Changing the Agenda for Research into Students' Views about University Teaching: Four shortcomings of SRT research

Abstract

Despite the increasing use of student ratings of teaching in higher education as an indicator of teaching quality, issues pertaining to the validity and reliability, rather than how best to use student ratings continue to dominate the research agenda for this topic. It is important to be aware of biases in ratings, but after 75 years of research and debate, it seems unlikely that academics will ever agree on whether student ratings should be used in promotion and tenure decisions. There is sufficient agreement, however, that they are useful for teaching improvement purposes. This article argues for a shift in emphasis of research, as there are unresolved and emerging issues that research has not yet explored sufficiently. Four shortcomings of student ratings are identified as in need of this attention in order to increase the practical usefulness of student ratings.