As touched upon in Section 5.3 potentially the most damaging consequence of SET is the affective impact this may have on an academic, particularly at an early stage in their career. Moore and Kuol (2005) report two such common affective reactions:

The other staff-related concerns, mentioned in Section 3, arise from the lack of clarity of the purpose of the evaluation, and to what use the data could be put. Suspicion can foster cynicism, and this can be exacerbated if the stated reason for gathering or using feedback gathered is different from the real one (Nichols, Glass, & Berliner, 2006; Watanabe, & Curtis, 2004)

In many cases academics regard evaluation, particularly summative evaluation, in the same way that students do (as a bureaucratic process with very little beneficial impact) but with the added concern of its potential for control (Newton, 2000; Harvey, 2002). Kember, Leung, and Kwan (2002) suggest that there are several reasons for the lack of commitment to changing teaching practices following SET, including:

• Faculty perception that there’s little incentive to improve teaching

• Emphasis on audit is at odds with the developmental aspect of evaluation

• Reliance on questionnaires that focus on the act of teaching of the teacher him/herself

Back to 6.4.1 Continue to Section 6.4.3 Back To Section 6