Improving the Climate of Teaching Sessions: The use of evaluations by students and instructors

The pressure for accountability has led higher education institutions, even the 'elite' universities, in the United Kingdom to consider instituting teaching assessment by students. Both formal and informal methods of obtaining students' opinions are used in practice. A formal questionnaire administered at the end of term or semester is not useful for a teacher to change his or her approach to benefit the current batch of students taught by him or her. An approach that involves obtaining students' views and comparing them with self-ratings by teachers is proposed. Case study results are presented in support of the efficacy of this approach. The implications and limitations are discussed.