Rater Training to Improve Student Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness

The impact of rater training on students performing evaluations of teaching effectiveness was evaluated. Training was administered either via live lecture or video tape. Both trained groups were compared with a no training control group. It was hypothesized that the training would result in more accurate assessments of teaching evaluations and that there would be no significant differences between either of the trained groups. Results showed that students were able to distinguish between dimensions of performance. However, no effects of training were found. The trained groups did not differ significantly from the untrained control group on instructor ratings