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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
st
21 September 2021

MC2
Student Evaluation of Teaching: An Effective Model

Sudheera S. Jayasinghe*, Nipuni W. Chandrasiri and Vasantha Devasiri

Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, Karapitiya, Galle

*Corresponding author: sudheerasj@yahoo.com

Abstract

Systematic gathering of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is an improvement tool and a
performance measure in higher education. SET contributes to improving the quality of teaching. The

Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, established a system to obtain SET at the departmental

level to identify measures to improve teaching/learning activities. Further, the Internal Quality
Assurance Cell (IQAC) monitors the process of obtaining SET and the remedial measures taken.

During the year 2020, 91% of the academics in the faculty, across 15 departments, obtained SET. They
identified the measures that need to be taken to improve teaching based on SET in the context of their

departments. All the departments reported the progress and the measures they would take to rectify the

gaps and improve teaching, to the IQAC.

Keywords: Students, Medical, Feedback, Teaching, Model

Introduction

Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is a popular core practice in higher education that needs to be
well-established. In the past, systematic SET had been used for the sole purpose of offering a

developmental perspective to the teachers to improve the quality of their teaching. Recently, it has

become a useful tool adopted by universities all over the world for quality assurance and evaluation
purposes as well (Marsh 2007; Kwan, 1999).

According to Richardson (2005), SET is defined as the use of a formal process to collect information

from the students about their perceptions of teacher practices, teacher effectiveness, and the quality of
educational programmes. According to Mohanna (2018), SET is not the same as “appraisal”, where the

teacher discusses the learning progress with the students or “assessment”, where the teacher measures

what the students have learnt. The four main uses of obtaining SET, according to Marsh and Dunkin
(1992), are to provide feedback to teachers on their practices, measure teacher effectiveness for

administrative purposes, provide information for prospective students in course selection, and as data
for research on teaching.

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