SELF‐RATINGS OF COLLEGE TEACHERS: A COMPARISON WITH STUDENT RATINGS

Abstract

ABSTRACTCollege teachers' self‐ratings were investigated in this study by comparing them to ratings given by students. The sample consisted of 343 teaching faculty from five colleges; these teachers, as well as the students in one of their classes, responded to a 21 item instructional report questionnaire.Correlating teacher responses to each item with the mean class responses (across the 343 classes) disclosed a modest relationship between the two sets of evaluation: a median correlation of .21 for the items. In addition to the general lack of agreement between self and student evaluations, there was also a tendency for teachers as a group to give themselves better ratings than their students did. Comparisons between student and faculty responses were also made across items, and a rank correlation of .77 indicated a good deal of similarity in the way the two groups rank ordered the items.Discrepancies between individual teacher ratings and ratings given by the class were further analyzed for: (a) sex of the teacher (no difference found); (b) number of years of teaching experience (no difference); and (c) subject area of the course (differences noted for natural science courses vs. those in education and applied areas).Among other conclusions, the results of this study would argue for the collection of student ratings to supplement self‐ratings.