowledge of theoretical aspect and 4 evaluation knowledge and skills of practical aspect. 2. The most important evaluation knowledge of theoretical aspect which university on-site evaluators should possess is “understand evaluation standard and principle”, and nowadays university on-site evaluators already have had this evaluation knowledge. 3. The most important evaluation knowledge and skills of practical aspect which university on-site evaluators should possess is “present evaluated report”, but nowadays the most possessed evaluation knowledge and skills of practical aspect by university on-site evaluators is “data anolysis and evaluation communication”. 4. Importnace assessment and actual possession condition are correlative. 5. There are 4 evaluation knowledge and skills that nowadays university on-site evaluators need best. 6. University on-site evaluators with conciderable experience and used to be university president assess that “evaluation research methodology” is more important than others than who with poor experience. 7. According to actual condition assessment, there are 7 evaluation knowledge and skills assessed higher by the persons who served as university on-site evaluators than others who never serve as university on-site evaluators but have got into connection with university on-site evaluators. 8. “Make effective judgement and conclusion after analyzing the evaluated data” is assessed at higher score by the persons who handle the school administrative matters than others who handle the academic administrative matters. 9. The more needed evaluation course that nowadays university on-site evaluators should attend.are “evaluation standard and principle”, “present evaluated report” and “evaluation communication”. 10. “Case lecture and exercise” are the most effective teaching methods can improve university on-site evaluators’s evaluation knowledge and skills. 11. University on-site evaluators’s evaluation workshop course should include 7 course units and 23 course contents. The researcher also propose some correlative suggestions to higher education evaluation institution, higher education authorities and further researchers.