Abstract
<p>It is important to consider the question of whether teacher-, course-, and student-related factors affect student ratings of instructors in Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) in English Language Teaching (ELT). This paper reports on a statistical analysis of SET in two large EFL programmes at a university setting in the Sultanate of Oman. I carried out a multiple regression analysis to address the research questions of whether instructor sex, class size, course type and percent participation would affect teaching effectiveness scores, and whether or not response rate can be predicted by instructor sex, class size and course type. The study utilizes a dataset of over 2000 student ratings obtained from an SET survey covering the period from Fall 2011 through to Spring 2014in these two programmes. Results indicated that the modeled predictors showed extremely low bias towards both teaching quality scores and response rate. Although the effect sizes of these results are extremely small, they are still significant due to the large sample size (comprising over 2000). The findings also suggest that contrary to common parlance in some quarters claiming students’ unreliable ratings, this analysis has shown that students can judge teaching effectiveness and do not allow other teacher-, course- and student-related factors to bias their responses. The study’s significance stems from the fact that it adds to instructional evaluation in ELT, a field characterized by a clear lack of research on SET.</p>
Highlights
Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET), wherein upon completing a course of study students undertake an electronic or pencil and paper questionnaire to rate the course and their instructor, has achieved centrality and popularity in higher education (Marsh, 2007)
The first question relates to identifying the relationship between percent participation and both instructor gender and course type, the latter of which pertains to whether or not a course belongs to a degree or non-degree programmes
Using a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) research design, the primary goal of this research was to assess whether or not any relationship existed in SET completion rates and teaching effectiveness as a function of instructor gender, class size and course type
Summary
Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET), wherein upon completing a course of study students undertake an electronic or pencil and paper questionnaire to rate the course and their instructor, has achieved centrality and popularity in higher education (Marsh, 2007). Amongst the issues investigated is the multidimensionality of the construct of teaching effectiveness, the validity and reliability of the instrumentarium (i.e., the different forms of SET whether they are institutional or online-based) and the respondent (i.e., in this case, the course students), and the uses to which the SET results are put. An increasingly important area for SET investigation that fits into the validity and reliability of SET is bias in the students’ ratings of their course and instructor. The bias question is an important one, and is the focus of this paper
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