The Effects Of Different Sections And Students Pre-Course Interest On An Instructors Teaching Evaluations

Abstract

This study has identified two important factors, unrelated to an instructor’s teaching ability, which can affect an instructor’s teaching evaluations.  The first factor, which has never been examined in any prior studies, is the section effect.  This study finds that teaching evaluations differ significantly across sections of the same course taught by the same instructor.  This section effect cannot be explained by six student-related variables.  The second factor, which is students’ pre-course interest measured at the beginning of a course, is found to be positively related to teaching evaluations.  These findings suggest that higher-education administrators may want to consider the section effect and the students’ pre-course interest when they evaluate an instructor’s teaching effectiveness for promotion, tenure and merit decisions.