YORK UNIVERSITY
S E N AT E C O M M I T T E E O N T E A C H I N G A N D L E A R N I N G ’ S G U I D E T O

TEACHING ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION
INTRODUCTION

NEED FOR THE GUIDE

The Teaching Assessment and Evaluation Guide provides instructors with starting-points for reflecting on their teaching, and with advice on how to gather feedback on their teaching practices and effectiveness as part of a systematic program of teaching development. As well, the
Guide provides guidance on how teaching might be fairly and effectively evaluated, which characteristics of teaching might be considered, and which evaluation techniques are best suited for different purposes. The
Teaching Assessment and Evaluation Guide is a companion to the Teaching Documentation Guide (1993), also prepared by the Senate Committee on Teaching and
Learning (SCOTL). The Documentation Guide (available at the Centre for the Support of Teaching and on the
SCOTL website) aims to provide instructors with advice and concrete suggestions on how to document the variety and complexity of their teaching contributions.

Teaching is a complex and personal activity that is best assessed and evaluated using multiple techniques and broadly-based criteria. Assessment for formative purposes is designed to stimulate growth, change and improvement in teaching through reflective practice.
Evaluation, in contrast, is used for summative purposes to give an overview of a particular instructor’s teaching in a particular course and setting. Informed judgements on teaching effectiveness can best be made when both assessment and evaluation are conducted, using several techniques to elicit information from various perspectives on different characteristics of teaching. There is no one complete source for information on one’s teaching, and no single technique for gathering it. Moreover, the