Perceptions and evaluation of teaching in higher education in Vietnam: a case study

This thesis is a time-fixed snapshot of how teaching is perceived and evaluated in Higher Education in Vietnam. The interest in exploring this question lies in its implications for improving teaching through teaching evaluation practice. Although the thesis is not directed to the teaching evaluation system per se, understanding the perceptions of teaching underlying the system is a prerequisite to teaching improvement. This case study was conducted at a public and a non-public university in Vietnam. Five university administrators – the designers of the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) instrument, and one hundred teachers participated in this study. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, survey-questionnaire, and analysis of documents including institutional SET Forms and Guideline on SETs from the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam. Findings show that in Vietnam tertiary teaching was generally perceived as focusing on the teachers and their teaching, in a “linked-chain” fashion, from MOET’s policy framework to university administrators, and to teachers. Two approaches to teaching evaluation, that is, student presage-focused, and teaching context-focused were found in this study. These approaches are characterised by congruence of the perception of teaching held by the university administrators, with the focus of teaching evaluation, and the purpose of the evaluation. The research presented in this thesis makes a considerable contribution to the literature. First, it argues for an approach to teaching evaluation underpinned by student-centred perceptions of teaching, that is, teaching as facilitating critical thinking and as enabling conceptual change. The teaching evaluation instrument used for such an approach becomes student evaluation of learning. Second, it extends the understanding of administrators’ perceptions of teaching, which were under researched, compared with the prevalent literature on teachers’ perceptions of teaching. Third, the study gives prominence to administrators and teachers in the Higher Education (HE) system of a developing country whose views were much less researched than those of developed countries. Finally, the study adds to the present lack of literature on the HE in Vietnam and provides a systemic view of the HE system through the lens of the perceptions of teaching which lie behind the teaching evaluation system. By doing so, it contributes to explanation of the Vietnamese Government’s failures in its attempts at quality improvement in HE