Making students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness effective: The critical issues of validity, bias, and utility.

Abstract

This article reviews research indicating that, under appropriate conditions, students' evaluations of teaching (SETs) are (a) multidimensional; (b) reliable and stable; (c) primarily a function of the instructor who teaches a course rather than the course that is taught; (d) relatively valid against a variety of indicators of effective teaching; (e) relatively unaffected by a variety of variables hypothesized as potential biases (e.g., grading leniency, class size, workload, prior subject interest); and (f) useful in improving teaching effectiveness when SETS are coupled with appropriate consultation. The authors recommend rejecting a narrow criterion-related approach to validity and adopting a broad construct-validation approach, recognizing that effective teaching and SETs that reflect teaching effectiveness are multidimensional; no single criterion of effective teaching is sufficient; and tentative interpretations of relations with validity criteria and potential biases should be evaluated critically in different contexts, in relation to multiple criteria of effective teaching, theory, and existing knowledge.

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   Marsh, Herbert W. · 1987 · International Journal of Educational Research

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   Marsh, Herbert W., Muthén, Bengt, Asparouhov, Tihomir, Lüdtke, Oliver, Robitzsch, Alexander, Morin, Alexandre J. S., Trautwein, Ulrich · 2009 · Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal
2. Student evaluations of teaching (mostly) do not measure teaching effectiveness
   Boring, Anne, Ottoboni, Kellie, Stark, Philip B. · 2016 · ScienceOpen Research
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   Borrego, Maura, Henderson, Charles · 2014 · Journal of Engineering Education
4. The validity of student evaluation of teaching in higher education. Love me, love my lectures?
   Shevlin, Mark, Banyard, Philip, Davies, Mark, Griffiths, Mark · 2000 · Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
5. An evaluation of course evaluations
   Stark, Philip B., Freishtat, Richard · 2014 · ScienceOpen Research

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