The development of a student rating of teaching effectiveness questionnaire

Abstract

The use of student ratings of teaching effectiveness has become the most widely used, and often the only, source of information to assess and improve teaching effectiveness. Important prerequisites for questionnaires for student ratings should, therefore, be reliability and validity. The research reported in this article presents a methodology for developing a teaching effectiveness rating instrument, based on identified dimensions of teaching effectiveness believed to be important. Results obtained from 11 570 respondents of the RAU student rating questionnaire were factor analysed to an oblique simple structure. A first-order solution with four factors resulted: 1) Preparation of lectures; 2) Presentation of lectures; 3) Interaction with students during lectures; and 4) Assessment practices. One second-order factor was also found, representing General Teaching Effectiveness. The research results support the conclusion that the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) student rating questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument to implement for formative teaching assessment. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(1) 2001: 84-91