This study examined the influence of selected student
variables (learning style , age, sex, nationality
(birthplace), academic achievement, and social class) on the
ranking of twelve teacher characteristics. 246 ACT TAFE
Associate Diploma in Business students formed the sample.
Results were compared with a similar study by Travis (1987)
of secondary students in Canada and USA.
The extent to which different groups of students prefer
different teacher characteristics has important implications
for the growing practice of student rating of teachers'
effectiveness. This practice (operating under a psychometric
paradigm) currently assumes that any differences of opinion
between student raters are the result of student
carelessness (random error) or bias (systematic error). The
possibility that these differences of opinion are the result
of systematic variation, based on differences between
students, is not countenanced.
This study demonstrated significant (p=<0.05) systematic
variations on four of the six variables studied (age,
academic achievement, nationality and social class) in the
way that respondents ranked one or more of the teacher
characteristics. Comparisons with Travis's results showed
marked differences both in the overall ranking of the twelve
teacher characteristics and in the influence of student
variables on the ranking of individual teacher
characteristics. While Travis also showed that some student
variables influenced the ranking of teacher characteristics,
different relationships are evident. Travis's respondents
emphasised the importance of good, supportive relationships
with their teachers, while in this study, instrumental
characteristics were preferred. This suggests a range of
preferred characteristics across student populations.
Within both studies there is a wide range of opinion as to
the importance of all twelve teacher characteristics. More
than half of the present sample also suggested a range of
additional characteristics which they believed influenced
their learning. These findings support the view that
different students prefer different teachers. They suggest
that some student variables may have a greater influence
than others (e.g. academic achievement level) and that there
may similarly be more agreement on some teacher
characteristics (e.g. Knowledgeablity) than others.
Users of student ratings of teacher effectiveness should be
aware of the paradigmatic limitations of aggregated student
scores. Validity might be improved by using teacher
characteristics which raters agree are important and by
grouping raters for influential student variables.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219129 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Lipscombe, Trevor, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Trevor Lipscombe |
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