"Why Student Ratings of Faculty Are Unethical" Food for thought (curious what others think). #AcademicSkylink.springer.com/article/10.1...
For decades, student ratings of university faculty have been used by administrators in high stakes faculty employment decisions such as tenure, promotion, contract renewal and reappointment, and merit...
Generally lots to agree on in terms of the lack of validity on what student ratings measure. My uni is scaling back on them for promotion Though, all of the section on "harms" could just as easily be applied to letter grades/GPA which is part of a broader obsession with merit in the academy.
My understanding is that, at least in the US, they are known to be racist and misogynist. But nobody does anything about it.
I've never met a teacher with satisfactions scores 40/100 or lower who wasn't genuinely a terrible teacher. Lazy, tedious, and usually disdainful of pupils. These surveys are useful for spotting terrible teachers, but nothing else.
Student ratings or "are the people paying thousands of $ to be here likely to recommend their friends and family to pay thousands of $ to be here too?"
I have always found this (U.S. focused) statement on student ratings of teaching from the American Sociological Association to be reasonable, balanced, and actionable: www.asanet.org/wp-content/u...
Makes me wonder if these thoughts are applicable to patient-reported evaluation of (mental) health professionals, which is planned to be tested on a wide basis in Germany next year - knowingly ignoring tried and tested evaluation methods, relying mostly on self-reports only after treatment.
It is such a loaded subject, Eiko. I would say that there are many potentially unethical things that can transpire between students and faculty (also depending on the field.) Most often, the boundary crossings happen in another direction - simply because faculty have more power.
Student ratings don’t get used so much in promotions here in the UK but they are still a deeply flawed tool. Students can’t tell me how effective my teaching is, only what it was like for them to go through it - useful information, but not about me per se