Nursing students' evaluation of classroom teaching: developing and testing an instrument

Although literature on instruments measuring classroom teaching is abundant, it is difficult to find an established tool that meets the specific evaluation needs of faculty teaching in a contemporary nursing college. This methodological study developed and tested an instrument for student completion that assessed the effectiveness of a faculty member's classroom teaching in a modern curriculum. The items were developed from a literature review and feedback from content experts. Four midwestern nursing schools participated in the assessment of the instrument's reliability and validity. A coefficient alpha of .98 was reported for internal consistency (N = 233) and r = .85 (p < .001) for test-retest reliability (n = 35). Factor analysis revealed one dominant factor that measured effective traits/methods in classroom teaching. This factor's eigenvalue of 28.95 accounted for 60% of the total variance.