Dennis E. Clayson

Student Evaluations of Teaching: Are They Related to What Students Learn?: A Meta-Analysis and Review of the Literature

Although the student evaluation of teaching has been extensively researched, no general consensus has been reached about the validity of the process. One contentious issue has been the relationship between the evaluations and learning. If good instruction increases the amount of learning that takes place, then learning and the evaluations should be validly related to each other. A review of the literature shows that attempts to find such a nomological relationship has been complicated by practice, methodology, and interpretation. A meta-analysis of the literature shows that a small average relationship exists between learning and the evaluations but that the association is situational and not applicable to all teachers, academic disciplines, or levels of instruction. It is concluded that the more objectively learning is measured, the less likely it is to be related to the evaluations.

Marketing Models in Education: Students as Customers, Products, or Partners

Without the resource support of the taxpayers and the faith and support of citizens and parents, American public universities as we know them today would not exist. A customer orientation recognizes the student as customer and ignores the multiple stakeholders (parents, alumni, government, and business) of higher education. This paper looks at the increasing popular paradigm of students as customers of higher education and examines its implications. Another model that includes a variety of stakeholders is examined, and how modern marketing thought might be applied to pedagogical paradigms and educational institutions.

Students’ Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness: Some Implications of Stability

Previous research has indicated that the mean scores of student evaluation of teaching effectiveness do not change with experience. If this is true, whatever aspects of effective instruction the instruments are measuring do not change in the students’ perception. University students were asked to indicate what instructional characteristics changed or stayed the same as an instructor gained more and more experience. Instructor structural-related factors such as organization, knowledge, fairness, and even the ability of the students to learn were perceived as improving over time. Personalityrelated factors were perceived as stable. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Performance Overconfidence: Metacognitive Effects or Misplaced Student Expectations?

Prior research has shown that students consistently overestimate their performance on academic exams, with the error being inversely related to their grades. The effect has been explained as a matter of competency. If true, then students who do not know what they do not know are put in a double bind. They do not have the cognitive ability to recognize their own level of skills and consequently are unaware of any need to change or develop those skills. Another explanation of the effect suggests that students are generally aware of their performance but consistently overestimate their abilities in a systematic fashion. This study examines these two hypotheses and finds no evidence that the overestimation was due to lack of cognitive competence. It appears to be a systematic effect, perhaps determined by a students’ past experience and expectations.

Are Students Telling Us the Truth? A Critical Look at the Student Evaluation of Teaching

Over 99 percent of business schools use student evaluation of instruction to measure teaching and classroom performance. The resultant measures are utilized in judgments of merit pay, tenure, and promotion. In such an environment, an inspection of exceptions to their assumed validity is justified. This paper investigates one such issue that is rarely reported. Simply put: to what extent are students telling us the truth when they evaluate instruction? A literature review indicates that students (1) ignore or falsify answers in light of variables considered more important, (2) give subjective impressions in response to objective questions, and (3) at times give purposefully misleading and false responses. A survey of students found that a majority knew of respondents who had falsified evaluations and that an estimated 30 percent of evaluations contain answers the students knew were not true. In light of these findings, the validity of student evaluation of teaching to improve individual instructor performance, modify curriculum, and create comparative scales to evaluate faculty is called into question.

Perception of Attractiveness by Obesity and Hair Color

In a study of 318 Caucasian college students, obese persons and redheaded men were seen as unattractive compared to the nonobese and other hair colors. The obesity stereotype and the hair-color stereotype appear to be evaluated separately with little interaction. The results imply that a stereotypic characteristic like obesity, which is perceived as being under a persons control, may be evaluated differently than a stereotypic characteristic independent of personal choice such as hair color.

An Introduction to Multitasking and Texting: Prevalence and Impact on Grades and GPA in Marketing Classes.

This exploratory study looks at the phenomena of texting in a marketing education context. It outlines the difficulties of multitasking within two metacognitive models of learning and sets the stage for further research on the effects of texting within class. Students in marketing classes in two different universities were surveyed. They received an average of 37 texts per day and initiated about 16. More than 90% of the respondents reported receiving texts while in class and 86% reported texting someone from class. Even though students believed they could follow a lecture and text at the same time, respondents who did text within marketing classes received lower grades. Contrary to other research, texting frequency was generally unrelated to GPA. Implications for both pedagogical issues and research in marketing education are discussed.

Redheads and blonds: stereotypic images

In a study involving 100 college subjects, blonds had a very positive stereotype. Blond females were seen as beautiful, pleasant, and extremely feminine. Blond males were seen as strong, active, pleasant, successful, and good-looking. Redheaded females were seen as unattractive, but as competent and professional. Redheaded males had a surprisingly negative stereotype. They were seen as very unattractive, less successful, and rather effeminate. Hair-color stereotypes seem to be very long lasting and robust.

A Test of the Reciprocity Effect in the Student Evaluation of Instructors in Marketing Classes

Grades given to students and evaluations given to instructors are related. Several explanations have been advanced to explain the relationship. The most damaging to the validity of the student evaluation process is a reciprocity relationship. A study of marketing classes found that every prediction made by a reciprocity hypothesis was validated. Implications are reviewed.

Initial Impressions and the Student Evaluation of Teaching

Do first impressions influence the final evaluations given in a class? The author looked at the initial student perceptions and conditions of a class and compared these with conditions and evaluations 16 weeks later at the end of the term. It was found that the first perceptions of the instructor and the instructors personality were significantly related to the evaluations made at the end of the semester. Implications for the validity of and utilization of the student evaluation of instruction are discussed.