THE STUDENT EVALUATION OF TEACHING: LET’S BE HONEST – WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The student evaluation of teaching is a common practice in the business schools of most colleges and universities. Currently, over 99% of business schools use student evaluations to measure teaching performance, but the honesty of student responses has been questioned. Prior research has indicated that student evaluations can contain answers the students knew were not deserved or purposely false. Given the importance of evaluations in decisions for promotion and faculty tenure, the honesty of student evaluation responses is paramount. Understanding there may be certain characteristics which could predispose students to be less than truthful, this research investigated the influence of consumerism on truthfulness in student evaluations. A survey of 178 undergraduates revealed that about half think of themselves as customers, and that those who think of themselves as customers may be more likely to provide false information on student evaluations.