14: Time to Raise Questions About Student Ratings

Abstract

Students have changed a great deal in the past few decades, but has the validity of student ratings correspondingly changed with them? Drawing on recent research conducted on students, this chapter examines the relationship between student ratings and student learning, the biases found in these ratings, and their factual accuracy and apparent truthfulness. It also addresses why findings of early and recent studies differ, what information student ratings now provide, and how institutions and faculty have consolidated the effects on ratings that today's students initiated.

Methods and Purposes for Conducting Students’ Course Evaluations Reported by North American Dental School and Dental Hygiene Program Leaders: A Preliminary Survey Study

“…[22][23][24][25] Further investigation and recommendations for best practices based on recent studies about bias in student evaluation should also be pursued in dental education. Some respondents said their institutions also used course evaluations to provide guidance in instructional design.…”

17: Measuring Student Learning to Document Faculty Teaching Effectiveness

“…Another problem with using student ratings to represent student learning is the increasing array of biases plaguing their validity-now over a dozen variables unconnected to learning and mostly outside faculty control, from the instructor's physical attractiveness to his or her public personality to the length of the class meeting (summarized in Nilson, 2012). In fact, students largely form their opinions about an instructor's teaching-the same ones that wind up on the student rating forms-before instruction even begins (Clayson, 2013).…”

A Call for a New Model to Evaluate Teaching

“…Instead, students rate professors higher if their instructors cared about them or if they did well in the course. Course evaluations rate student satisfaction with the professor as a person rather than reflecting their teaching abilities (Blumberg, 2014; Nilson, 2012). Faculty often provide summary comments from peers, chairs or educational developers of their observations of teaching.…”