John A. Centra

Will Teachers Receive Higher Student Evaluations by Giving Higher Grades and Less Course Work

This study investigated whether mean expected grades and the level of difficult/workload in courses, as reported by students, unduly influence student ratings instruction. Over 50,000 college courses whose teachers used the Student Instructional Report II were analyzed. In addition to the two primary independent variables, the regression analyses included 8 subject area groupings and controlled for such factors as class size, teaching method, and student perceived learning outcomes in the course. Learning outcomes had a large positive effect on student evaluations of instructions, as it should. After controlling for learning outcomes, expected grades generally did not affect student evaluations. In fact, contrary to what some faculty think, courses in natural sciences with expected grades of A were rated lower, not higher. Courses were rated lower when they were rated as either difficult or too elementary. Courses rated at the “just right” level received the highest evaluations.

Influences on the Career Accomplishments of Ph.D.'s.

Six samples of Ph.D. recipients 3, 5, and 13 years after receiving the doctorate are examined for academic and personal characteristics associated with the career accomplishments of professional productivity and income. Both academic and nonacademic careers are included; the samples are professionals in chemistry, history, psychology, and the physical, biological, and social sciences. In general, the results suggest that academic ability and quality of the Ph.D. program influence job settings and responsibilities, which in turn directly influence both productivity and income. Number of years since the degree also is consistently related to both outcome measures.

Assessment of Faculty in Teacher Education Programs

There are numerous approaches to faculty evaluation. This chapter presents relevant research findings, references to instruments, and specific criteria and methods for evaluating teaching, research, and service.

Service Through Research: My Life in Higher Education

It’s odd to recall what kind of circumstances affect major decisions in our lives. In my case it was a book. Back in the early 1960s, when I was wrestling with the decision on what field of study to consider for doctoral work, I came across a copy of the newly published The American College (1962). The description of the studies completed in American higher education by Nevitt Sanford and other psychologists, sociologists, and social psychologists fascinated me. So too did the book’s plea that higher education should be a field of study in and of itself. The book and the plea helped me eventually to decide what I would do with my professional life, a life that began to expand at Michigan State University in the early 1960s and extended to Syracuse University in the 2000s. In this essay I would like to share what I consider to be important influences on my life and career, and then to provide some reflections on my own contributions to the field of higher education. Describing how and why I conducted some of my studies may, I hope, help students understand the process of doing research. Early in my graduate studies I came across a book about how sociologists work. The book was written by sociologists who described in some detail how they went about doing particular research studies. This essay follows that same approach in describing my own rationale and experiences in carrying out studies in higher education. During my 40 plus professional years my interests have shifted somewhat, although assessment and the use of assessment information to improve the climate for learning and teaching have always been at the core. My research agenda overlaps three noted researchers who preceded me in