Graduate Competency,Teaching Effectiveness and Faculty Performance Evaluation: An International Perspective

This paper examines the relationship between graduate workplace competency standards and teaching effectiveness (competency) evidences used in colleges and universities. The cognitive, emotional and soft skills of students and academics, and teaching performance evaluation systems at two unrelated tertiary institutions were studied. The paper documents that teaching effectiveness instruments in use at two institutions, and by extension in several institutions do not measure the cognitive skills (core competency) of the professor, and the summative questions appear to relate to the individual’s soft skills. The diagnostic feedback given to the professor neither logically connect to improved teaching and learning outcomes, nor does it enable the individual to obtain improved scores in key summative performance evaluation questions. The implications of the finding for quality assurance in teaching and learning, graduate competency, faculty tenure and promotion, and international comparisons of academic qualifications are discussed.