Thirteen Strategies to Measure College Teaching

Berk's list of strategies is (as advertised) one of the most complete discussions of these issues. This book can be used by both novices and experienced practitioners as a guide to better practice. That's why it is worth reading. --from the Foreword by Michael Theall, Associate Professor, Education, & Director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching And Learning at Youngstown State The humor is delightful and the information critical to understanding the process of evaluating assessment instruments. The University of North Texas has formed a committee to examine student evaluation forms as a first step to help measure overall teacher effectiveness. I have recommended that the other members purchase a copy. --Paula Iaeger, GSA in the Office of the Provost and VP for Academic Affairs (04/01/2008) The evaluation of teaching is something that is done virtually wherever teaching itself is done. At too many places, though, it is done in a shallow, haphazard fashion. Ron Berk's book aims at evangelizing the rest of academia with the good news of how to do it right. This is ground that other well-respected academics have covered, but perhaps none aimed quite as much at the average faculty member. Berk does an excellent job at directing the reader to the relevant work that has been done in the field. The book is laid out in a logical fashion, with an introduction that describes the motivation for the book, followed by a chapter summarizing the thirteen strategies (i.e. sources of evidence used for evaluating teaching). This chapter gives an excellent overview of what Berk calls 360� Multisource Assessment, which is another way of saying that you should take many sources of evidence into consideration when assessing college teaching. This chapter is a good overview of building a teaching evaluation system, and can be read as a stand-alone topic. The book's subtitle is actually a much better description of the main point of the book. For those faculty members or administrators who have been tasked with the development or overhaul of such a system at their college, the overview chapter may be the only one that is needed. For those who must develop student evaluation forms and other ratings instruments, the rest of the book contains invaluable information. Berk provides a step-by-step procedure for determining how the rating scales should be constructed, what questions (items) should asked, and what type of anchors (response choices) is appropriate. He provides examples of rating scales and items, both good and bad. Very importantly, he also provides clear instructions on how to field test the rating scale and how to determine its validity and reliability. --International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (07/01/2007)