Students' Ratings of Professors' Competence: An Application of the G Theory

Student evaluation or student ratings of college teachers' performance is the most widely used technique to measure competence inside the classroom here and abroad. Aleamory (1998) offers the following arguments to support the use of student ratings: (1) Students are the main source of information about the learning environment, including teacher's ability to motivate students for continued learning, rapport or degree of communication between the instructor and students. (2) Students are more logical in evaluating the effectiveness of teacher and their satisfaction with course content, method of instruction, textbooks, home works and seat works. (3) Ratings given by students encourage communication between students and their instructor. The communication my lead to the kind of student and instructor involvement in the teaching-learning process that can raise the level of instruction.