Students’ perceptions of the evaluation of college teaching

Abstract

The validity of student evaluation of teaching (SET) has been continually debated in the academic community. The primary purpose of this research is to survey student perceptions to provide any evidence of inherent weaknesses in the use of SETs to measure and report teaching effectiveness accurately. The study surveyed over 500 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in various accounting courses over two years at a large public university. Students were asked to rate several factors on their importance in faculty evaluations and identify instructor traits and behaviors warranting lower ratings. The study provides further evidence that the use of student evaluations of teaching for personnel decisions is not appropriate. Students will punish instructors who engage in a number of well‐known learning/teaching techniques, which encourages instructors to increase SET scores by sacrificing the learning process. Other measures and methods should be employed to ensure that teaching effectiveness is accurately measured and properly rewarded. Using student data as a surrogate for teaching performance is an illusionary performance measurement system.

Citation

Crumbley, L., Henry, B.K. and Kratchman, S.H. (2001), "Students’ perceptions of the evaluation of college teaching", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 197-207. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006158