study of academic staffs point of view about their evaluation by students

Rating of university professors’ teaching quality is of special importance. Due to the numerous contradictions that exist in major rating factors, the aim of this study was identifying the viewpoints of Gilan University faculty about the qualification of students to rate them and the method of evaluation. This survey was carried out through systematic randomized sampling on the faculty of Gilan University in 2008-2009. The needed data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire after confirming its validity and reliability. Descriptive statistical methods and nonparametric Chi-square test were used for data analysis using SPSS 16 software. 69 subjects (82.14%) were agree with faculty rating by the students. 48 subject (57.14%) believed that the rating must be done by all the students and 70 subjects (83.33%) declared that it is better to rate faculty in the last session of each class. 53 subjects (63.09%) mentioned the best rating interval as “two academic semesters”. 26 subjects (30.95%) believed in giving priority to the rating factors as “scientific quality, teaching quality and the instructor behavior”. The university professors’ rating must be carried out with the help of students. The rating forms must be given to all the students instead of only a sample of them and the highest scores should be respectively allocated to the scientific quality, teaching quality and instructor behavior in order to prevent students from rating the faculty only considering their personal characteristics.