Student Ratings of Instruction and Their Relationship to Student Learning

Abstract

Student ratings of instruction were correlated with examination performance in 72 sections of seven courses. In two of the courses, students had been randomly assigned to sections. The pattern of correlations across the courses indicated that the global ratings of teacher effectiveness and of the value of the course to students were most highly related to mean exam performance (12 out of 24 product-moment and partial correlations were 58 or above). Ratings of course objectives and organizations, and of the quality of lectures were also fairly well correlated with achievement. Ratings of other aspects of instruction, such as the teacher-student relationship or the difficulty/workload of the course, were not highly related to achievement scores.