§ 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.