Students' Perceptions of Faculty and Graduate Students as Classroom Teachers

Schuckman, Harold

doi:10.1207/s15328023top1703_5

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(14 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Blackhart et al (2006) found that non-tenure-track faculty (lecturers and teaching assistants) received higher SET ratings, with teaching assistants performing the best. This result conflicts with other results that show performance of permanent faculty and teaching assistants is approximately the same (Schuckman, 1990). Another differentiation is between full-time and parttime faculty (i.e., adjunct professors excluding teaching assistants).…”

Section: Instructor Demographicscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Effects of Course and Instructor Characteristics on Student Evaluation of Teaching across a College of Engineering

Johnson

Narayanan

Sawaya

2013

J of Engineering Edu

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are a widely used metric to evaluate instructor effectiveness and are used to make promotion, tenure, and retention decisions for faculty. There is also growing interest by those outside the university community to use these metrics to evaluate faculty and broader academic performance. Purpose (Hypothesis)This study seeks to understand if and how course and instructor characteristics affect SETs and thereby to improve the usefulness of these metrics. This article aims to statistically examine the relationship between course and instructor characteristics and SETs.Design/Method SETs from a large engineering college at a major public university were evaluated over a seven-semester period that covered 3938 courses taught by 549 unique engineering instructors. Course and instructor demographic data were statistically evaluated for their effects on SETs.Results Course characteristics such as class size, course level, and whether a course was an elective or required had statistically significant effects on SETs. Instructor characteristics of gender and academic rank affected SETs and average course grades, respectively. Average course grades were positively correlated with SETs.Conclusions Data analysis showed that course characteristics, faculty demographics, and average course grades had statistically significant effects on SETs; however, in some cases the effect sizes of these variables were small. Administrators and senior faculty members should be cognizant of these relevant factors and their effects when assigning faculty to certain courses and evaluating their teaching effectiveness using SETs.

show abstract

Section: Instructor Demographicscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Effects of Course and Instructor Characteristics on Student Evaluation of Teaching across a College of Engineering

Johnson

Narayanan

Sawaya

2013

J of Engineering Edu

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nevill, Ware, and Smith (1978) investigated instructor ratings of postsecondary mathematics teachers, and the results indicated that undergraduate students rated TAs and faculty members similarly. Likewise, Schuckman (1990) found that in six out of seven semesters, psychology students rated graduate TAs the same as faculty, and in the remaining semester, graduate assistants were rated significantly higher than the faculty. Schuckman also examined instructor ratings in introductory psychology classes and found that graduate TAs were rated significantly higher in four out of seven semesters and were rated the same in the three remaining semesters.…”

Section: Personal Factors -Perceptions Of Teaching Assistantsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Preservice Agricultural Education Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Assistants: Implications for Teacher Education

Shoulders¹,

Stripling²,

Estepp³

2013

JAE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Graduate assistants have an impact on undergraduate education through course instruction. For preservice agricultural education teachers, experiences with teaching assistants may be particularly influential, as their observations of educators could impact their perceptions and beliefs toward teaching. This qualitative study utilized data collected through individual interviews of six preservice agricultural education teachers at the University of Florida to explore preservice agricultural education teachers' perceptions regarding the quality of education received when instructed by a teaching assistant. We found that participants held mixed feelings about teaching assistants' impact on educational quality, and offered five areas of quality indicators participants used to gauge teaching assistant quality. The findings can be utilized to guide teacher educators in addressing students' experiences with teaching assistants in order to enhance their overall educational experience.

show abstract

“…Several studies show that there is no relationship between instructor rank and SET (Aleamoni & Thomas, ; Peterson et al., ; Troy et al., ; Zabaleta, ). Schuckman () found no differences in SET between graduate student instructors and other faculty. In contrast, according to McPherson and Jewell () and McPherson et al (), tenured faculty have higher SET than nontenured faculty, and adjunct faculty score even higher than tenure track faculty.…”

Section: Literature Review and Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Differences in Nonteaching Factors Influencing Student Evaluation of Teaching between Engineering and Business Classrooms

Narayanan¹,

Sawaya

Johnson

2014

Decision Sci J Innov Edu

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, there have been increasing calls from the government and other organizations to provide easy public access to student evaluations of teaching. Indeed, the increasing ease of displaying and viewing large quantities of information, and competition among universities and majors for students, makes it likely that an era of greater transparency of this type of information is at hand. While students' evaluation of teaching (SET) is one quantitative metric that rates the instructor, it may be influenced by factors that are often beyond the instructor's control. In this study, we analyze a longitudinal data set from both engineering and business schools of a large public university, and identify factors that influence SET. We show which factors have the highest influence on overall SET scores, and contrast these between engineering and business colleges. Colleges within the same university may have differences in the factors affecting SET, and recognition of this is important in effectively and fairly evaluating SET scores. We also provide recommendations regarding information that should be displayed along with the SET, particularly when SET scores are made public, so that instructors are not unduly penalized when their evaluations can be influenced by factors over which they have no control.

show abstract

Students' Perceptions of Faculty and Graduate Students as Classroom Teachers

Cited by 11 publications

References 15 publications

Effects of Course and Instructor Characteristics on Student Evaluation of Teaching across a College of Engineering

Effects of Course and Instructor Characteristics on Student Evaluation of Teaching across a College of Engineering

Preservice Agricultural Education Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Assistants: Implications for Teacher Education

Analysis of Differences in Nonteaching Factors Influencing Student Evaluation of Teaching between Engineering and Business Classrooms

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About