http://www.teachingprofessor.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/the-disconnect-between-faculty-beliefs-and-research-on-student-ratings A teaching and learning conference. Mon, 23 May 2011 15:28:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.teachingprofessor.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/the-disconnect-between-faculty-beliefs-and-research-on-student-ratings/comment-page-1#comment-6 Jennifer Imazeki Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:38:00 +0000 http://www.teachingprofessor.com/teaching-and-learning/the-disconnect-between-faculty-beliefs-and-research-on-student-ratings#comment-6 I wonder if part of the reason faculty believe that ratings are higher for easy classes is because students will say that they do want easy classes and often recommend easy classes to their friends - as an undergraduate advisor, I have had students tell me outright "Oh, my roommate said I should take X's class because it's really easy." But the key is that students don't want easy classes because they don't want to learn - they want easy classes because they only have so many hours in a day and they often are looking for 'easy' classes in order to offset harder classes that they already plan to take. I think the other problem faculty have with believing the data is when it just doesn't match their own experience. That is, I'm assuming that most faculty who believe that easier classes get better ratings are faculty who, themselves, are not getting ratings as high as they would like. It's far easier to believe that your ratings are low because your class is hard than to believe that it's something about the way you teach. If that is the case, I'm not sure there really is much you can do to convince someone that their 'intuition' is wrong... I wonder if part of the reason faculty believe that ratings are higher for easy classes is because students will say that they do want easy classes and often recommend easy classes to their friends – as an undergraduate advisor, I have had students tell me outright “Oh, my roommate said I should take X’s class because it’s really easy.” But the key is that students don’t want easy classes because they don’t want to learn – they want easy classes because they only have so many hours in a day and they often are looking for ‘easy’ classes in order to offset harder classes that they already plan to take. I think the other problem faculty have with believing the data is when it just doesn’t match their own experience. That is, I’m assuming that most faculty who believe that easier classes get better ratings are faculty who, themselves, are not getting ratings as high as they would like. It’s far easier to believe that your ratings are low because your class is hard than to believe that it’s something about the way you teach. If that is the case, I’m not sure there really is much you can do to convince someone that their ‘intuition’ is wrong…

]]> http://www.teachingprofessor.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/the-disconnect-between-faculty-beliefs-and-research-on-student-ratings/comment-page-1#comment-5 Derek Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:44:00 +0000 http://www.teachingprofessor.com/teaching-and-learning/the-disconnect-between-faculty-beliefs-and-research-on-student-ratings#comment-5 So I'll buy that easier courses don't generate higher student ratings, but I'm not a typical faculty member. I work at a teaching center, so what can I say to a faculty member that will convince them of this? I don't think the hard data is as convincing to faculty as some kind of reasoning that can counteract the intuition they have about ratings. What attitudes or beliefs about students are required for someone to say, "Yeah, those results make sense to me"? So I’ll buy that easier courses don’t generate higher student ratings, but I’m not a typical faculty member. I work at a teaching center, so what can I say to a faculty member that will convince them of this? I don’t think the hard data is as convincing to faculty as some kind of reasoning that can counteract the intuition they have about ratings. What attitudes or beliefs about students are required for someone to say, “Yeah, those results make sense to me”?

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