Student Evaluations of Teaching: Are They Related to What Students Learn?

Abstract

Although the student evaluation of teaching has been extensively researched, no general consensus has been reached about the validity of the process. One contentious issue has been the relationship between the evaluations and learning. If good instruction increases the amount of learning that takes place, then learning and the evaluations should be validly related to each other. A review of the literature shows that attempts to find such a nomological relationship has been complicated by practice, methodology, and interpretation. A meta-analysis of the literature shows that a small average relationship exists between learning and the evaluations but that the association is situational and not applicable to all teachers, academic disciplines, or levels of instruction. It is concluded that the more objectively learning is measured, the less likely it is to be related to the evaluations.