Faculty evaluation: review of the literature most pertinent to dental education.

Each dental school will fashion its own faculty evaluation system. The results will be a network of activities related to such questions as these: What are valid sources of information? Which aspects of instructors' responsibilities are most significant? Which questions need answers? How should the system be operated? This review has focused on what is currently being discussed and attempted in each of these critical areas. Faculty evaluation takes place in an essentially political context, and dental educators are now awakening to the political forces at work in the profession. Faculty evaluation is also a scientific process, or at least one capable of being greatly improved by rigorous, empirical study, which has yet to be performed. Finally, the exact form of faculty evaluation developed at each school will likely be unique, since it will depend on the institution's resources, size, funding base, academic affiliation, and the personal preferences of concerned individuals. The degree of success or failure of an evaluation system will depend on how the chosen combination of purposes, sources, objects of evaluation, and implementation strategy serves the needs of the school and its personnel.