Abstract
The objective in this paper is to discern how student comments at the Rate My Professors website distinguish between retired professors and contract instructors in economics. A qualitative content analysis is used to investigate whether student comments capture effective teaching, as depicted in the academic literature and whether teaching pedagogy has shifted from critical thinking and challenge to easy expectations and easy grades, as part of the corporatization of education.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The dataset generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The data are additionally public at the RMP website.
References
Abrami PC, d’Apollonia S, Rosenfield S (2007) The dimensionality of student ratings of instruction: what we know and what we do not. In: Perry RP, Smart JC (eds) The scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education: an evidence-based perspective. Springer, New York, pp 385–456
Akerlind GS (2007) Constraints on academics’ potential for developing as a teacher. Stud High Educ 32(1):21–37
Albrecht S, Hoopes J (2009) An empirical assessment of commercial web-based professor evaluation services. J Account Educ 27(3):125–132
Aleamoni L (1987) Student rating myths versus research facts. J Pers Eval Educ 1(1):111–119
Andreopoulos GC, Panayides A (2009) Teaching Economics to the best undergraduates: what are the problems? Am J Bus Educ 2(6):117–121
Barr RB, Tagg J (1995) From teaching to learning: a new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change 27:13–25
Becker WE (2000) Teaching Economics in the 21st century. J Econ Perspect 14(1):109–119
Becker WE, Watts M (2001) Teaching methods in U.S. undergraduate Economics courses. J Econ Educ 32(3):269–279
Beckman M, Stirling K (2005) Promoting critical thinking in Economics education. Working Paper.
Beecham R (2009) Teaching quality and student satisfaction: nexus or simulacrum? Lond Rev Educ 7:135–146
Bengtsson M (2016) How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. NursingPlus Open 2:8–14
Biggs J, Tang C (2011) Teaching for quality learning at university, 4th edn. Open University Press , New York
Bleske-Rechek A, Michels K (2010) RateMyProfessors.com: testing assumptions about student use and misuse. Pract Assess Res Eval 15(5):1–12
Boatright-Horowitz S, Soeung S (2009) Teaching white privilege to white students can mean saying good-bye to positive student evaluations. Am Psychol 64(6):574–575
Boex JFL (2000) Attributes of effective Economics instructors: an analysis of student evaluation. J Econ Educ 31(3):211–227
Bonwell CC (1992) Risky business: making active learning a reality. Teach Excell POD Netw High Educ 93:1–3
Braga M, Paccagnella M, Pellizzari M (2014) Evaluating students’ evaluations of professors. Econ Educ Rev 41:71–88
Braskamp L, Ory J, Pieper D (1981) Student written comments: dimensions of instructional quality. J Educ Psychol 73(1):65–70
Busler J, Kirk C, Keeley J, Buskist W (2017) What constitutes poor teaching? A preliminary inquiry into the misbehaviours of not-so-good instructors. Teach Psychol 44(4):330–334
Cashin W (1990) Students do rate different academic fields differently. In: Theall M, Franklin J (eds) Student ratings of instruction: issues for improving practice, new directions for teaching and learning, vol 43 (Fall). Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 113–21
Coladarci T, Kornfield I (2007) RateMyProfessors.com versus formal in-class student evaluations of teaching. Pract Assess Res Eval 12(6):1–15
Coleman J, McKeachie WJ (1981) Effects of instructor/course evaluations on student course selection. J Educ Psychol 73(2):224–226
Downe-Wamblot B (1992) Content analysis: method, applications and issues. Health Care Women Int 13:313–321
Dunn R, Griggs SA (2000) Practical approaches to using learning styles in higher education. Bergin & Garvey, Westport
Feldman KA (2007) Identifying exemplary teachers and teaching: evidence from student ratings. In: Perry RP, Smart JC (eds) The scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education: an evidence-based perspective. Springer, New York, pp 93–143
Felton J, Mitchell J, Stinson M (2004) Web-based student evaluations of professors: the relations between perceived quality, easiness and sexiness. Assess Eval High Educ 29(1):91–108
Ghosh IK (2013) Learning by doing models to teach undergraduate Economics. J Econ Econ Educ Res 14(1):105–119
Greenwald AG, Gillmore GM (1997) Grading leniency is a removable contaminant of student ratings. Am Psychol 52(11):1209–1217
Hamermesh DS (2019) 50 Years of teaching introductory Economics. J Econ Educ 50(3):273–283
Hervani A, Helms MM (2004) Increasing creativity in Economics: the service learning project. J Educ Bus 79(5):267–274
Hornstein HA (2017) Student evaluations of teaching are an inadequate assessment tool for evaluating faculty performance. Cogent Educ 4(1):1304016
Jordan, DW (2011) Re-thinking student written comments in course evaluations: text mining unstructured data for program and institutional assessment. Doctoral dissertation, California State University.
Lattuca LR, Domagal-Goldman JM (2007) Using qualitative methods to access teaching effectiveness. New Dir Inst Res 136:81–93
Legg AM, Wilson JH (2012) RateMyProfessors.com offers biased evaluations. Assess Eval High Educ 37(1):89–97
Marginson S, Considine M (2000) The enterprise university: power, governance, and reinvention in Australia. Cambridge University Press, New York
Marsh HW (1987) Students’ evaluations of university teaching: research findings, methodological issues, and directions for future research. Int J Educ Res 11(3):253–388
Marsh HW, Roche LA (2000) Effects of grading leniency and low workload on students’ evaluations of teaching: popular myth, bias, validity, or innocent bystanders? J Educ Psychol 92(1):202–228
Marsh HW, Ware JE (1982) Effects of expressiveness, content coverage and incentive on multidimensional student rating scales: new interpretations of the Dr. Fox effect. J Educ Psychol 74(1):126–134
Mazzarol T, Soutar GN, Seng MSY (2003) The third wave: future trends in international education. Int J Educ Manag 17(3):90–99
McKeachie WJ (1997) Student ratings: the validity of use. Am Psychol 52(11):1218–1225
McPherson MA, Jewell RT (2007) Leveling the playing field: should student evaluation scores be adjusted? Soc Sci Q 88(3):868–881
Meyers C, Jones TB (1993) Promoting active learning: strategies for the college classroom. Jossey Bass, San Francisco
Miller JD (2006) How to fight ratemyprofessors.com. Inside Higher Ed, January 31. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/01/31/how-fight-ratemyprofessorscom. Accessed 26 Mar 2021
Niu SC (2005) Comparing two populations. University of Texas at Dallas. https://www.utdallas.edu/~scniu/OPRE-6301/documents/Two_Populations.pdf. Accessed 26 Mar 2021.
Ogier J (2005) Evaluating the effect of a lecturer’s language background on a student rating of teaching form. Assess Eval High Educ 30(5):477–488
Ongeri JD (2009) Poor student evaluation of teaching in economics: a critical survey of the literature. Australas J Econ Educ 6(2):1–24
Otto J, Sanford DAJ, Ross DN (2008) Does ratemyprofessor.com really rate my professor? Assess Eval High Educ 33(4):355–368
Pan D, Tan G, Ragupathi K, Booluck K, Roop R, Ip Y (2009) Profiling teacher/teaching using descriptors derived from qualitative feedback: formative and summative applications. Res High Educ 50(1):73–100
Pienta NJ (2017) The slippery slope of student evaluations. J Chem Educ 94(2):131–132
Pozo-Munoz C, Rebolloso-Pacheco E, Fernandez-Ramirez B (2000) The ‘ideal teacher’ implications for student evaluation of teacher effectiveness. Assess Eval High Educ 25(3):253–263
Reimann N (2004) First-year teaching–learning environments in Economics. Int Rev Econ Educ 3(1):9–38
Santhanam E, Lynch B, Jones J (2018) Making sense of student feedback using text analysis: adapting and expanding a common lexicon. Qual Assur Educ 26(1):60–69
Sen A, Voia M, Woolley F (2010) Hot or not: how appearance affects earnings and productivity in academia. Carleton Economic Papers 10-07.
Sheridan BJ, Hoyt G, Imazeki J (2014) Targeting teaching: a primer for new teachers of Economics. South Econ J 80(3):839–854
Silva KM, Silva FJ, Quinn MA, Draper JN, Cover KR, Munoff AA (2008) Rate my professor: Online evaluations of psychology instructors. Teach Psychol 35(2):71–80
Smith BP (2007) Student ratings of teacher effectiveness: an analysis of end-of-course faculty evaluations. Coll Stud J 41(4):788–800
Spooren P, Brockx B, Mortelmans D (2013) On the validity of student evaluation of teaching: the state of the art. Rev Educ Res 83:598–642
Theyson KC (2015) Hot or not: The role of instructor quality and gender on the formation of positive illusions among students using ratemyprofessors.com. Pract Assess Res Eval 20(4):1–12
Timmerman T (2008) On the validity of RateMyProfessors.com. J Educ Bus 84(1):55–61
Funding
No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interest to disclose.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jahangir, J.B. Students’ perceptions of effective teaching: between retired professors and contract instructors. SN Soc Sci 1, 235 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00244-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00244-0