Student Perceptions of Teaching Quality: Dimensionality and Halo Effects

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter deals with the factorial structure of survey instruments for student perception of teaching quality. Often, high intercorrelations occur between different theoretically postulated teaching quality dimensions; other analyses point to a single unified factor in student perceptions of teaching quality, seemingly reflecting a “general impression” instead of a differentiated judgment. At the same time, findings from research on social judgment processes and from classroom research indicate that the teachers’ communion (warmth or cooperation) as well as students’ general subject interest can be important biasing factors in the sense of halo effects in student ratings of teaching quality. After presenting an overview of studies on the dimensionality of various survey instruments, we discuss whether aggregated data is impacted by an overall “general impression”. We confirmed this hypothesis using a sample of N = 1056 students from 50 secondary school classes. Moreover, this general impression could be explained at student and class level to a large extent by students’ perception of the teacher’s communion. Student general subject interest showed a medium effect but only at the individual level. These findings indicate that student perceptions of teaching quality dimensions are indeed influenced by a general impression which can be explained largely by teacher's communion.