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Research and Best Practices for Student Course Evaluations: Bibliography

University Policy 4300, Student Course Evaluations, has recently been revised after extensive study of the growing body of research on what student course evaluations can reliably measure, what factors influence student responses, and how those responses should/should not be used to assess teaching performance. For example, studies indicate that student evaluations of teaching do not reliably correlate with student learning or with faculty content expertise, and often contain bias with respect to specific faculty populations, such as women and individuals with minority status. Research also indicates that students’ grades in a course affect their responses on course evaluations. Below is a list of scholarly research the faculty and student committee used as the basis for the revision to Policy 4300.

Bibliography

  • Ambady, N., & Rosenthal, R. (1993). Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of personality and social psychology, 64(3), 431.
  • Bavishi, A., Madera, J. M., & Hebl, M. R. (2010). The effect of professor ethnicity and gender on student evaluations: Judged before met. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 3(4), 245–256. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020763
  • Boring, A., K. Ottoboni, and P.B. Stark (2016). Student Evaluations of Teaching (Mostly) Do Not Measure Teaching Effectiveness, ScienceOpen, DOI 10.14293/S2199- 1006.1.SOR-EDU.AETBZC.v1
  • Boring, A. (2015). Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teachers, OFCE-PRESAGE- Sciences-Po Working Paper, http://www.ofce.sciences-po.fr/pdf/dtravail/WP2015-13.pdf
  • Braga, M., M. Paccagnella, and M. Pellizzari (2014). Evaluating Students’ Evaluations of Professors, Economics of Education Review, 41, 71-88.
  • Campbell, H., Gerdes, K., & Steiner, S. (2005). What’s looks got to do with it? Instructor appearance and student evaluations of teaching. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24, 611–620
  • Carrell, S. E., & West, J. E. (2010). Does professor quality matter? Evidence from random assignment of students to professors. Journal of Political Economy, 118(3), 409-432.
  • Esarey, J., & Valdes, N. (2020). Unbiased, reliable, and valid student evaluations can still be unfair. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(8), 1106-1120.
  • Fan Y, Shepherd LJ, Slavich E, Waters D, Stone M, Abel R, et al. (2019) Gender and cultural bias in student evaluations: Why representation matters. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0209749. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209749
  • Goos, M., & Salomons, A. (2017). Measuring teaching quality in higher education: assessing selection bias in course evaluations. Research in Higher Education, 58(4), 341-364.
  • Johnson, V. E. (2006). Grade inflation: A crisis in college education. Springer Science & Business Media.
  • Kogan, Vladimir, Brandon Genetin, Joyce Chen, and Alan Kalish (2022). Students’ Grade Satisfaction Influences Evaluations of Teaching: Evidence from Individual-level Data and an Experimental Intervention. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-513). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/spsf-tc23
  • MacNell, L., A. Driscoll, and A.N. Hunt (2015). What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching, Innovative Higher Education, 40, 291-303. DOI10.1007/s10755-014-9313-4
  • Marsh, Herbert W. and Lawrence A. Roche (2000). Effects of Grading Leniency and Low Workload on Students’ Evaluations of Teaching: Popular Myth, Bias, Validity, or Innocent Bystanders? Journal of Education Psychology 92(1):202–228.
  • McCabe, K. A., & Layne, L. S. (2012). The role of student evaluations in tenure and promotion: Is effective teaching really being measured. The Department Chair, 22(3), 17-20.
  • Mitchell, K. M., and Martin, J. (2018). Gender bias in student evaluations. PS: Political Science and Politics, 51(03), 648–652. https://doi.org/10.1017/s104909651800001x
  • Nilson, L. B. (2013). 17: Measuring student learning to document faculty teaching effectiveness. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development. 32(1), 287-300.
  • Owen, A. (2019, June 24). Inside higher ed. Relying on often-biased student evaluations to assess faculty could lead to lawsuits (opinion). Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/06/24/relying-often-biased-student-evaluations-assess-faculty-could-lead-lawsuits-opinion
  • Rideau, R.,and Robbins, C. K. (2020, November 5). The experiences of non-tenure-track faculty members of color with racism in the classroom. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0039.206
  • Rosen, A. S. (2018). Correlations, trends and potential biases among publicly accessible web-based student evaluations of teaching: a large-scale study of RateMyProfessors. com data. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(1), 31–44
  • Subtirelu, N.C. (2015). “She does have an accent but…”: Race and language ideology in students’ evaluations of mathematics instructors on RateMyProfessors.com, Language in Society, 44, 35-62. DOI 10.1017/S0047404514000736
  • Tripp, Thomas M., L. Jiang, K. Olson, and M. Graso (2018). The Fair Process Effect in the Classroom: Reducing the Influence of Grades on Student Evaluations of Teachers, Journal of Marketing Education, DOI 10.1177/0273475318772618
  • Uttl and Smibert (2017), Student evaluations of teaching: teaching quantitative courses can be hazardous to one’s career. PeerJ 5:e3299; DOI 10.7717/peerj.3299
  • Uttl, B., C.A. White, and D.W. Gonzalez (2016). Meta-analysis of Faculty’s Teaching Effectiveness: Student Evaluation of Teaching Ratings and Student Learning Are Not Related, Studies in Educational Evaluation, DOI: .1016/j.stueduc.2016.08.007
  • Wolbring, T., and P. Riordan (2016). How Beauty Works. Theoretical Mechanisms and Two Empirical Applications on Students’ Evaluations of Teaching, Social Science 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.12.009
  • Wolfe, J. (2022, January 21). Let’s Stop Relying on Biased Teaching Evaluations. Teaching evaluations reflect colleges’ commitment to diversity (opinion). Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2022/01/21/teaching-evaluations-reflect-colleges-commitment-diversity-opinion