Evaluation of Teaching at the U of A

摘要: A review of the literature conducted for this report revealed that the research on student ratings is immense, and shows inconsistency exists in all areas of teaching evaluation. The reasons are varied, for example:(1) each study seeks to answer different questions with different instruments;(2) there is extreme diversity of research methodologies used; and (3) there is considerable variance on the quality of the studies, especially with respect to sample size.This being said and acknowledged, within the educational research community, conclusions have been made. The most consistent conclusion is that “properly constructed, appropriately administered, and correctly interpreted student rating can be valid and reliable measures indicating the quality of teaching”(Arreola, 2007, p. 98). Among educational researchers, there is some consensus that when USRI instruments have undergone rigorous psychometric and statistical procedures it results in valid and reliable ratings.