This investigation focused on describing cognition in performance judgment of teaching in higher education. The influence of appraisal purpose and cue dimensionality was observed on subjective importance and utilization of information. Information integration strategies were examined in relation to purpose and cognitive complexity. Exploratory analysis focused on the measurement of good instructor schema profiles, and on the effect of cognitive complexity on halo in performance ratings. Seventy subjects were assigned randomly to two purpose conditions in the experiment: summative and formative judgment. Two questionnaires, two rating tasks, and a Role Construct Repertory grid were adminstered for data collection. The data were analyzed through regression modeling at the individual level and via analysis of variance procedures at the group level. The results indicate that the impact of cue dimensions is strong on subjective importance and utilization of information but varies with the purpose of appraisal. Raters valued and utilized trait information more than behavior information in evaluation required for personnel decisions. Where evaluation was feedback on the quality of teaching and expressed the need for improvement, raters utilized behavior information more than trait information. This pattern of information utilization suggests that saliency of information in performance judgment is a function of purpose and cue dimensionality, and that appraisal purpose has an effect on raters' cognition through schematic processing. The results also show that the use of varied strategies in mentally integrating dimensions of information is affected by raters' cognitive complexity. Although subjects mainly used compensatory strategies, the complex individuals used noncompensatory strategies as well. Exploratory analysis shows that cognitive complexity also affects halo in rating judgments. The findings seem to support the validity of student rating of instructors, and the utility of cognitive complexity construct in understanding performance judgment. It is suggested that the influence of schematic processing and cue saliency be addressed in further theorizing and research on performance judgment. As well, the inclusion of purpose of judgment and developmental constructs, such as cognitive complexity, is recommended for theorizing and research on judgment processes. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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The purpose of this study was to show that the present Student Evaluation of Seminary (SES) provides the seminary teacher with an inadequate estimate of his credibility in the classroom, as perceived by his students. To accomplish this goal, a list of student responses to questions about their seminary teachers was developed and analyzed. The results indicated that not all factors of teacher credibility as perceived by the seminary students were being measured by the SES.Thirty-one students gave a total of 339 responses to the questions asked by the researcher. A comparison of the student statements to statements in the SES showed that 50 percent of the students statements were not discussed in the SES. The student statements were divided into the categories discovered in the research literature, with the added category, "Spirituality," These categories were compared to the categories used in the SES. A 37 percent similarity was found.Further research is recommended to develop a revised SES that would provide the seminary teacher with a more adquate evaluation of his credibility in the classroom, as perceived by his students.

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The relationship between students' and instructors' personality types and the students' ratings of their instructors was investigated using data obtained from the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) for personality types and the Student Perception of Instruction (SPI) scale for students' ratings. Thirteen instructors and 464 students from two community colleges participated. The data were analyzed by the Johnson Max cluster analysis, multivariate analysis, and one-way analysis of variance procedures. The following questions were investigated: (1) When students are clustered according to the homogeneity of their ratings across the first six items on the SPI, how many groups will emerge in a class? (2) Will these cluster groups represent a predominance of student raters with matching personality types? (3) When ratings in the 13 classes are examined separately, will students with matched personality types have similar ratings on the six items on the SPI? (4) When students and instructors are grouped according to their personality types, to what degree will the interaction of personality types of students and instructors influence the ratings on the seven items of the SPI? and (5) To what extent are ratings on the "Overall Rating of the Instructor" item related to the level of congruence of student's/instructor's personality types? The results were the following: Sixty-five percent of the students clustered into groups in the 13 classes; however, there was no evidence that personality type was the basis on which clusters were formed. In only one of the 13 classes did students with matched personality types have similar ratings on any of the rating items. It was concluded that this class was not a representative sample of the groups. When data were grouped for question four, statistically significant interactions occurred between Realistic students and Investigative instructors on five of the seven rating items; however, these interactions did not support Holland's assumptions that students would respond more positively to instructors who had personality types similar to the students'. Finally, although the fifth analyses yielded statistically significant interactions, again these were not in the direction expected and did not support Holland's assumption of personality/environment congruence and satisfaction. / Ed. D.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Performance appraisal ratings provide the basis for numerous employment decisions, including retention, promotion, and salary increases. Thus, understanding the factors affecting the accuracy of these ratings is important to organizations and employees. Leniency, one rater error, is a tendency to assign higher ratings in appraisal than is warranted by actual performance. The proposed study examined how personality factors Agreeableness and Conscientiousness relate to rater leniency. The ability of narrower facets of personality to account for more variance in rater leniency than will the broad factors was also examined. The study used undergraduates' (n = 226) evaluations of instructor performance to test the study's hypotheses. In addition to personality variables, students' social desirability tendency and attitudes toward instructor were predicted to be related to rater leniency. Partial support for the study's hypotheses were found. The Agreeableness factor and three of the corresponding facets (Trust, Altruism and Tender-Mindedness) were positively related to rater leniency as predicted. The hypotheses that the Conscientiousness factor and three of the corresponding facets (Order, Dutifulness, and Deliberation) would be negatively related to rater leniency were not supported. In the current sample the single narrow facet Altruism accounted for more variance in rater leniency than the broad Agreeableness factor. While social desirability did not account for a significant amount of variance in rater leniency, attitude toward instructor was found to have a significant positive relationship accounting for the largest amount of variance in rater leniency.

The increase in the number of nontraditional aged undergraduate students (25 yrs. and older) and students transferring between post-secondary institutions has raised the question of whether effective instruction is viewed the same by these different groups of students. This study addressed this question by analyzing the responses of these different groups to 23 instructional questions on a standard faculty evaluation form.

The purpose of this study was to determine if leniency and halo error in student ratings could be reduced by training the student raters and by using a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) rather than a Likert scale. Two hypotheses were proposed. First, the ratings collected from the trained raters would contain less halo and leniency error than those collected from the untrained raters. Second, within the group of trained raters the BARS would contain less halo and leniency error than the Likert instrument.

Research shows that there is a disconnect between student and faculty perceptions in a range of areas. One area that has not been researched is comparing student and faculty perceptions regarding desirable and undesirable traits in professors. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify what students perceive are the most and least desirable qualities in professors, and how those qualities affect their overall college experience. This study also identified what professors thought students perceive as the most and least desirable qualities in professors, and how those qualities affect students’ overall college experience. The findings indicate that the largest disparity in perceptions between students and faculty was faculty perception that students rate them based on class rigor and assigned grades, which were two of the least important qualities according to students. The largest similarity that faculty and students agreed upon is that students desire professors who are knowledgeable, passionate, engaging, and able to connect with students. Both groups also perceive that students do not like professors who are boring and monotone. In addition, students and professors agree that students perceive professors as playing an important role in their lives that affect their ability to learn, the grades they receive, and also impact their overall college experience and trajectory in life. The two groups differed when describing how professors’ undesirable qualities can negatively affect students’ emotions and self-confidence. Faculty and students were in agreement in a variety of areas, but they were disconnected in several areas as well. This is a problem as we move into the future. Cox (2009) said, “the traditional college student is no longer the typical college student” (p. 7), especially when it comes to state and community colleges. Professors would benefit from listening to students instead of assuming that their ratings are untrustworthy and based on how hard or easy the class was or what grade they received. The researcher asserts, along with others in the literature, that expertise in content area is no longer good enough to be an effective educator in higher education. Faculty also need to be experts in understanding students. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection