Exploration and Practice of Teaching Quality Evaluation for University Teachers: Taking the Comprehensive Evaluation of "Six Dimensions and Three Elements" as an Example

: The evaluation of teacher teaching quality is one of the guarantee mechanisms for universities to improve teaching quality and cultivate high-quality talents. Conducting research on the evaluation of teacher teaching quality in universities has great practical significance. Based on the theoretical framework of "effective teaching", this paper analyzes the main problems in the current evaluation of teaching quality, and proposes that curriculum teaching evaluation should follow the "six dimensions and three elements" for reform. The evaluation content should be based on six dimensions: teaching behavior, curriculum characteristics, teacher characteristics, student characteristics, learning effectiveness, and student satisfaction, and should be evaluated by three types of evaluation subjects: student evaluation, supervision evaluation, and peer evaluation, construct a diversified evaluation system and establish a benign closed-loop evaluation mechanism.


Introduction
In 2020, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era. In 2021, the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government issued the Implementation Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era in Zhejiang Province, The reform principle of "adhering to scientific and effective, improving result evaluation, strengthening process evaluation, exploring value-added evaluation, improving comprehensive evaluation, fully utilizing information technology, and improving the scientific, professionalism, and objectivity of educational evaluation" has been proposed, and the reform goal of "guiding teachers to focus on educating people with a more sound evaluation system" has been clarified. [1] Teaching work is the central task of universities, and the most fundamental element for maintaining the survival and development of universities is teaching quality. The key to improving teaching quality lies in teachers. Therefore, higher education institutions should follow the laws of education, explore the establishment of a scientific and reasonable teacher assessment and evaluation system, especially the evaluation methods of teacher teaching quality, starting from the characteristics of the school and its own development stage.

Three stages of teaching quality evaluation for university teachers
The evaluation of teaching quality for university teachers in China began in the 1980s and has gone through three stages: initiation, development, and deepening. At each stage, the evaluation of teaching quality presents different characteristics due to the background of the times and the different needs of the development of each university.

Initial stage
As one of the important means to improve the quality of higher education, the evaluation of teaching quality for university teachers began to emerge as the main content of curriculum evaluation in the mid-1980s. Beijing Normal University has pioneered the evaluation of classroom teaching in domestic universities. By the early 1990s, nearly half of the universities in China began to implement teaching quality evaluation, and the field of higher education in China began to practice and explore teaching quality evaluation. The characteristics of teacher teaching quality evaluation in the initial stage are: the main purpose of evaluation is to reward, punish, motivate, and assess teachers; The evaluation dimensions include teaching attitude, teaching methods, teaching content, and teaching effectiveness; The evaluation subject is single, with the leadership of the teacher's department being the main focus. [2]

Development stage
In 1990, the Provisional Regulations on Education Evaluation in Ordinary Higher Education Institutions were officially promulgated, providing institutional guarantees for universities to carry out teaching quality evaluation work, marking the standardization of higher education evaluation in China. At this stage, Beijing Normal University has launched a teaching quality evaluation standard based on effective teaching behavior of teachers and refined evaluation indicators based on thorough research and rigorous certification; The evaluation subject began to diversify; The evaluation process is gradually standardized and normalized. [3]

Deepening stage
At the beginning of this century, the positioning of universities and the specifications for talent cultivation became more diverse, and the standardized paradigm of evaluating teacher teaching quality was gradually broken. The evaluation concept of "people-oriented" has begun to be reflected in the evaluation of teacher teaching quality, and the evaluation content has begun to consider the professionalism of the courses taught by teachers. The research on the indicator system for evaluating the teaching quality of university teachers is also deepening. Teacher evaluation has formed a new situation of diversified objectives, diversified evaluation standards, personalized evaluation content, standardized evaluation process, and comprehensive evaluation methods and technologies. [4]

Problems in the Evaluation of Teaching Quality for University Teachers
Many domestic and foreign higher education institutions have conducted beneficial explorations in the evaluation of teacher teaching, building a theoretical framework around "effective teaching". The evaluation of effective courses in curriculum teaching follows the "six dimensions and three elements", which include teaching behavior, course characteristics, teacher characteristics, student characteristics, learning effectiveness, and student satisfaction as the evaluation content. Three types of evaluation subjects are evaluated, including student evaluation, supervised evaluation, and peer evaluation, However, there are still some deep-seated problems in terms of subject composition, standard establishment, conceptual innovation, organizational implementation, and result application, which need to be further improved. [5]

Evaluation concept
A student-centered evaluation concept has not yet been established, resulting in insufficient evaluation of teaching effectiveness. Teaching evaluation focuses more on the evaluation of teachers' "teaching" and neglects the evaluation of students' "learning". The concept of "student-centered, output oriented, and continuous improvement" is not deep enough, and the attention to students' learning experience and effectiveness is not enough. The evaluation of teaching effectiveness is insufficient, and the content of achieving curriculum teaching objectives and students' graduation abilities is less reflected. It promotes students' knowledge, abilities, and Lack of in-depth research on quality improvement.

Evaluation subject
Different evaluation subjects tend to focus on the same evaluation focus, making it difficult to accurately identify the problems that exist in teacher teaching. Teachers, students, peers, supervisors, etc. are different stakeholders in teaching evaluation, and there are differences in the maturity and focus of participating in teaching evaluation. The use of a convergent evaluation system cannot accurately reflect the teaching quality and level of teaching teachers.

Organizational implementation
Process evaluation is difficult to achieve and cannot help teachers improve teaching in a timely manner. Currently, teaching evaluation is mainly based on summative evaluation, and teaching quality evaluation is generally implemented at the end of the semester, which cannot help teachers improve their teaching during the teaching process; Although campus supervision can achieve random classroom lectures, it is difficult to carry out work on a large scale; The content of teaching evaluation mainly focuses on classroom performance, lacking a grasp of the entire teaching process such as curriculum outline, textbooks, lesson plans, courseware, teaching implementation plans, and course assessment documents.

Result application
The application value of evaluation results is not high, and their role in promoting teacher teaching development is not significant. The existing teaching evaluation results do not have a high weight in teacher title promotion, award evaluation, and performance evaluation, and fail to play the role of a baton, making it difficult to stimulate the endogenous motivation of teachers to attach importance to and invest in teaching.

Exploration and Practice of Teaching Quality Evaluation for University Teachers
In the context of educational evaluation reform in the new era, the teaching evaluation of school teachers should adhere to the basic principles of "putting morality first, comprehensive coverage, mutual benefit between teaching and learning, and combination of rewards and punishments". Putting morality first, paying attention to teacher ethics and professional conduct as the first standard for teacher teaching evaluation, strengthening the important role of ideological and political education in talent cultivation, highlighting curriculum ideological and political education, and paying attention to guiding teachers to effectively fulfill their educational responsibilities; Comprehensive coverage focuses on establishing a global awareness of quality, achieving full coverage of teachers and courses, paying special attention to the bottom line of quality, and paying attention to teachers and courses with poor teaching evaluations; The combination of teacher teaching ability evaluation and student learning effectiveness evaluation focuses on the mutual benefit of teaching and learning, examining how teachers can stimulate students' thirst for knowledge and improve their learning abilities; The combination of rewards and punishments focuses on both developmental evaluation and incentive and constraint evaluation, which not only plays a guiding role but also reflects the incentive and constraint role, forming an effective mechanism to promote the common development of teachers, teaching units, and schools.

Deepen the OBE education concept and focus on effective teaching
The OBE concept emphasizes the reverse design of the construction of majors and courses based on the graduation ability requirements that students should achieve. The goal of teaching design and implementation is to achieve the learning outcomes obtained by students through course learning, focusing on whether teachers achieve the teaching objectives of the course through teaching, and whether students have the necessary professional knowledge and abilities. Evaluation includes: achievement of student learning effectiveness, achievement of teaching effectiveness, evaluation of the role of the curriculum in the curriculum system and the supporting relationship between curriculum objectives and students' graduation abilities, establishment of students' dominant position in teaching evaluation, and subjective principle of tripartite evaluation. Student evaluation accounts for 60% of the weight, supervision evaluation 20%, and peer evaluation 20%; For teachers with poor evaluation results, strictly control the quality bottom line, implement teaching ability improvement plans, develop assistance plans, clarify the responsibilities of mentors, and help teachers stand firm on the podium.

Introduce a "trinity" of multiple evaluation subjects to ensure the objectivity and fairness of teaching evaluation.
Accepting evaluations from different subjects is more conducive to helping teachers identify problems in teaching, develop improvement plans, improve teaching quality, and achieve teacher self-appreciation. The subject of teaching evaluation includes students, supervisors/leaders, peers, etc. Student evaluation of teaching focuses on whether the teacher's teaching can enhance students' interest in learning, their mastery of knowledge and abilities, and whether it lays a foundation for subsequent learning; Supervision/leadership evaluation focuses on reviewing the standardization of teachers' teaching, the completeness of teaching documents, as well as the achievement of course teaching objectives and the supporting role of the course on students' knowledge and ability system from the perspective of the school and college; Peer evaluation focuses on making professional judgments about the level of knowledge update and course logic system of peer science teachers, which is more conducive to promoting the realization of "teaching consensus".

Adhere to the principle of classification evaluation and optimize the evaluation index system
Developing an evaluation index system is an important part of teaching evaluation, which not only provides evaluation criteria and focus for evaluation subjects, but also provides teaching norms for participating teachers. Design evaluation indicators for theoretical courses, experimental and practical training courses, physical education courses, and other categories based on different course attributes. Theoretical course evaluation should pay more attention to whether the teaching content is conducive to knowledge absorption, whether various teaching methods are used to stimulate students' interest, whether process assessment is emphasized, as well as the classroom atmosphere and teacher-student interaction. In terms of students' learning gains, it should emphasize the improvement of comprehensive qualities such as critical thinking ability and analytical reasoning. The evaluation of practical courses should pay more attention to whether the teacher's curriculum design is reasonable, whether the laboratory conditions are complete, etc. Its connotations all point to whether students can independently complete experiments according to requirements, whether theory can be linked to practice, and emphasize the improvement of comprehensive qualities such as innovative spirit and team spirit in student learning. The evaluation of physical education courses should pay more attention to whether the teaching content is substantial, whether teachers teach according to their aptitude, and whether it can stimulate students' interest in sports. In terms of students' learning gains, it should emphasize the cultivation of lifelong physical education awareness and the improvement of sports ability.

Strengthen process evaluation and promote teaching feedback and improvement
Strengthen the process evaluation of leadership, supervision, and peer teachers, conduct random lectures and classroom communication with participating teachers, and ensure that the evaluation results of the evaluation subject are true and objective. The "Trinity" teaching quality evaluation requires school level leaders to attend no less than 4 classes per semester, college leaders to attend no less than 6 classes per semester, peer teachers to attend no less than 8 classes per semester, and supervision to attend no less than 6 classes per week. Due to limitations in time and geography, as well as the large-scale online teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, the evaluation process fully utilizes information technology and achieves random listening and evaluation through online teaching platforms.

Effectiveness of Teaching Quality Evaluation Reform
After years of reform and exploration, teaching quality evaluation has achieved certain results. Establishing a scientific, reasonable, efficient, and convenient teacher teaching evaluation system helps to enhance teachers' awareness of teaching quality, motivate them to effectively invest in teaching, enhance their teaching ability and level, and comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation in schools.

Establish a long-term evaluation
mechanism to assist teachers in their teaching development.
To achieve the goal of improving the quality of teachers' teaching, guide teachers to focus on teaching, invest in teaching, and continuously improve teaching, while promoting comprehensive development in various aspects such as personal development, teaching development, professional development, and value-added development of teachers.

Clarify the evaluation principles and optimize the evaluation system.
According to the different attributes of the curriculum, theoretical courses, experimental and practical training courses, physical education courses, and other courses are classified and evaluated comprehensively. Based on the characteristics of the curriculum and teaching objectives, different evaluation connotations are set in terms of curriculum evaluation standards, organizational implementation, teacher teaching methods and teaching techniques, to clarify the expected learning outcomes and ability development goals and requirements of students.

Provide timely feedback on evaluation
results and form a closed-loop rectification system.
The "Trinity" teaching quality evaluation subject conscientiously fulfills the evaluation process, participates in the evaluation process, shares teachers' teaching achievements, and has formed a mechanism of "evaluation feedback rectification reevaluation" to promote teaching reform.