scholarly journals Student evaluations of teaching: teaching quantitative courses can be hazardous to one’s career

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Uttl ◽  
Dylan Smibert
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Merit Pay ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Individual Student ◽  
Student Evaluations Of Teaching ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Personnel Decisions ◽  
Parametric Statistics ◽  
Grading Standards ◽  
The Impact

Anonymous student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are used by colleges and universities to measure teaching effectiveness and to make decisions about faculty hiring, firing, re-appointment, promotion, tenure, and merit pay. Although numerous studies have found that SETs correlate with various teaching effectiveness irrelevant factors (TEIFs) such as subject, class size, and grading standards, it has been argued that such correlations are small and do not undermine the validity of SETs as measures of professors’ teaching effectiveness. However, previous research has generally used inappropriate parametric statistics and effect sizes to examine and to evaluate the significance of TEIFs on personnel decisions. Accordingly, we examined the influence of quantitative vs. non-quantitative courses on SET ratings and SET based personnel decisions using 14,872 publicly posted class evaluations where each evaluation represents a summary of SET ratings provided by individual students responding in each class. In total, 325,538 individual student evaluations from a US mid-size university contributed to theses class evaluations. The results demonstrate that class subject (math vs. English) is strongly associated with SET ratings, has a substantial impact on professors being labeled satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory and excellent vs. non-excellent, and the impact varies substantially depending on the criteria used to classify professors as satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory. Professors teaching quantitative courses are far more likely not to receive tenure, promotion, and/or merit pay when their performance is evaluated against common standards.

scholarly journals Determinants of Accounting Student Evaluations of Teaching Scores

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Saad S. Albuloushi ◽  
Mishari M. Alfraih
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Faculty Evaluation ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Student Evaluations Of Teaching ◽  
Personnel Decisions ◽  
College Of Business ◽  
Grading Standards ◽  
Applied Education

<p>Given the prevalent use of the student evaluations of teaching (SET) as a measure of teaching effectiveness, this study aims to investigate the determinants of SET scores among students attending the College of Business Studies at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), Kuwait. A total of 678 SET were analysed using univariate and multiple regression analyses. It was found that SET scores were significantly and positively biased by expected grade, student age and course level. In contrast, class size and faculty experience were found to be significantly and negatively related to SET. Expected grade had the strongest impact on SET scores.<em> </em>The study findings raise concerns about the reliability and validity of the SET as well as their suitability for evaluation purposes. As SET scores have an important assessment function and serve as formative and summative measures in personnel decisions, the incentives for faculty to compromise their grading standards to receive good teaching evaluations increase. Accordingly, administrators should devote more effort to ensure a careful and complete understanding and interpretation of SET if they want to effectively incorporate them into the faculty evaluation process. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore determinants of student evaluations of teaching scores in Kuwait.</p>

scholarly journals Student Evaluations of Teaching (Mostly) Do Not Measure Teaching Effectiveness

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Boring ◽  
Kellie Ottoboni ◽  
Philip Stark
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
First Year ◽  
Student Evaluations Of Teaching ◽  
Personnel Decisions ◽  
Student Gender ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
Nonparametric Statistical ◽  
Academic Personnel

<p>Student evaluations of teaching (SET) are widely used in academic personnel decisions as a measure of teaching effectiveness. We show:</p><ul> <li>SET are biased against female instructors by an amount that is large and statistically significant</li> <li>the bias affects how students rate even putatively objective aspects of teaching, such as how promptly assignments are graded</li> <li>the bias varies by discipline and by student gender, among other things</li> <li>it is not possible to adjust for the bias, because it depends on so many factors</li></ul><ul> <li>SET are more sensitive to students&#39; gender bias and grade expectations than they are to teaching effectiveness</li> <li>gender biases can be large enough to cause more effective instructors to get lower SET than less effective instructors.</li></ul><p>These findings are based on nonparametric statistical tests applied to two datasets: 23,001 SET of 379 instructors by 4,423 students in six mandatory first-year courses in a five-year natural experiment at a French university, and 43 SET for four sections of an online course in a randomized, controlled, blind experiment at a US university.</p>

The Ethics Of Setting Course Expectations To Manipulate Student Evaluations Of Teaching Effectiveness In Higher Education: An Examination Of The Ethical Dilemmas Created By The Use Of SETEs And A Proposal For Further Study And Analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Catherine S. Neal ◽  
Teressa Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Student Evaluations Of Teaching ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Course Rigor ◽  
Overall Evaluation ◽  
Attendance Policies

Because student evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETEs) are an important and widely used tool used in the evaluation and reward systems for faculty members in higher education, a discussion and analysis of the ethical problems that may arise as a result of the conflict created by expectations of performance is provided.  This discussion specifically focuses on ethical issues related to setting course expectations and attendance policies to manipulate students’ perceptions of course rigor and the overall evaluation of the course and the instructor.

"Student Evaluations of Teaching and Student Cyberaggression: The Impact of Keyboard Warriors in Tertiary Education"

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Page ◽  
◽  
Jennifer Charteris ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Student Evaluations Of Teaching ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Aggressive Behaviours ◽  
The Impact

It is well established that student evaluations of teaching in universities have long been contested. Many see value in them for ongoing improvement and to hold faculty to account for their pedagogical practice. However, the anonymity of these online surveys that permit students enrolled in units to provide feedback on teaching and learning can produce ‘keyboard warriors’. Anonymous surveys can serve to provide a platform for students to engage in cyber-aggressive behaviours that are damaging for staff health and wellbeing and are of a concern to workplace safety. We draw on published results from an existing study of student evaluations of teaching to signal that in the worst instances student evaluations of teaching evoke student cyberaggression.

scholarly journals “Somebody has to teach the ‘broccoli’ course”: Administrators Navigating Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET)

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Luis Francisco Vargas-Madriz ◽  
Norma Nocente ◽  
Rebecca Best-Bertwistle ◽  
Sarah Forgie
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Teaching Evaluation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Student Evaluations Of Teaching ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Evaluation Of Teaching ◽  
Large Research

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) have been the most consistently administered tool, and they are still extensively used in higher education institutions to assess teaching effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to explore how SET are used by administrators in the teaching evaluation process at a large, research-intensive Canadian university. A basic qualitative research design was used in this project, and semi-structured interviews were used to obtain administrators’ experiences. The research question that guided this study was: How are SET (and other tools) used in the evaluation of teaching at this university? Findings showed that although participants mostly utilized a couple of SET statements as indicators of effective teaching, they were certainly aware of the intrinsic issues concerning these tools, and that they are continually seeking to obtain more evidence if SET results are below their benchmarks.

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