Student evaluation of teaching from the actors’ perspective

Abstract

This article discusses obstacles that higher education institutions may need to surmount when introducing quality assurance measures such as student evaluation of teaching. It is based on a research study of how student evaluation of one-to-one instrumental tuition is perceived, experienced and practiced by instrumental teachers and their students at a Norwegian music academy. The study takes as its point of departure institutional theory, which focuses on how norms, values, routines and perceptions develop in an institution and result in a collective ‘logic of appropriateness’: taken-for-granted expectations as to how members of the institution ‘should’ behave. The results indicate that such a ‘logic of appropriateness’ does indeed exist at the case institution and that it poses several stumbling blocks to student evaluation of teaching. The results underline the importance of understanding the prevailing ‘logic of appropriateness’ when introducing quality assurance measures such as student evaluation of teaching in higher education institutions.