Are Student Evaluations of Teaching Valid? Evidence From an Analytical Business Core Course

Standard Of Measurement For Student Evaluation Instruments

“…This is understandable given the consistent findings noted that higher expected grades are associated with better evaluations of teaching (Nelson and Yunker's (2003) findings that students who had been in an introductory accounting class that was rated more highly tended to do worse in the subsequent accounting course than students who had the teacher that was rated less highly. These studies suggest that the quest for positive teaching evaluations may lead to grade inflation.…”

Who is Learning what from Student Evaluations of Teaching?

“…If so, are these good student grades the result of improved teaching quality or the lowering of grading standards? Yunker and Yunker (2003) cite a considerable body of research showing a positive correlation between student evaluations of staff members and objective measures of student achievement before evaluating the results of their own research with Accounting students which showed the exact opposite. With their own students the authors found a statistically significant negative relationship between student evaluations and student achievement.…”

Determinants of Accounting Student Evaluations of Teaching Scores

“…a number of concerns, including the basic validity of these surveys and their sensitivity to external biases. Yunker and Yunker (2003) argue that SETs are not clearly and directly related to teaching effectiveness. Instead, they are related and influenced significantly by personal characteristics and institutional factors over which the faculty members have no control.…”

“…Instead, they are related and influenced significantly by personal characteristics and institutional factors over which the faculty members have no control. In support of Yunker and Yunker (2003), Bonitz (2011) notes that a large proportion of SET research has been devoted to the issue of bias in student evaluations of faculty. Although most university administrators believe that students can reliably evaluate teaching effectiveness, prior research in higher education literature, however, provides evidence that many faculty members believe that student evaluations are simply a popularity contest and have no relation to the measurement of effective teaching (Morgan et al 2003).…”