The Relationship between Quality of Teaching and Student Evaluations: The Case of an Academic Course in Endocrinology

摘要

The purpose of the research was to examine the relationship between student attendance of lessons, success on exams, and student evaluations of teaching regarding courses taught by a lecturer in the field of endocrinology. The methodology consisted of recording attendance of lectures, examining exam results, and reviewing the results of the student evaluations of teaching. The results indicated significant differences in course attendance by department of study. In the animal sciences, only 57% of the students attended the lectures; in the nutrition department and the master’s degree program, the attendance rate was 87%. No significant difference was found between the grades of the animal science students who attended lectures and those of the students in the nutrition department and master’s-degree program (due to the similar and high attendance rates, they were considered as one group). The grades of the animal science students who did not attend lectures were significantly lower than those of the other groups (p < 0.05). No significant difference was indicated between the college-wide mean score on the student evaluations of teaching and those in two of the study programs examined (nutrition and master’s degree). However, the student evaluations of the Introduction to Endocrinology course taught in the animal sciences were significantly lower than the college-wide mean, and compared with the two other endocrinology courses, in the nutrition department and the master’s degree program. The research results support findings of previous studies that student evaluations of teaching actually examine student satisfaction and interest in the course, which are correlated with the student’s academic level and investment in studies. The findings also corroborate the results of previous research conducted at Tel Aviv University, which shows that evaluation surveys administered to students do not indicate the actual quality of a lecturer’s teaching.