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Re: Are student evaluations useful?



Yes, but how does one differentiate between answers to question which really
ask how did you *like* your instructor and those which assess competence.

Example questions:
The staff made a real effort to understand difficulties I might be
having

This question might evaluate "Did the teacher give me a B even though I
missed most of the classes due to my drug habit?"

The teaching staff normally gave me helpful feedback on how I was going

And this one might evaluate "Did the teacher scold me for being a total
screw up?"

My lecturers were extremely good at explaining things.

"Did the teacher go over and over the material such that I never had to do
homework or to study for the exams?"

OR

"Were the exams easy enough or graded easy enough so that I got a B in each
case?"

Are there any studies which correlate "how well a teacher is liked" with
"how well the students did on a *standardized* test"?

There is no use trying to convince me that student evaluations are accurate
on the grounds that the students really care about how much they learned.
Students don't give a damn how much they learn -- only about the grade.

I have decided this only after exhaustive research (:-)


Jim Green
JMGreen@sisna.com