Student Evaluations of Teaching: What are they good for? What do they tell us?
Wednesday, September 22
Jo Beld, Director of Evaluation and Assessment, and Political Science; Jason Engbrecht, Physics; David Schodt, Economics, and Director of the Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts
Most faculty members have an opinion about student evaluations of teaching, but what do we really know about them? What do student evaluations measure? Is there a gender bias in student evaluations? Are alumni better judges of faculty teaching than current students? Questions like these are particularly timely as the faculty has recommended a program of post-tenure reviews that includes mandatory student evaluations, and our student government seeks to implement its own system of evaluations of teaching by St. Olaf faculty.
This Conversation will feature a brief overview of student evaluations, including a summary of current uses and types of student evaluations at St. Olaf from Jo Beld, an update on the student government initiative from Jason Engbrecht, and a survey of the relevant research literature from David Schodt, followed by what we anticipate will be a rich discussion.
Reading suggestions:
1. James A Kulik, "Student Ratings: Validity, Utility and Controversy," and Michael Theall and Jennifer Franklin, " Looking for Bias in all the Wrong Places: A Search for Truth or a Witch Hunt in Student Ratings of Instruction," in The Student Ratings Debate: Are They Valid? How Can We Best Use Them? Michael Theall, Philip C. Abriami, Lisa A. Mets, eds. New Directions for Institutional Research, Number 109, Spring 2001, Jossey-Bass. Available to borrow from the CILA Resource Library.
2. William E. Cashin, "Student Ratings of Teaching: The Research Revisited" Idea Paper Number 32, Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development, Kansas State University, September 1995. (http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_32.pdf)
