CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

A quality education providing institute is always proves to be a model for

modern civil society (Batool and Qureshi, 2007). In education, evaluation is an

assessment of faculty member’s professional competency in an instructional role

and a contributor to institutional goals. A comprehensive performance evaluation

provides formative guidance and direction to facilitate and promote faculty

growth and improvement.

Therefore, evaluation is widely used by universities and colleges that

serve as source of data for making decisions based on merit adjustment in salary

promotion in academic rank, tenure, and retention. Additionally, evaluation is a

tool to promote teacher professional growth and measure teacher effectiveness in

the classroom. It provides a review of an instructor’s teaching that is an essential

element in one’s professional career. It provides helpful feedback by identifying

teaching strengths and weaknesses and, in so doing, giving guidance for the

improvement or refinement of teaching skill.

Although universities always run by teaching faculty and administration

both, yet major responsibility of developing students as professionals comes in

teacher’s hand. To achieve world class standards, effective performance

management of university teachers is always major concern in any university. A

sustainable and progressive performance evaluation mechanism for teaching

in terms of enhancement of employment opportunities, improvement of education

and training of upcoming human capital, flourishing the learning environment and

enriches academic and intellectual knowledge management of university as a

whole (Aslam, 2011).

One factor that helps a student learn and progress along their way through

life is the teacher. The role of teachers becomes very important as they are the

ones who mold students in the right way.

Quality of higher education in universities cannot be achieved without

continuous assessment and improvement of teacher’s performance. A teacher’s

primary task or generally known function is teaching, which itself is not an easy

task. It involves student learning, creating context in which they learn, and

providing feedback on their strengths and weaknesses in a positive and

encouraging manner. Thus, Professional development of university teachers

requires an effective performance evaluation system throughout their professional

career, by which teachers not only informed by the fact that what they are

expected to do, but also what resources they have to achieve their tasks and how

their performance will be evaluated (Aslam, 2011).

Organization requires maintaining performance of its employees in order

to get their best. Similarly, in university administration, higher management

consistently searches different ways of evaluation and development for their

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faculty members. This evaluation process provides basis for promotion, tenure

and remuneration of faculty members (Reddy, 2006).

The concept like “Teachers are born and not made” or “Teacher is only

effective if he can deliver lecture” are no longer exist. Today teacher is involved

in so many activities like planning updating course, developing learning

environment, facilitating discussion, creating interactive environment where

students can suggest solutions, preparation of tests, assignment setting, providing

feedback and proper counseling of students. Today university teacher is not only

responsible for giving his students proper insight of subject but also responsible to

make his overall personality and vision in order to make him successful

professional and human being. Such varied and widespread responsibilities

demands a systematic evaluation system for university teachers, but keeping in

mind its trivial nature, this evaluation system should be fully supported by

administration and the students so that faculty members cannot overlook or

disregard it at any stage (Sheikh, 2007).

It is essential to know the strengths of teachers and those aspects of their

practice which could be further developed. From this perspective, the institution

of teacher evaluation is a vital step in the drive to improve the effectiveness of

teaching and learning and raise educational standards. Meaningful teacher

evaluation involves an accurate appraisal of the effectiveness of teaching, its

strengths and areas for development, followed by feedback, coaching, support and

opportunities for professional development. It is also essential to celebrate,

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recognise and reward the work of teachers. TALIS results reveal that the great

majority of teachers report that the appraisal and feedback they receive is

beneficial, fair and helpful for their development as teachers (OECD, 2009b).

Evaluation is a methodological area that is closely related to, but

distinguishable from more traditional social research. Evaluation utilizes many of

the same methodologies used in traditional social research, but because evaluation

takes place within a political and organizational context, it requires group skills,

management ability, political dexterity, sensitivity to multiple stakeholders and

other skills that social research in general does not rely on as much. Here we

introduce the idea of evaluation and some of the major terms and issues in the

field (Trochim, 2006).

Evaluation is the process of interpreting a measurement or aggregate of

measurements, by means of a specific subjective value or set of values to

determine the degree to which the measurement represents a desirable condition.

The Positive (Good) Evaluation the judgment that the measurement conforms to

our values and thus represents a desirable condition.The Negative (Poor)

Evaluation the judgment that the measurement is at variance to our value and thus

represents an undesirable condition. Thus the evaluation process implies the

existence and use of a contextual system or structure of values associated with the

characteristics being measured. A Comprehensive Student Faculty Evaluation

involves the systematic observation (measurement) of relevant faculty

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performance to determine the degree to which that performance is consonant with

the values and needs of the educational institution (Enquirez,2011).

Evaluation of faculty members is not as much new. It always existed in

any form like evaluation of teacher research publications or casual observation by

the students. Students surface teacher’s abilities in class and his grip on subject.

They appraise him in every lecture at every single phase because they are his keen

observer for the whole lecture nearly every day. But more systematic evaluation

system let teacher know about his weak and strong points as they are pointed by

his students and peers (Aslam, 2011).

However, Rankin (2006) also mentioned that the manual process is

inefficient, time consuming, and tiresome task to the personnel conducting the

student’s survey. It requires a lot of work and time in the distribution, collection

and compilation of survey papers. Additional personnel may be needed for the

calculation of the different statistics.

H.W. Elmore (2008) stated that Writing evaluation reports is labor

intensive and consumes large blocks of time among professors under evaluation,

faculty committees, department chairs, and deans. Developing a sleek, simple,

and objective evaluation system would thus increase productivity and greatly

enhance faculty morale by minimizing the possibility of unfairness.

Computerization comprises and ensures ways of doing things faster and

more efficiently. Through the emergence of computer, organization today adopt

the use of technology in management and administration especially in their

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implementation of software application that speed up their performance in office

and in the service of their clients.

In educational institution like San Carlos College, incorporating computer-

assisted operations in everyday transactions play a vital role in the success of the

whole institution. In any case, educational institutions are among the

organizations that need to cope with technological development and SCC is not

exception for moving into computerization.

At present, San Carlos College implements a paper-based faculty

evaluation for the faculty member. This manual operation requires a lot of time

and paper works in conducting the evaluation not to mention also the tallying and

computation of the figured results.

Faculty Evaluation is regularly done by SCC as a tool to assess the

strength and weaknesses of their faculty members toward improving their

effectiveness and efficiency, also for further improvements in their teaching

strategies and likewise for learning progress of students. This also serves as a

basis for making decision on merit adjustment in salary increase, promotion and

retention. Faculty Evaluation of SCC has a data sources for collecting data

teaching effectiveness. These are from the student’s evaluation,

dean’s/department head’s evaluation, peer’s evaluation and self-evaluation.

Furthermore, this evaluation is one way to uphold the goal of the

institution to “become the key implementer of educational programs and thrusts

that shall effectively prepare men and women to become self-reliant and morally

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upright professionals.” Since the school believes that through Computerization,

teachers will grow to be more competent and student-centered in their teaching in

that way the students they are dealing with every day will benefit from them and

it will improve their academic performance as well.

With due respect to the different researches and articles presented by

different authors, the researcher supports the idea that mixing up the knowledge

of human resources with technology drives a better satisfaction. Besides, they

believe that by utilizing computer in the conduct of faculty evaluation system

ensures accuracy and consistent operation.

Hence, the researcher choose the study that deals with the Faculty

Evaluation of San Carlos College (FES-SCC) by maximizing the use of

technology as they seek to adapt to the fast-moving changes of information

technology. This study covers the design and development of the Faculty

Evaluation System upgrading the paper-based evaluation system of the institution.

Creation of the said A Faculty Evaluation System may serve as a way to have a

productive and efficient of evaluating teachers.

San Carlos College (SCC), formerly known as PIEAS (Pangasinan

Institute of Education, Arts and Science), is one of the private educational

institutions in San Carlos City, Pangasinan which was founded in 1946 by late

superintendents Fortunato C. De Veyra as stated in (San Carlos College, 2007). It

is one of the numerous institutions that is trying to cope with the increasing

demand for highly motivated and top-performing teachers. San Carlos College

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has different departments: elementary, high school, technical / vocational, college,

graduate studies; each of which is headed by dean and/or head. There are 6

teachers in elementary department, 40 teachers in high school department, 42

faculty members in college and graduate departments.

San Carlos College (SCC) is dedicated to continuously increase its

teaching strategy by integrating information technology tools. By adopting a FES-

SCC the institution shall maintain its commitment to its mission and vision and

keep its competitiveness in the academic community.

Also, it will develop to provide data for the improvement of teaching and

learning. The developer would like to design a more effective way to improve the

evaluation by changing the system of San Carlos College from paper-based

system to computerized system. The proposed system can help the administration

to be more accurate and be reliable with their records. It also avoids some

erroneous mistakes on the results of the reports they made.

The proposed system is all about how the students will evaluate their

professor using the computer. It will give the school and the student an easy way

in evaluating the faculty members thereby maximizing the school facilities. All

information given by the students will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

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Conceptual Framework

The challenge to construct a concise framework consists in the problem of

structuring all the important aspects that will guide the developmental research

and development of the proposed system. Assuring the objective to connect all

aspects involved in this study a conceptual framework is presented in the Figure

1.1.The Conceptual Framework of this study is based on the proposed system

concept. The proposed system consists of the input, the processing and the output.

` In this study, the input refers to the existing procedures in evaluating

faculty, functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed system,

hardware and software requirements and acceptability testing of the proposed

system.

Process converts inputs into outputs. For its Process phase, the study

made use of Rapid Application Development model (RAD) as its software

development life cycle (SDLC) in developing the system. The RAD model

includes data gathering, analysis, define, demonstration and feedback.

The output, which is the expected result of the process, includes the

Faculty Evaluation System for San Carlos College has been designed and

developed. In case there will be some changes or feedbacks, the flow might direct

on the Process and Input variables depending on the need/additional requirements

set by the client or the users of the system.

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 Input Process Output

Existing
procedure in
Rapid Application
faculty
Development
evaluation
 Data Gathering
Hardware and
Software
 Analysis and Quick Faculty Evaluation
Requirements
Design System

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For
Functional and
 Demonstrate San Carlos College
Non-Functional
Features
 Refine
Acceptability
Testing  Testing

 Implementation

Feedback

Figure 1.1 Research Paradigm

This study aims to design and develop a Faculty Performance Evaluation

System for San Carlos College. The study seeks to meet the following objectives:

1. To describe the existing procedures in the evaluation of faculty

performance at San Carlos College;

2. To identify the hardware and software requirements of the system;

3. To determine the functional and non-functional requirements of the

system; and

4. To test the acceptability of the developed system.

Significance of the Study

The Faculty Evaluation System is intended to provide an innovative and

effective tool in obtaining ratings of faculty members. This would be favorable

and beneficial to the following entities:

San Carlos College. By adopting a FES, the institution shall adhere to its

mission and vision in its commitment of providing excellence and quality

education for the development of competent, productive and principled

professionals. Serve as another milestone of the school in the utilization of

advanced technology. Further, it helps minimize cost in the conducting faculty

performance evaluation.

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 Guidance Counselor. This will make it easier for the guidance counselor

to perform evaluation process easier and convenient. Since, they are the persons

involved in the evaluation process, their work will become more accurate and

efficient through this study that will lead to less problems encountered which

minimizes time and effort on their part. Also used to provide clear concise and

clean diagnostic information for faculty specific aspects of their teaching to help

them improve their performance and also serve as the basis for decision-making

concerning hiring, increase of compensation and promotions.

Deans/Department Heads. The conduct of Faculty Evaluation System

(FES) would lessen their work thereby providing an easy and efficient system for

evaluation. Results of the evaluation would be efficiently generated. In this way,

the dean as well as the department head shall have enough time to do other related

task.

Faculty Members. Since the computation and feedback is done using a

computer, the evaluation results shall be more accurate and reliable. Also

provides an efficient report which serves as a tool to assess the strengths and

weaknesses of faculty members toward improving their effectiveness and

efficiency, further improvements in their teaching strategies and likewise for

learning progress of students.

Students. The proposed system provides them fast and easy way of

evaluating their instructors/teachers.

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 Developer. This study shall allow the developer to apply his knowledge

and skills to create a faculty evaluation system. This study shall also allow him to

gain more knowledge and experience the challenges in designing and developing

the proposed Faculty Evaluation System which he can share to his colleagues and

students.

Future Developer. This study shall serve as a reference to other developer

who wishes to undergo a similar study.

Scope and Limitation of the study

The study focused on the design and development of Faculty Evaluation

System of San Carlos College (FES-SCC). The study was intended to identify the

existing processes in the conducting of the Faculty Evaluation. The problems

being encountered by evaluators and personnel involved in the conduct of

evaluation were identified.

The study was conducted at San Carlos College, San Carlos City,

Pangasinan for easy communication among the users and the researcher of the

developed system.

The proposed system supports different types of users: guidance

counselor, dean/department head, faculty members, and students. Each user is

given a level of access in the proposed system for security purposes. It also

supports different modules of every department. Since San Carlos College has

three (3) departments and different processes in conducting faculty evaluation.

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 The users shall have at least technical knowledge and skills in basic

computer operations to manipulate the system modules. With regards to

computers, required hardware and software specifications shall be met.

The negative and positive comments provided by the students and

deans/department heads after evaluation are part of the scope of the study since

these are verbatim encoded and would be generated the summary of verbatim

comments by the system.

The proposed system is intended to implement in an intranet-based web

environment. It includes different modules that handle the evaluation of the

faculty members of the different departments.

The proposed system is design and developed to lessen the workload of

the guidance counselor in the process of the tallying evaluation records. In

connection with this, the system includes a database that will allow the user to

retrieve the previous summary results (back up). It will give the school and the

student an easy way in evaluating the faculty members thereby maximizing the

school facilities. Reassured that all information given by the students will be

treated with utmost confidentiality.

The developed system will not include the ranking system only the

evaluation of the faculty members at San Carlos College.

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Definition of Terms

To easily understand the words or phrase used in this study, the following

terms have been defined:

Administrative decision. A kind of decision that is performs by administrative

officers.

Analysis.A process used by the researcher to gain understanding in determining

the problem, criteria & software to be used, data-gathering methods and

techniques in creating the model of the system.

Criteria.A measurement or a standard of something like a test of performance for

teachers.

Evaluation.The process of assessing the performance of the teachers using a set

of criteria carefully prepared which covers important aspects of teaching and its

delivery.

Faculty Development Plan. A plan developed and implemented by

administration or human resource office that is intended to further enhance and

equip teachers in their delivery of instruction and performance.

Faculty Performance.The quality of work and/or the accomplishment of work of

the teacher based on his job description.

Framework. A framework is a real or conceptual structure intended to serve as a

support or guide for the building of something that expands the structure into

something useful.

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Peer-evaluation.A kind of evaluation wherein the evaluator is a colleague of the

teacher who is being evaluated.

Rapid Application.A software development methodology that lack

developmentextensive pre-planning which allows software to be written faster. It

is the methodology used in developing the teacher’s performance evaluation

system.

Rating methodology.A process of giving weight to a certain criteria in order to

see the level of its importance.

Self-evaluation. A kind of evaluation wherein the teacher will evaluate himself /

herself based on set of criteria.

Unified Criteria.A set of criteria that is agreed by the majority of deans and head

of different departments to be the basis for teacher’s performance evaluation.

Weighted Average. Formula used by department heads/deans in computing

performance rating. In this, scores are averaged and then assigned a particular

weight. This weight will then be computed to form the final rating.

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