The development of an evaluation Q-sort : a study of nursing instructors

• Main Author: Neylan, Margaret Sarah
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2011
• Subjects: Nurses > Study and teaching; Psychology > Methodology; Nursing > Study and teaching
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37042

The purpose of this study was to develop an Evaluation Q-Sort and to test it by measuring the perceptions held by-nursing, instructors of the relative importance of five functions and effects of evaluation. The functions and effects identified for study were: the measurement of student achievement, the measurement of student progress, psychological effects of evaluation, the influence of evaluation on teaching, and the influence of evaluation on administration. An Evaluation Q-Sort was developed and used to measure the perceptions of evaluation held by the 111 nursing instructors in the six professional nursing schools in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island areas of the Province of British Columbia. The population was divided into ten classifications according to various criteria related to role, experience, preparation, and instructional setting. The central hypothesis assumed that the group of instructors as a whole would not assign greater importance to anyone of the five functions and effects of evaluation. The nine sub-hypotheses assumed that the perceptions of evaluation held by nursing instructors would not be influenced by the variables selected for study. The .05 level of significance was used in the study. The results indicated that the nursing instructors did ascribe significantly different degrees of importance to the five functions and effects of evaluation. Measurement of student achievement was ascribed least importance and measurement of student progress was ascribed most importance among the functions and effects studied. In addition, differences were found with respect to the nature of the instructors' responsibilities, the type of school in which she taught, and her stated level of satisfaction with preparation as an evaluator. No differences were found with respect to length of experience in nursing service or education, preparation as an instructor, course in tests and measurements, instructional focus, and instructional setting. === Education, Faculty of === Educational Studies (EDST), Department of === Graduate