The Relationship Between Student Evaluation of Instruction Scores and Faculty Formal Educational Coursework

Abstract

Context: Emphasis is placed on athletic training educators' content area expertise and not on their formal training in educational concepts. Objective: The purposes of this study were to identify the amount of educational coursework completed by ATEP faculty and investigate the relationship between ATEP instructors' student evaluation of instruction scores and their formal educational coursework completed. Design: Survey design that included demographic and questionnaire components. Setting: Self-administered questionnaires Participants: The population for the study was athletic trainers working as full-time faculty in Florida ATEPs (n = 19; mean age 39.2 ± 8.03; mean teaching experience 8.84 ± 5.79 years). Data Collection: Faculty participants completed a demographic questionnaire. Students in a non-laboratory based and non-clinical education course taught by the faculty member completed the Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality questionnaire. Analysis: Correlations and independent samples t-tests were analyzed. Results: Faculty completed 9.25 ± 7.39 education courses. The study found positive correlations of moderate/large effect sizes between 7 of the 9 Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) subscales as well as the total SEEQ score, and the number of education courses taken by faculty. The positive correlation between the “Assignments/Readings” subscale and the number of education courses taken by faculty was significant. Independent samples t-tests demonstrated that when faculty had taken more than 10 courses related to education, their students rated them significantly higher on the “Learning/Academic Value” and “Assignments/Readings” subscales than faculty who have taken 10 or fewer courses. Conclusion(s): There is a lack of uniformity among ATEP faculty regarding the quantity of formal educational coursework. The results of this study provide some evidence that a positive relationship exists between educational coursework and some student evaluation of instruction subscale scores.