Abstract

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.

Highlights

  • In higher education, anonymous student evaluation of teaching (SET) are used to measure the teaching effectiveness of faculty members and to make high-stakes decisions about them, such as hiring, firing, promotion, tenure, merit pay, and teaching awards (Uttl et al, 2017)

  • The first fundamental problem in assessing the validity of SET as a measure of faculty teaching effectiveness is that professors, administrators, and even experts do not agree on what effective teaching is (Uttl et al, 2017)

  • For nearly 40 years, the key evidence cited to support the validity of SET as a measure of faculty teaching effectiveness have been multisection studies that examine the correlations between the mean class SET and the mean class student achievement on common exams

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Summary

Introduction

Anonymous student evaluation of teaching (SET) are used to measure the teaching effectiveness of faculty members and to make high-stakes decisions about them, such as hiring, firing, promotion, tenure, merit pay, and teaching awards (Uttl et al, 2017). They are used by students for course selection in the same manner as the popular website www.ratemyprofessor. SET have their allure: (a) SET are quick and cheap to administer; (b)

Uttl (B)
SET Are an Invalid Measure of Faculty Teaching Effectiveness
There Is No Widely Accepted Definition of Effective Teaching
Students Do Not Learn More from More Highly Rated Professors
Students Intelligence, Ability, and Kruger Dunning Effect
Student Interest and Motivation
Course Subject
Class Size
Attractiveness/Hotness
Accent/Ethnicity/Nationality
Gender
Course Difficulty
Chocolates and Cookies
SET Findings Vary with Conflict of Interest
Discussion
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