Identification of Components of Ethics of Evaluation in Higher Education from the Faculty Members’ Viewpoints and Its Application from Students' Perspectives

The aim of the present study was to identify the components of ethics of evaluation in higher education from the faculty members’ viewpoints and its application from students' perspectives. A mixed-method (sequential exploratory) approach focusing on qualitative and quantitative methods was used in the research. The research was conducted in a descriptive-survey design. The participants of the qualitative section were composed of faculty members of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University and the statistical population of the quantitative section was consisted of MA/MSc and BA/BSc students of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University (N=6065). Accordingly, 16 faculty members were selected and interviewed via the purposive sampling method. In addition, 362 Students were selected using the proportionate stratified random sampling method. The tool used for the qualitative section was semi-structured interviews technique and the quantitative tools were a Researcher-Made Ethics of Evaluation, which was composed of 34 items. Regarding the data analysis, it was tried to make use of qualitative content analysis (conventional type) for qualitative section and one-sample T-test and Independent T-test were used for the quantitative section. The qualitative findings were categorized into 6 components identified as ethics of evaluation. The quantitative results showed that the application of the component of effective communication in favorable evaluation as well as components of unbiased evaluation, ethical considerations in evaluation and reliability and validity of evaluation instruments were rated lower than the hypothetical mean from MA/MSc students’ viewpoint. Moreover, given the BA/BSc students’ perspective, the components of evaluation as learning, principled and correct evaluation and effective scientific communications in the favorable evaluation were reported. Regarding the difference in the application of components of ethics of evaluation between female and male students, the results indicated that there was a significant difference in such components as unbiased evaluation, effective scientific communications, and the reliability and validity of the evaluation instruments but no difference was observed in other components. The ethical system in higher education, especially in student’s evaluation, reflected professional-scientific behaviors and the sense of ethical commitment on the part of professors.