Journal article

Publication year: 2003

Pages: 27-42

Journal: Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht

Volume number: 50

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 0342-183X

Publisher: Reinhardt

Abstract: 
This study aimed to provide norms for two recently developed questionnaires for student ratings of lectures and seminars. Based on 620 courses in psychology and education it was analysed to what degree the following factors may bias course evaluations and norm data: student and teacher gender, type of course content and characteristics of participants. Neither lectures nor seminars were generally rated differently by male and female students. Likewise it seemed to have no influence on students' evaluations whether a course was held by a male or female instructor. In (only) some courses with a mixed audience non-psychology students gave other/lower ratings than the psychology subgroup. On the other hand, type of course content emerged as an important biasing factor in student evaluations of lectures. Here, courses on methodology were rated more negative in relevance, level of difficulty, and didactic manner than were lectures on other subjects. In order to control for this factor, separate percentile ranks are presented for these two subject areas. Since methodology is almost exclusively taught in lectures such a break down was not neccessary in the norm tables given for seminars.

Harvard Citation style: Diehl, J. (2003) Student evaluations of lectures and seminars: Norms for two recently developed questionnaires, PSYCHOLOGIE IN ERZIEHUNG UND UNTERRICHT, 50(1), pp. 27-42

APA Citation style: Diehl, J. (2003). Student evaluations of lectures and seminars: Norms for two recently developed questionnaires. PSYCHOLOGIE IN ERZIEHUNG UND UNTERRICHT. 50(1), 27-42.