Indices of Faculty Evaluation in Theoretical Courses in 2011: Shiraz Dental School Student's Preferences

The purpose of faculty evaluation is improvement of teaching quality and its effectiveness. This study was performed to investigate the most important criteria in faculty evaluation among students of Shiraz Dental School. This descriptive، cross-sectional study was performed، using census method. The participants consisted of all Shiraz Dental School students (376 students) in the second semester of 2011 academic year. The evaluation tool was a valid and reliable questionnaire with 3 sections and 40 questions، being prepared by the Education Development Center (EDC) of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were checked by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences faculties (Cronbach''s alpha=0. 89). The data were analyzed by SPSS software (version16)، using Friedman test. According to the students، the most important evaluation criteria were the professors’ personal characters، teaching skills، testing approaches and the observance of educational principles and standards. There was a significant difference between mean scores of all above sections except the testing approaches (P-value<0. 001). In addition، factors such as the instructors’ temperament، level of exam difficulty، time of completing the evaluation form were considered important by the participants. Although different studies have reported different criteria، the criteria used in this research can be employed to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire to evaluate the university instructors.