Teaching Assessment: Practices for Graduate Student Instructors

The Research Behind Student Evaluations
by Steve Fitzpatrick, MEC and Marilla Svinicki, CTE

Overview

Student evaluations are one of the most thoroughly researched forms of teaching evaluation currently available. The number of studies that have attempted to validate (or dispute the value of) student evaluations runs into the thousands. In general, the vast majority of the carefully conducted research concludes that student evaluations are reliable and valid.

Kenneth Feldman is one of the leading researchers in the field of teaching evaluation. He has published several meta-analyses comparing research studies in which student evaluations were correlated with student performance in a course as measured by a final examination. In these meta-analyses he was able to identify items that commonly occur on such forms and their relationship with student learning as measured by a final exam. The results of the main meta-analysis form the basis for the following charts.

We hope that by providing the rationale behind the choices that have been made for the Course Instructor Survey, CIS, we can counter the tendency to base one's opinion solely on anecdotal evidence and convince faculty to take a more scientific look at this important strategy for evaluating teaching.

CIS Items

Select a CIS item to see comparable research by Feldman, correlation statistics, theoretical rationale for why the factors might be related to student learning, and tips for improving in that area.