TM Will Teachers Receive Higher Student Evaluations By Giving Higher Grades and Less Coursework?

Some college teachers believe a sure way to win student approval is to give high grades and less course work. They further believe that this will translate into higher student evaluations of their teaching, a kind of quid pro quo. When faculty members at a major research university were asked what would most likely bias students ’ evaluations, 72 % said course difficulty, 68 % reported grading leniency, and 60 % reported course workload (Marsh, 1987). Are these faculty members in fact correct? Given the increased emphasis on student evaluations of teaching in tenure and promotion decisions at many colleges, a teacher's temptation to manipulate grades or course workload would be understandable. Certainly no method of evaluating college teaching has been researched more than student evaluations, with well over 2,000 studies referenced in the ERIC system. The majority of these study results have been positive, concluding that the evaluations are (1) reliable and stable; (2) valid when compared to student learning and other indicators of effectiv