PEER REVIEW IN THE EVALUATION OF BACCALAUREATE NURSE EDUCATORS IN ILLINOIS.
Contributors: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 156
Subjects: Education, Administration.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to establish baseline data on the nature, extent, and acceptance of peer review among baccalaureate nursing education faculty and administrators in Illinois. A questionnaire developed by the researcher was sent to all nurse administrators and nursing education faculty in 26 generic baccalaureate programs in Illinois. The population consisted of 30 nurse administrators and 535 faculty. Response rates were 93% of administrators and 64% of faculty.

The data derived from this study supported several conclusions. Peer review was used extensively with a high degree of acceptance from both faculty and administrators. Administrators perceived the purpose of peer review to be more formative than did faculty. However, both groups indicated peer review had particular potential for improvement of teaching. Individuals internal to the department were preferred reviewers with in-class observation, clinical observation, and review of written class materials perceived to be most effective for improvement of teaching effectiveness. Administrators and faculty were typically in agreement on 28 out of 34 aspects of the faculty teaching, service, and scholarly roles which were appropriately assessed by peer review. Student outcomes and products of learning such as test results, student projects, presentations, and papers were more often selected by administrators than faculty as appropriate for assessment by peer review. However, neither group selected student outcomes assessment as a primary aspect of teaching appropriate for review by peers. Barriers existed to gathering peer review data with lack of trust and fear of retaliation noted as concerns by both faculty and administrators. Formal training to improve the quality of data collected and to minimize bias in performance of peer review was not being done; neither faculty nor administrators believed this lack of training disqualified them to judge performance.

Recommendations were made which have relevance for nursing education administrators and faculty who might utilize peer review as a component of faculty evaluation systems. Suggestions for further research were also made.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2516.

Thesis (PH.D.)--SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY AT CARBONDALE, 1994.

School code: 0209.