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Pharmacy students' perceptions of the teaching evaluation process in Jordan

Ibrahim Al‐Abbadi (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan)
Fadi Alkhateeb (School of Pharmacy, University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia, USA)
Nile Khanfar (Nova Southeastern University, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA)
Bahaudin Mujtaba (H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA)
David Latif (School of Pharmacy, University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia, USA)

Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues

ISSN: 1753-7983

Article publication date: 21 August 2009

277

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess pharmacy students' perceptions of the usefulness of the teaching evaluation (TE) instrument and the rationale behind their responses.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive survey instrument is constructed by the authors. Pharmacy students at University of Jordan (JU) are asked to complete the survey instrument. The questionnaire is completed during students first required, regularly scheduled class.

Findings

Of the 577 pharmacy students who are invited to participate, 557 completed the survey for a response rate of 96.5 percent. The majority of the 557 pharmacy students viewed student evaluation of teaching as worthwhile (4.11 out of five on a Likert scale anchored at “1, strongly disagree” and “5, strongly agree”), but agreed that the faculty members receiving the best evaluations are not always the most effective teachers (3.54 out of five).

Research limitations/implications

This paper only surveyed pharmacy students who are studying at JU and hence the results from this paper cannot be generalized to all pharmacy schools or countries in the Middle East. In addition, results may be biased by a social desirability effect whereas students respond in a manner that is different than their true perceptions.

Practical implications

Students acknowledge that the nature of the course, answering questions during office hours, and a pleasant instructor personality positively affected their evaluation score, while the majority of students disagree with the belief that having less work to do and easy exams impacted positively their evaluation scores.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the few attempts to assess the students' perception towards the TE process and the rationale behind their responses in the Middle East.

Keywords

Citation

Al‐Abbadi, I., Alkhateeb, F., Khanfar, N., Mujtaba, B. and Latif, D. (2009), "Pharmacy students' perceptions of the teaching evaluation process in Jordan", Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 181-190. https://doi.org/10.1108/17537980910981750

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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