Nature Of Teaching Evaluation Practices In Universities Of Pakistan From The Perspective Of Their Orientation Towards Quality Assurance And Enhancement

The last decades have observed increasing demands from the public and the governments for evaluating the performance of universities. This phenomenon has consequently led to the measures for evaluating the performance of faculty members in universities in areas of teaching, research, scholarship, creative work, and services offered to the community. Of these, evaluation of teaching is the key but the complex phenomenon. The literature reveals that an effective system for the evaluation of teaching in universities should address the needs of accountability and improvement. In this context, the aim of this research is thus to investigate the nature of teaching evaluation practices in universities of Pakistan from the perspective of their orientation and focus either towards quality assurance (accountability), quality enhancement (improvement), or the both. The research used triangulation mixed-method research design and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed simultaneously. In phase I, 71 policy and practice documents related to evaluation of teaching were collected from the HEC and 130 universities of Pakistan. In phase II, the survey technique was used to identify the nature of current teacher evaluation practices in universities of Pakistan from the perspective of their orientation towards improvement and accountability. A self-developed questionnaire with 26 statements, and orientation of evaluation practices towards improvement and accountability was administered to 617 faculty members. For the analysis of policy documents, thematic analysis was used while quantitative data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean, SD, Chi-Square test and t-test. The findings of policy documents revealed that teaching evaluation practices are not satisfying purposes of accountability and improvement in universities of Pakistan. Likewise, the focus of evaluation practices on both improvement and accountability, as depicted in purpose/reporting/remedial support, is very low. This research further found that although the overall focus of teaching evaluation practices is very low on both the accountability and improvement, evaluation practices are more oriented towards enhancing quality rather than towards assuring quality, but non-significant difference