ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the notion of measuring teaching performance through an analysis of a few of the complex variables, including the teaching and learning process, changing cultures, and their impact on teaching staff. It examines a strategy for a way forward that may satisfy the needs of external decision makers and policy leaders of universities. One of the models taken from business that has widespread application in post-modern universities is ‘benchmarking’. The chapter illustrates both international and intranational tensions in universities and the ways in which they gain expression in unique geographic, socio-cultural, and political contexts. The stimulation for global standards or competencies in university teaching appears linked to management searches for examples of “best practice”. Knowing what educational theorists use as determinants of expert teaching practice involves a theory of teaching and learning along with an understanding of the desirable learning outcomes.
