Students' rating as one of the methods for instruction evaluation.

World-wide knowledge in this field is summarized in this study. The information may be useful for university teachers, academical officials and people dealing with measuring quality of higher education. First part of the study is general. Terms of educational effectiveness, instructional effectiveness and pedagogical evaluation are characterized there. Differences between summative and formative evaluations are discussed. Three commonest approaches to the evaluation of higher education quality are analyzed (investigation of university prestige, study of objective indicators, correlation studies). It is emphasized that instructional quality is a relative term, multifaceted, with subjective elements and complexly conditioned. One of possible models for university instruction evaluation is presented and its eight variables are specified. A general strategy of such evaluation is described and attention is drawn to the fact that every assessment is based on a rough or clear concept of the best instruction under given conditions. Basic rules for instruction evaluation are stipulated as well as important principles which should be respected by anyone who wants to choose the most suitable method of university instruction evaluation. Second part of the study is special. The only method--evaluation using rating scales--is focused on. Students are said to be the most frequent evaluators of university instruction quality. Objections to the rating scales and negative experience with their non-professional application are presented. The construction of rating scales is described, i. e. the planning of the content and purpose of the scale, preparation of a blueprint, its practical verification and statistical interpretation. Practical instructions including an appropriate moment of administration, necessary number of raters, statistical analysis of significance of the results obtained are explained here for those who want to use the scale in their routine practice. Information about factors which may affect or even bias the assessment, i. e. validity of the results, is summarized. Procedures enabling a statistical analysis of the reliability of results are discussed. A not very clear problem how teachers and departments react on results obtained from student evaluation is discussed here in detail as well as the form in which the results should be presented. Emphasis is laid on the fact that student evaluation is only one of many methods for instructional quality evaluation and that it has not only its merits but drawbacks as well. A warning is given not to use rating scales in an unqualified manner and not to overestimate the results obtained especially for a summative evaluation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)