Student Evaluations of Teaching: How You Teach and Who You Are

Abstract

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) have become an important measure of the quality of teaching in higher education institutions in the United States. Some research indicates that SETs may be systematically biased; however, most studies of SETs do not include much measure of instructional choices teachers make.This study includes most variables the SET literature identifies as important and also adds measures of teacher choices, such as whether to use instructional technologies and what percent of time to spend lecturing.The results provide some useful information about how better to connect with students but also indicate that SETs are systematically biased against female teachers, older teachers, and perhaps minority teachers.These findings call into question de facto higher education policy making SETs our most important measure of teaching quality.