Recently graduated university students from all Australian Universities rate their overall departmental and university experiences (DUEs), and their responses (N = 44,932, 41 institutions) are used by the government to benchmark departments and universities. We evaluate this DUE strategy of rating overall departments and universities rather than…

The validity of students' evaluations of university teacher effectiveness must be demonstrated through a construct validation approach. Empirical relations between students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness (such as the Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality instrument) and other indicators of effective teaching are examined. (SLD)

Reviews research on the multidimensionality of effective teaching and student ratings. Recommends the adoption of a broad construct approach to evaluation of validity criteria and potential biases in different contexts, especially in relation to multiple criteria of effective teaching, theory, and existing knowledge. (MMU)

H. W. Marsh's monograph (1987) on students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness in higher education is summarized. The research, which emphasized the construct validity approach, led to the development of the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) instrument. Factor analysis resulted in identification of nine SEEQ factors--learning…

Results of this study demonstrate student-instructor agreement on evaluations of teaching effectiveness, support the validity of student ratings for both graduate and undergraduate courses, and emphasize the importance of using multifactor rating scales that are derived through the application of factor analysis. (Author/AL)

Campbell and Fiske (1959) developed four criteria of construct validity when measures of more than one trait are obtained with more than one method. In this study these criteria are compared with two other procedures--an analysis of variance (ANOVA) model and confirmatory factor analysis--for analyzing multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. The…

Research that led to the development of an instrument and a program for collecting students' evaluations of college/university teaching is summarized. The current version of Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ), which is appended, was developed at the University of Southern California (USC). (The first SEEQ was developed at the…

A number of research reports and meta analyses on student evaluation of college teaching were reviewed. Student ratings were found to be multidimensional, reliable, valid, and relatively unbiased. Results were useful for feedback, course selection, and personnel decisions. Marsh's Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) was also…

College students evaluated teaching effectiveness at the end of course and one year after graduation. Results showed variance attributable to the specific instructor was much larger than that due either to course level or course type for both end-of-term and follow-up ratings, and the effects were stable. (Author/RL)

Nominations made by graduating seniors for most and least outstanding instructors were compared with university-wide instructional evaluations adopted the following year. The findings offer support for the validity of students' evaluations because the distinction between instructors nominated most outstanding and least outstanding by graduating…

Discusses teachers' self-perceptions of their teaching effectiveness in higher education. Topics include self-concept; student evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETs); a multidimensional university teacher self-concept instrument and an evaluation of its psychometric properties; and a multitrait-multimethod analysis of relations between…

Recent research (1978-1982) on student evaluations of teaching is reviewed, including: influence of background variables pertaining to the student, the teacher, and the learning environment; the dimensions of the teaching being evaluated; the validity of students' evaluations; the "Doctor Fox" effect and its implications for validity; the…

Items from two American instruments (Students' Evaluation of Educational Effectiveness, and the Endeavor instrument) designed to measure students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness were translated into Spanish and administered to a sample of Spanish university students. Most of the items were judged by the students to be appropriate; every…

A set of 65 evaluation questions was compiled from published instruments. A total of 200 undergraduate students rated both their best and worst teacher from the previous term. Each of the set of 65 items was rated twice for the best teacher and twice for the worst teacher, with order randomized. Factor analysis of ratings of the Best Teachers, the…

Student evaluations of teacher effectiveness have been accepted by instructors as helpful indicators of performance, but their validity and use in tenure and promotion decisions has been questioned by faculty. Students and instructors in 207 social science courses completed evaluations of instructional effectiveness at the conclusion of the…