Abstract

This study was designed to assess the attitude of academic staff in Nigerian tertiary educational institutions to student evaluation of instruction (SEI) and to find out the variable factors that influenced the expressed attitude of members of the academic staff, using Cross River State University as a case study. The study was a survey and so a questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Academic staff in Cross River State University was sampled for the study, using a proportional stratified and simple random technique to select 600 academic staff that took part in the study. Four hypotheses were tested using t-test and ANOVA. The findings were as follows: (i) Cross River State University academic staff displayed a significantly positive attitude to SEI, irrespective of the purposes to be served by the evaluation; although the attitude was more positive under formative than summative purposes; (ii) staff of the Faculties of Education and Arts displayed a significantly more positive attitude than staff from Science-based disciplines. It was concluded that Cross River State University academic staff are the same as their counterparts abroad where faculty evaluation in general and SEI in particular have become part of the school system. It was therefore, recommended that faculty evaluation should be introduced in our tertiary institutions as a way of enhancing the quality of teaching at that level of our education.

Key words:  Attitude, student evaluation of instruction, faculty evaluation, instructor evaluation, instructional effectiveness, quality teaching