Taking the grading leniency story to the edge. The influence of student, teacher, and course characteristics on student evaluations of teaching in higher education

Abstract

The use of student evaluation of teaching (SET) to evaluate and improve teaching is widespread amongst institutions of higher education. Many authors have searched for a conclusive understanding about the influence of student, course, and teacher characteristics on SET. One hotly debated discussion concerns the interpretation of the positive and statistically significant relationship that has been found between course grades and SET scores. In addition to reviewing the literature, the main purpose of the present study is to examine the influence of course grades and other characteristics of students, courses, and teachers on SET. Data from 1244 evaluations were collected using the SET-37 instrument and analyzed by means of cross-classified multilevel models. The results show positive significant relationships between course grades, class attendance, the examination period in which students receive their highest course grades, and the SET score. These relationships, however, are subject to different interpretations. Future research should focus on providing a definitive and empirically supported interpretation for these relationships. In the absence of such an interpretation, it will remain unclear whether these relationships offer proof of the validity of SET or whether they are a biasing factor.

A Study of the Correlation of the Improvement of Teaching Evaluation Scores Based on Student Performance Grades

“…The correlation between teaching evaluation scores and whole class average grades is stronger than the correlation between individual student's grades. The results are similar to the research results of Hoefer, Yurkiewicz, and Byrne (2012), Brockx, Spooren, and Mortelmans (2011), and Johnson, Narayanan, and Sawaya (2013. The study also found that variation of examined correlations existed among different curricula conditions, which is similar to the research results of Griffin, Hilton, Plummer, and Barret (2014).…”

“…They found that there was a significant but relatively small correlation between the teaching evaluation scores and average students' grades. Brockx, Spooren, and Mortelmans (2011) examined the influence of course grades on teaching evaluation socres. The results showed positive significant relationships between course grades and teaching evaluation scores.…”

The UK National Student Survey: An amalgam of discipline and neo‐liberal governmentality

“…Turning to the critical literature regarding SETs, some authors have focused on their gender bias (Boring, 2017), whilst other research has focused on the lack of The UK National Student Survey 539 validity of national SETs by critically interrogating the correlation between higher grades and higher marks (Brockx et al, 2011). A more significant body of work has critiqued SETs in the context of the ongoing 'marketisation of higher education' (Jones-Devitt & Samiei, 2011;Molesworth et al, 2011) and neo-liberalism (Grimmett et al, 2009;McGettigan, 2013;Giroux, 2014).…”

The Perspectives of Students and Teachers in the English Department in the College of Basic Education on the Student Evaluation of Teachers

“…Although, some studies have shown positive reliability and validity of SET (Thornton, Adams & Sepehri, 2010) others have shown that SET does not accurately measure teaching effectiveness (Weinberg, Hashimoto & Fleisher, 2009;Brockx, Spooren & Mortelmans, 2011;Sheppard, 2013).…”