Gyumri State Pedagogical Institute

Case Report

Temporary QA Committee of Scientific Board

Established Sep 2011 Members 7 Supervised by Vice-Rector on Research and External Affairs Since Sep 2011 almost 50 Regulations on university policy and procedures are developed (and approved by Scientific Board)

Main actors

Center for Quality Assurance

Main actors

Established Sep 2011 Permanent full time staff - 3 University self-assessment will be carried out with the help of groups within corresponding faculty/department including 1 student in each group (8 groups) In some specific cases (e.g. strategic planning on university level) well shape temporary groups (engaging other experts)

Rector

QA Center

QA Committee of Scientific Board

Faculty QA Group1

Faculty QA Group2

Faculty QA Group8

Quality assurance of teaching staff Institutions should have ways of satisfying themselves that staff involved with the teaching of students are qualified and competent to do so. They should be available to those undertaking external reviews, and commented upon in reports.

Teachers are the single most important learning resource available to most students. It is important that those who teach have a full knowledge and understanding of the subject they are teaching, have the necessary skills and experience to transmit their knowledge and understanding effectively to students in a range of teaching contexts, and can access feedback on their own performance. Institutions should ensure that their staff recruitment and appointment procedures include a means of making certain that all new staff have at least the minimum necessary level of competence. Teaching staff should be given opportunities to develop and extend their teaching capacity and should be encouraged to value their skills. Institutions should provide poor teachers with opportunities to improve their skills to an acceptable level and should have the means to remove them from their teaching duties if they continue to be demonstrably ineffective.

Teachers are the single most important learning resource available to most students. It is important that those who teach have a full knowledge

and understanding of the subject they are teaching, have the necessary skills and experience to transmit their

knowledge and understanding effectively to students in a range of teaching contexts, and can access feedback on their own performance. Institutions should ensure that their staff recruitment and appointment procedures include a means of making certain that all new staff have at least the minimum necessary level of competence. Teaching staff should be given opportunities to develop and extend their teaching capacity and should be encouraged to value their skills. Institutions should provide poor teachers with opportunities to improve their skills to an acceptable level and should have the means to remove them from their teaching duties if they continue to be demonstrably ineffective.

Ensuring knowledge, necessary skills and experience of teaching staff

Basis: Regulation for Development of Teaching Staff effective on 26 May 2012

Main points:

Nomenclature of teaching staff positions Qualitative Criteria for positions Recruitment options and procedures

Teachers are the single most important learning resource available to most students. It is important that those who teach have a full knowledge and understanding of the subject they are teaching, have the necessary skills and experience to transmit their knowledge and understanding effectively to students in a range of teaching contexts, and can access feedback on their own performance. Institutions should ensure that their staff recruitment and appointment procedures include a means of making certain that

all new staff have at least the minimum necessary level of competence.

Teaching staff should be given opportunities to develop and extend their teaching capacity and should be encouraged to value their skills. Institutions should provide poor teachers with opportunities to improve their skills to an acceptable level and should have the means to remove them from their teaching duties if they continue to be demonstrably ineffective.

Ensuring the minimum necessary level of competence of new staff

Basis: A new Regulation on this issue is under consideration of QA Committee of Scientific Board. Will be finalized and will be effective on Sep 1, 2012

Main points:

New staff will be given a 1 semester probation period Class auditing and performance assessment by department Assessment based on anonymous evaluation by students and colleagues All lectures and teaching materials should be available online by the start of academic year

Teachers are the single most important learning resource available to most students. It is important that those who teach have a full knowledge and understanding of the subject they are teaching, have the necessary skills and experience to transmit their knowledge and understanding effectively to students in a range of teaching contexts, and can access feedback on their own performance. Institutions should ensure that their staff recruitment and appointment procedures include a means of making certain that all new staff have at least the minimum necessary level of competence.

Teaching staff should be given opportunities to develop and extend their teaching capacity and should be encouraged to value their skills.

Institutions should provide poor teachers with opportunities to improve their skills to an acceptable level and should have the means to remove them from their teaching duties if they continue to be demonstrably ineffective.

Ensuring development of teaching capacity and encouraging to value teaching staff skills.

Basis1: Differentiated System of Supplementary Payments for Encouraging Research and Methodical Activities effective on Jan 1, 2012 Main points:

Assigning bonus units for activities (e.g. 30 or 20 for defending dissertation or supervising doctoral student, 25 for a paper in external peer-reviewed journal, 20 for reporting at Int. Conference, 30 for membership in professional organizations, etc.) 1 unit = 1000 AMD (2 Euros) Payment will be made once a year for units earned during that year

Ensuring development of teaching capacity and encouraging to value teaching staff skills. (cont)
Basis2: A new Regulation In-service Training of Teaching Staff is under consideration. Will be finalized on Dec 2012 Main points:
All faculty must undergo regular mandatory inservice training and accumulate 30 Credit units within every 5 years Poor faculty could be assigned shorter period

Teachers are the single most important learning resource available to most students. It is important that those who teach have a full knowledge and understanding of the subject they are teaching, have the necessary skills and experience to transmit their knowledge and understanding effectively to students in a range of teaching contexts, and can access feedback on their own performance. Institutions should ensure that their staff recruitment and appointment procedures include a means of making certain that all new staff have at least the minimum necessary level of competence. Teaching staff should be given opportunities to develop and extend their teaching capacity and should be encouraged to value their skills.

Institutions should provide poor teachers with opportunities to improve their skills to an acceptable level and should have the means to remove them from their teaching duties if they continue to be demonstrably ineffective.

Ensuring a)opportunities for poor teachers to improve their skills and b)means to remove demonstrably ineffective teachers from teaching duties Basis: Regulation is under development Main points:
Developing a system of regular (or on-demand) in-service training of teaching staff Decision on poor teachers further staffing based on annual staff performance assessment derived from a)anonymous evaluation by students and colleagues and b)critical evaluation of annual plans performance

Total teaching staff - 284 Main faculty - 265 (93%) Short-time faculty* 19 (7%)
Average chair 11 faculty members
Eng.&Germ.(31), Arm.lang. and History (22) Phil., Music, Ecology, Rus.lit. (6-4)
*From schools, research institutions and industry

Extras

Number of Students -5200 Student/teacher ratio 20:1

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

0 3

1 5

0 1 2

0 1

0 1

0 1 1

31

22 22

17

14

12

12

12
12

9 11 9

9 8

8 8

8 7 6

Problems

Possible Decisions Enhance status of main, permanent staff by

Big ratio of short-time teaching staff at chair of Comp. Science (42%) Short-time staff is working part-time and most probably is not dedicated

increasing salaries and adding benefits to attract best specialists from schools, industry and research sectors for full-time teaching duties

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9

6 5 4

31

22

22

17 14 12 11 12 12 12

Eng. & Germ. Psycology Sport Pedagogy Pre-school Ped. Algebra Mil. training Ecology

Arm. lang. Rus. lang. Phys. training Arm. liter. Geography Engineer. Rus. lit.

History Pedagogy Math. analys. French lang. Polit. & Econ. Philos.

Biology Computer Science Chemistry Physics Fine arts Music

6%

Total - 265
46%

Doctor of Sciences -16

Candidate of Sciences - 126

48%

Without Degrees - 123

100% 90% 80% 70% 9 9 7 10 24 8 1 3 5 5 9 8 6 2 1

0 2 3 4 6 7 7 8 11 12 6 6 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 6 6 2 2 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 7 5 4 2 1 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 6 6 4 3 7 3 4 4 1 1

60%
50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Doct. of Sci

Cand. of Sci

Without degree

Problems

Possible Decisions

Near half of teachers dont have academic degrees (46%) Foreign languages, sport, military and fine arts - 70% + Small number of teachers with second academic degrees (6%) Encourage teachers to pursue academic degrees

5%

Professor
35%

Associate Prof. Assistant Prof. Lecturer

52%

8%

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 1 10% 0% 3 1 2 0 1 5 9 6 1 2 0 0 3 7 1 2 1 4 25 1 2 1 1 3 4 4 4 3 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 3 2 1 0 0 4 4 2 2 0 12 7 5 8 10 0 0 0 0 6 3 6 4 3 5 6 0 2 0 0 3 0 3 4 1 0 9 5 1 0 3 3 4 4 4 2 4 3 1 0 1 1 0

1
0 0

Professor

Associate Prof.

Assistant Prof.

Lecturer

Problems

Possible Decisions

Most of faculty (52%) are on the lowest level (lecturer) Small number of faculty on the position of assistant professor (8%) Make essential breaks between the salaries of different levels to encourage professional growth and pursuing academic degrees Develop new detailed job descriptions for all levels of teaching staff

Questionnaire for anonymous assessment of teaching staff by students were developed Totally 18 questions with 4 possible answers excellent, good, satisfactory and bad Students frm certain department assessed different teaching staff having classes in last semester We analyzed the results of questionnaire not for particular teachers, but average indicators for different teachers, as we intended to reveal the fields that urgently need improvement

1. Comformity of course content and curricula 2. Clarity of the course material explanation 3. Your confidence in the teacher's knowledge 4. The teachers oral speech and articulation 5. The teacher keeps the material interesting during the whole course. 6. Students are encouraged to ask questions on the material. 7. The quality of the answers given to the students questions. 8. Effective time management by the teacher. 9. Provision of appropriate classroom order by the teacher.

10. The teachers creative approach toward the subject. 11. The teachers interest towards the students success. 12. The teachers respective attitude to the students. 13. The teachers objectivity and impartiality. 14. To what extent the course promotes your professional development? 15. To what extent the course promotes your general development. 16. Your willingness to participate in other courses by this teacher. 17. Your involvement in the course (questions and answers, etc.) 18. My entire course assessment

Department of Foreign Languages Number of students surveyed 19 Number of teachers assessed 11 Indicators assessed - 18

Average indicators for teaching staff from department of foreign languages

100% 90% 80%

70% 60%
50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excel. 8 9 Good 10 Satisf. 11 Bad 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Survey analyze (Dept. of Foreign Languages)

Goal disclose areas requiring improvement

The questions received maximum average votes for bad indicator (16+% of answers) 1. Teachers objectivity 2. Teachers oral speech 3. Students willingness to participate other courses lead by the same teacher The average deviations for these indicators are also are near-maximum, meaning that different teachers receive quiet different marks for these indicators

Survey analyze (Dept. of Foreign Languages)

Areas requiring improvement

1. Teachers objectivity Possible solutions: this is the most difficult issue. Systematic efforts are needed for improvement.

Survey Analyze (Dept. of Foreign Languages)

Areas requiring improvement

2. Teachers oral speech The indicators are near-same for young and experienced teachers Possible solutions: 1. In-service trainings 2. Regular class auditing by colleagues

Survey Analyze (Dept. of Foreign Languages)

Areas requiring improvement 3. Students willingness to participate other courses lead by the same teacher
1.

Possible solutions: This issue is conditioned by previous issues and will be automatically resolved with them

Department of Management Number of students surveyed 9 Number of teachers assessed 5 Indicators assessed - 18

Average indicators for teaching staff from Management dept.

100% 90%

80%
70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%

0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 . 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Survey analyze (Dept. Management)

Goal disclose areas requiring improvement

The questions received maximum average votes for bad indicator (20-22% of answers) 1. To what extent the course promotes your professional development? 2. Teachers objectivity 3. Quality of time management 4. Students willingness to participate other courses lead by the same teacher 5. Teachers oral speech The average deviations for these indicators are also are near-maximum, meaning that different teachers receive quiet different marks for these indicators

Survey Analyze (Dept. of Management)

Areas requiring improvement

1. Contribution of the course to students professional development The indicators are better for young teachers meaning that more experienced teachers are not worried about their level of competence Possible solutions: 1. In-service trainings 2. Peer-reviewing (exernal?)of electronic teaching materials

Survey analyze (Dept. of Management)

Areas requiring improvement

2. Teachers objectivity Possible solutions: this is the most difficult issue. Systematic efforts are needed for improvement.

Survey Analyze (Dept. of Foreign Languages)

Areas requiring improvement 3. Effective time management

1.

The indicators are near-same for young and experienced teachers Possible solutions: In-service training

Survey Analyze (Dept. of Foreign Languages)

Areas requiring improvement 4. Students willingness to participate other courses lead by the same teacher
1.

Possible solutions: This issue is conditioned by previous issues and will be automatically resolved with them

Survey Analyze (Dept. of Management)

Areas requiring improvement

5. Teachers oral speech The indicators are better for young teachers, so this is not conditioned by experience teachers Possible solutions: 1. In-service trainings 2. Regular class auditing by colleagues

Thank you for your attention

Questions???
Presenter: Gagik Demirjian, Director of QA Center Email: dega001@yahoo.com