scholarly journals Lessons Learned from Research on Student Evaluation of Teaching in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 237-256
Author(s):  
Bob Uttl
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Student Evaluation Of Teaching ◽  
Knowledge Class ◽  
Teaching Awards ◽  
Student Preference ◽  
Evaluation Of Teaching

AbstractIn higher education, anonymous student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings are used to measure faculty’s teaching effectiveness and to make high-stakes decisions about hiring, firing, promotion, merit pay, and teaching awards. SET have many desirable properties: SET are quick and cheap to collect, SET means and standard deviations give aura of precision and scientific validity, and SET provide tangible seemingly objective numbers for both high-stake decisions and public accountability purposes. Unfortunately, SET as a measure of teaching effectiveness are fatally flawed. First, experts cannot agree what effective teaching is. They only agree that effective teaching ought to result in learning. Second, SET do not measure faculty’s teaching effectiveness as students do not learn more from more highly rated professors. Third, SET depend on many teaching effectiveness irrelevant factors (TEIFs) not attributable to the professor (e.g., students’ intelligence, students’ prior knowledge, class size, subject). Fourth, SET are influenced by student preference factors (SPFs) whose consideration violates human rights legislation (e.g., ethnicity, accent). Fifth, SET are easily manipulated by chocolates, course easiness, and other incentives. However, student ratings of professors can be used for very limited purposes such as formative feedback and raising alarm about ineffective teaching practices.

scholarly journals Psychometric Properties of an Instrument Developed to Assess Students’ Evaluation of Teaching in Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Mutasem M. Akour ◽  
Bashar K. Hammad
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Student Evaluation Of Teaching ◽  
Evaluation Of Teaching ◽  
Teaching In Higher Education

Student evaluation of teaching is a global predominant practice in higher education institutions. Therefore, a major university in Jordan developed a questionnaire for students’ use in evaluating their instructors’ teaching effectiveness.  Since student evaluation of teaching is an important process, the present study tried to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Item-total correlations showed acceptable internal consistency. In addition, a two-factor structure of the scale (teaching effectiveness and course attributes) was supported by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis from two independent samples. Convergent validity was supported by a moderate correlation coefficient between course averages of students’ ratings on the first factor and course averages of students’ final grades in each course. Finally, students’ responses on the factor that captures teaching effectiveness were found to have very high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.96). However, this instrument lacks evidences of content validity and convergent validity. Therefore, it is important to be cautious in evaluating faculty members and making promotion decisions that is based solely on the scores obtained using this instrument. 

scholarly journals Student Evaluation of Teaching: Methodological Critique

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sproule
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
University Administrators ◽  
Student Evaluation Of Teaching ◽  
The Face ◽  
Evaluation Of Teaching

The purpose of the present work is twofold. The first is to outline two arguments that challenge those who would advocate a continuation of the exclusive use of raw SET data in the determination of "teaching effectiveness" in the "summative" function. The second purpose is to answer this question: "In the face of such challenges, why do university administrators continue to use these data exclusively in the determination of 'teaching effectiveness'?"

scholarly journals Student Evaluation Of Teacher Performance: Random Pre-Destination

2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim L. Chuah ◽  
Cynthia Hill
Keyword(s):  
Random Sample ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Teacher Performance ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Student Evaluation Of Teaching ◽  
Predominant Component ◽  
Persistent Pattern ◽  
Evaluation Of Teaching

The student evaluation, used to measure students’ perceptions of teacher performance, has been increasingly used as the predominant component in assessing teaching effectiveness (Waters et al. 1988), and the widespread movement of outcomes assessment across the country makes this trend likely to continue in the future (McCoy et al. 1994, AACSB 1994, SACS 1995).  Substantial research has been conducted with regard to the reliability and accuracy of student evaluation of teaching quality, and a considerable number of uncontrollable factors are found to bias the results of the evaluation rating.  This paper identifies one more factor.  Each student has an “evaluator profile”, which decreases the reliability of the student evaluation.  An “evaluator profile” is a persistent pattern of evaluating behavior that may or may not be consistent with the quality of the characteristic being evaluated.  Each class of students consists of a random sample of different evaluator profiles.  A student evaluation rating of a teacher’s performance is biased up or down depending on the concentration of high or low evaluator profiles present.  This paper further shows through simulation the degree to which student “evaluator profiles” impact the overall student evaluation rating of teacher performance. We find that there is evidence to support the “evaluator profile” conjecture, and that these “evaluator profiles” do in fact have the potential to change overall student evaluation ratings substantially.

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