An extended visit with Dr. Fox: Validity of student ratings of instruction after repeated exposures to a lecturer

Equivalent groups viewed two lectures varying in substantive teaching points covered (high, medium, low) and expressiveness of the presentation (high, low). Students rated lecture effectiveness after each lecture and completed an achievement test after the two lectures. Higher achievement was associated with high content coverage and high expressiveness. Students gave higher ratings to expressive lectures. Student satisfaction ratings reflected real differences in content coverage and student achievement with low expressive presentations. Ratings were not sensitive to content coverage and student achievement when lectures were high expressive. Sensitivity of ratings to content coverage and student achievement did not improve for the second lecture. In a study designed to investigate the degree of correspondence between student ratings of instruction and test performance (achievement) under selected instructional conditions, Ware and Williams (1975) programmed a Hollywood actor so as to achieve six lecturer types. Three lectures differing only in content coverage (high, medium and low) were each delivered in both high and low The research reported in this article was supported by the Office of Research and Projects, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Students were scheduled with the cooperation of Larry Busch