Abstract:
The increasing accountability of teachers to their learners and the wider community has been a feature
of the university environment for the past decade. This accountability has come about because
students now have much greater expectations of their teachers than in previous times. Such an
outcome has been probably brought about by rising levels of fees and charges and the creation by
Governments of a "University Marketplace", where universities are expected to compete for students
and the funding they bring with them in terms of grants and fees.
Most universities utilise a type of reaction evaluation questionnaire to provide both the individual
teachers and university administrators with feedback from the students. These reaction evaluation
questionnaires are often administered anonymously by staff and the resultant comments are then
provided to the teacher and other interested parties to act upon as they see fit.
This paper looks at some of the problems and issues associated with using reaction evaluation
questionnaires. Some of the issues include: the ability of learners to make accurate judgments about
how much they have learned, the ability of learners to make accurate judgments about subject
relevance, value and worth, the link between teaching style and learning, the focus on teacher
personality versus learning andthe role oflearner activity in the learning process. An examination of
these issue leads to the conclusion that learner reaction evaluation forms are limited in the quality and
usefulness of the data they provide and that university teachers should seek to supplement this data
with that from other sources.
