ABSTRACT
Universities are complex organizations, made up of semi-autonomous sectors and even more autonomous faculty members. Tradition and rules push activities toward homogeneity. Assessment is important for managing the university and its parts. Call it assessment, evaluation, or quality control, it can improve understanding when considered against thoughtful expectation and realistic standards. A rationale for formal evaluation should determine methods, procedures, instruments, and activities. Often there are several, sometimes competing, rationales for evaluation of any university entity or function. Especially important is the anticipated use of the evaluation. People are not going to act in the same way with formative and summative evaluations. Evaluation of teaching is one of the most important assessments at the university. Teaching is a complex human activity fitted to common but ever-different situations. The traditional concept of evaluating teaching is the evaluation of an autonomous instructor in an individual classroom. Two grounds for evaluating teaching come from quantitative and qualitative perspectives: criteria and critical incidents.
