§ LUATION RENCE

forms are only one way in which learning might be improved. a

If we're looking for improvement in learning, and taking it that eval- uation forms for courses or professors may be used in conjunction with, or apart from, other ways of improving learning, we might well look at some_ of the following: a) an increase in the length of the academic. year. Canada has one of ~_- the shortest academic year years in the world, and it may well be - part- icularly if we were to spend a considerable amount of time discussing ~ the goals of courses and" in evaluating them - thata we should consider lengths ning it to bring.it in line with the academic_ year in the United States. b) Traditional examina- tion techniques which included, among other things, final examinations set by other people than the professor teaching the

' course and marke dby other

people. The exams were in a sense "public". If one wants to see how much learning is taking place, perhaps it is*better to examine the amount of

’learning by examining it

rather than by conducting opiniOn surveys of the way in which the learning was acheived. ’ c) In—service training for faculty.

d) Pre-service training for faculty, perhaps as part of the Ph.D.

e) The use of some of the new techniques of,"observ~ ing" in classrooms - in ef effect, a study of the language and interactions in a given class. These have been used with greag effect to improve learning in other places.

f) Traditional techniques for evaluating faculty, based primarily on the judgement of peers and superiors. , g) The use of outside tea teams of evaluaters, or individual evaluators - not every year, but,say,at lea least once every five years. This would be a technique

, rather like that used for

accrediting medical school

: h)The use of standardized

national and international tests - for example, the college entrance board ex-' amination, the advanced standing examinations,the graduate record examina- tions, and so on.

i)A greater use of faculty working together in courses so that they may help one another and at the same time bring an element of "publicness" into the over— privacy ofmany present classrooms.

t t ere are

other things we should con- sider as well,but looking back on a most successful weekend it seems to me that on another occasion we. might do better to widen the range of the ways in which we can improve lear- ning and teaChing.

I would also like to add my own views of change

in the university. Of all , the metaphors that are used increasingly I prefer the evolutionary metaphor. Changes are tested on indi- vidual members of a species not on the whole species. One strives for variety,

‘ experiment,adapaation to

particular contexts,and viability within parti-

.cular contexts. Metaphors

based on single purposes . or rigid systems of plan-

. ning appeal to many people

but they may not in fact

be the best way of inducing desirable change in an in- stitution like a univer- sity.

Finally,I would like to thank everyone who planned the weekend, and hope that we may have more in the future.