Why the Best Professors Often Get the Worst Ratings

Amy Taylor June 06, 2013

Just as teachers give their students a grade for their performance in school, students also rate their teacher’s performance by way of evaluation. But does a good evaluation really reflect how good a teacher is?

To get a deeper understanding on this matter, researchers at Williams College in Massachusetts, USA conducted a study in which participants watched a short video of a speaker giving a discussion on a certain topic. The students were divided into two groups and were shown two different versions of the video. The first version demonstrated a fluent speaker who stood upright, maintained eye contact with the camera and spoke fluently without using notes. The second version showed a not-so fluent speaker who stood behind a desk, leaned forward to look down on her notes and did not maintain eye contact. She also spoke less confidently.

After watching the videos, the participants evaluated the speakers and took a test regarding the topic that was discussed. As expected, the participants rated the fluent lecturer as more effective. They also believed that they learned more from that speaker than the less fluent one. Surprisingly however, when they took the test, all of the students performed equally well.

What about the real classroom experience?

Scott E. Carrell and James E. West of the University of California conducted a study in 2010, involving over 10,000 Air Force Academy cadets to measure how students rate their professors who taught introductory calculus. Students in the study were randomly assigned to different professors who used the same course syllabus and provided exactly the same exam. All students took mandatory follow-up classes and standardised exams. The aim of the follow-up course is to examine the effect of each professor on the students’ performance and in future classes.

The researchers found that the students taught by less experienced and less qualified professors produced the best performance in the introductory class. These teachers also got the highest student evaluation scores. On the other hand, students who were taught by more experienced and qualified professors performed less in the introductory class but excelled in the follow-up or advanced courses. These professors received the poorest ratings from their students.

According to the researchers, this outcome is probably because more experienced professors tend to broaden the curriculum and produce students who had ‘deeper understanding’ of the material.

Based on these results, even though good professors teach not just to prepare the students for the upcoming exams but to help them solve more complicated problems in the future, they are given poor evaluations. That’s probably because during the time when students make evaluations, they don’t realise it yet. Nevertheless, by the time they were able to apply the deeper understanding of the material, particularly in real-life situation, they will remember their professors.

Do you think student evaluations should be used in faculty promotion and tenure decisions despite the presence of studies questioning their validity? Share your insight by posting a comment below.