Factors Affecting Students’ Evaluations of the Same Course Taught by the Same Instructor on Different Occasions

Bibliographic Data

ID8221905
AuthorsHerbert W Marsh (0000-0002-1078-9717, The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume19
Issue4
Pages485-497
Publication date1982-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-8312 • E-ISSN: 1935-1011
PublisherAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3102/00028312019004485
OpenAlexW2131868994
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited22

Correlations between student ratings of the same course taught by the same instructor on two different occasions (n = 341 pairs of courses) were high (mean r = .71), but were lower than the reliabilities of the ratings (mean r = .93); much reliable variance was unique to a particular course offering. This study investigates factors that might explain this unique variance. For each pair of courses, the more favorably evaluated tended to be: (1) the one in which students expected higher grades (and presumably learned more); (2) the one which students perceived to require the most work; and, (3) the one which was taught after the instructor had already taught the course at least once before (and presumably improved as a consequence of this experience). These findings are not consistent with the hypothesis that these background characteristics bias student ratings, and they argue for alternative explanations

Course (navigation · Higher education · Mathematics education · Variance (accounting · Accounting Education and Careers · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Evaluation of Teaching Practices · Psychology · Social Psychology

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