Can professors buy better evaluation with lenient grading? The effect of grade inflation on student evaluation of teaching

Berezvai, Zombor; Lukáts, Gergely Dániel; Molontay, Roland

doi:10.1080/02602938.2020.1821866

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Based on the fields, there are conflicting results in the literature related to the change of lecture grades. In some studies, students in science-related fields received lower grades when compared with students of non-science fields [ 45 , 52 ], and some studies reported no difference based on fields [ 10 ]. In this study, the results obtained were compatible with those of the research studies in the first group.…”

Section: Discussion and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education in Turkey

Karadağ

2021

PLoS ONE

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This study analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education. Data were collected from five universities in Turkey, including grades of 152,352 students who attended 2,841 courses conducted by 903 instructors before the COVID-19 pandemic and grades of 149,936 students who attended 2,841 courses conducted by 847 instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic causes a marginal increase in grades in higher education when the other factors that might explain the differences are controlled. Grade inflation of 9.21% is the highest ever reported in literature. Compared with a year ago, DD and DC grades decreased 55%; FD and FF grades decreased 31%; and the highest-grade AA increased 41% for courses taken during the pandemic. Additionally, classroom population, academic history of the instructor, class level, field, university entrance scores, and course execution and evaluation (grading) forms of course notes are important determinants. This increase can be explained by the effort of instructors who are accustomed to face-to-face settings. When they suddenly switch to distant education, they might try to grade higher to compensate for the unforeseen negative circumstances.

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Section: Discussion and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In sum, grade inflation refers to the tendency to reduce academic requirements and give students higher grades than they deserve [ 45 ]. In addition, grade inflation is a process followed by higher education institutions that reduces the actual value of an A grade over an average grade value [ 46 ].…”

Section: Background Of Grade Inflationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education in Turkey

Karadağ

2021

PLoS ONE

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“…To sum up, grade inflation refers to a tendency to reduce academic requirements and give students higher grades than they deserve [26]. Additionally, grade inflation is a process followed by higher education institutions that reduces the actual value of A grade to an average grade value [2].…”

Section: Grade Inflationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-graduation grade inflation in medical training in Turkey: a longitudinal study from 2005 to 2020

Karadağ

2021

BMC Med Educ

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Background Grade inflation which is known as the awarding of higher grades than students deserve in higher education has been observed since the 1960s. There is comprehensive evidence that document the allegations, prevalence, and severity of grade inflation in higher education in universities around the world for the past 10 years. Methods This study analyzes the change in the ratio of graduates with a “very good (>2.99)” degree in medical education in Turkey within a 15-year-long period in terms of the grade inflation (when all other factors are constant), and factors that affect the overall achievement grades. The analyses were carried out using the grade point average (GPA) of 9,618 students who graduated from the medical schools of 25 Turkish universities, and grades of 288,540 students for 7,597 courses. In doing so, the “real” university random effects estimator modelling considering the differences in universities with correlation, ANOVA, t-test and ANCOVA analyses were carried out. Results The results revealed that there was a marginal increase in grades in medical training before graduation. Twenty-nine percent grade inflation was detected in line with the relevant findings in literature and this figure is one of the highest that has been reported so far. It was also detected that the ratio of graduates with a “very good (>2.99)” degree was 17% in 2005 and it increased to 46% in 2020. Additionally, the class size, academic rank of the instructors, grades, course contents, types of the universities (public & non-profit private), accreditation of the program, and the age of the medical schools were considered as important determinants of the difference in course grades. Conclusion These results show that both the uncontrolled expansion of medical schools in Turkey and the decrease in quality cause a significant increase in grades. Moreover, an important finding is that accreditation slows down the grade inflation. Both the course grades following the accreditation process and the inflation in the graduation grades (grade inflation) slowed down significantly in the accredited medical schools. This finding is an important example for the necessity of accreditation for universities, which is referred to as the “gold standard” to improve the quality of medical education.

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“…To mention just a few of the biases identified in the literature, there is strong evidence that instructors who give better grades obtain better SETs than those who are more demanding, although the learning achieved by students is higher in the second group. In a recent article, Berezvai, Lukáts & Molontay (2021 : 793) concluded that “increasing the grade of a student by one will cause them to give approximately 0.2–0.4 higher evaluations for the instructor in the SET survey”. Indeed, several studies have reported that teachers who award higher grades receive better SETs than those who focus on the deeper learning that can be observed in later courses ( Yunker & Yunker, 2003 ; Carrell & West, 2010 ; Kornell & Hausman, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spain is not different: teaching quantitative courses can also be hazardous to one’s career (at least in undergraduate courses)

Barrigüete

Obregón

Ortiz-Lozano

et al. 2022

PeerJ

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Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) have become a widely used tool for assessing teaching in higher education. However, numerous investigations have shown that SETs are subject to multiple biases, one of which is particularly relevant, namely, the area of knowledge to which the subject belongs. This article aims to replicate the article by Uttl & Smibert (2017, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3299) in a different educational context to verify whether the negative bias toward instructors who teach quantitative courses found by the authors in the US also appears in the Spanish university system. The study was conducted at the Business and Law School of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, a private Spanish university, using two different samples. First, we analyzed undergraduate courses using a sample of 80,667 SETs in which 2,885 classes (defined as a single semester-long course taught by an individual instructor to a specific group of students), 488 instructors, and 322 different courses were evaluated over a time period of four academic years (2016/2017–2019/2020). Second, in the same period, 16,083 SETs corresponding to master’s degree courses were analyzed, which involved the study of 871 classes, 275 instructors, and 155 different courses. All the data included in the analysis were obtained from official university surveys developed by a team of professionals specialized in teaching quality responsible for ensuring the reliability of the information. At the degree level, the results show that despite the considerable cultural and temporal difference between the samples, the results are very similar to those obtained by Uttl & Smibert (2017, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3299); i.e., professors teaching quantitative courses are far more likely to obtain worse SETs than instructors in other areas. There are hardly any differences at the master’s degree level, regardless of whether nearly 75% of master’s degree instructors also teach at the undergraduate level. This leads us to three different conclusions. (1) Evidence suggests that the reason for these differences is not due to faculty teaching quantitative courses being less effective than faculty teaching in some other fields. Our results indicate that the same instructor is evaluated very differently depending on whether he or she teaches at the undergraduate or master’s level. (2) It is essential to avoid comparisons of SETs between different areas of knowledge, at least at the undergraduate level. (3) A significant change in the use and interpretation of SETs is imperative, or its replacement by other evaluation mechanisms should be considered. If this does not occur, it is possible that in the future, there will be an adverse selection effect among professors of quantitative methods; i.e., only the worst professionals in quantitative methods will opt for teaching since the good professionals will prefer other jobs.

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Can professors buy better evaluation with lenient grading? The effect of grade inflation on student evaluation of teaching

Cited by 28 publications

References 31 publications

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education in Turkey

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education in Turkey

Pre-graduation grade inflation in medical training in Turkey: a longitudinal study from 2005 to 2020

Spain is not different: teaching quantitative courses can also be hazardous to one’s career (at least in undergraduate courses)

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