Comparison of differences in performance evaluation of faculty by students with faculty’s self-assessment

Introduction: the present study aimed to compare self-assessment forms ofcoursework taught in the school of public health at undergraduate, graduate,and postgraduate levels and students’ evaluation of the performance of thefaculty members at these levels.methods: the subjects in this cross-sectional study were the faculty membersand students of the school of public health and nutrition, shiraz universityof medical sciences, shiraz, iran. the data were collected using a sociodemographicinformation form and evaluation forms of professors preparedby the educational development center (edc). the faculty members wereassessed by the students in undergraduate and graduate classes. among thestudy subjects, 23 faculty members filled out the self-assessment forms whichwere then evaluated by 23 students. then, the data were analyzed using thespss 14. paired t-test was used to compare the students’ evaluation of thefaculty members’ performance and the professors’ self-assessment.results: the mean score of self-assessment of the faculty members who taughtundergraduate courses was 289.7+8.3, while that of the students’ evaluationwas 281.3+16.1; the difference was statistically significant (t=3.56, p=0.001).besides, the mean score of the self-assessment of the faculty members whotaught graduate courses was 269.0+9.7, while that of the students’ evaluationwas 265.7+14.6 but the difference was not statistically significant (t=1.09,p=0.28).conclusion: teaching performance perceptions of the faculty were similarto those of the graduate students as compared to the undergraduate ones.this may reflect better understanding of coursework at this level comparedto the undergraduate students. faculty members may need to adjust teachingmethods to improve students’ performance and understanding especially inthe undergraduate level.