Asee peer logo

Enhancing Teaching Evaluation in Engineering Education: An Exploration of the Theory of Rating

Download Paper |

Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 27

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47319

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Mayar Madboly Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

visit author page

Mayar Madboly is currently a PhD student in the department of Engineering Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University. Her research focuses on the issues in teaching evaluation, teaching effectiveness, and teamwork dynamics in engineering student and practitioner teams. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Energy Engineering from the faculty of Engineering in Cairo University in Egypt.

visit author page

biography

Nicole P. Pitterson Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-9221-1574

visit author page

Nicole is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Prior to joining VT, Dr. Pitterson was a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She holds a PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University and oth

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Teaching evaluation in higher education is an essential practice that plays a pivotal role in ensuring the quality and effectiveness of academic instruction. It involves the systematic assessment of teaching methods, strategies, and their outcomes, allowing institutions to gauge the overall performance of educators and identify areas for improvement. This process allows educators to reflect on their teaching practices, adapt to evolving pedagogical trends, and ultimately enhance the learning experiences of their students. In the existing literature much is known about how teaching evaluations are conducted and their value in helping educators become better at their craft. However, there remains a gap in our understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of how supervisors and peer evaluators make decisions about how to rate teaching beyond their own perceptions of teaching. In this paper, we introduce the theory of rating (ToR) by Robert Wherry as a candidate theoretical framework for studying teaching evaluation. The ToR explains sources of error and bias in ratings and methods to minimize their impact. The ToR also demonstrates important aspects of rating scales and settings and talks about methods used to test the rating reliability and control bias. Although the ToR was developed in 1952 to account for all dimensions of rating/evaluation, it is not yet popular in studying teaching evaluation. Thus, we aim in this paper to widen our understanding of teaching evaluation dimensions by introducing and explaining the ToR along with its hypotheses then show how the theory has been applied in previous literature. Most importantly, we will show the adequacy of this theory to study teaching evaluation and suggest steps to improve the teaching evaluation process.

Madboly, M., & Pitterson, N. P. (2024, June), Enhancing Teaching Evaluation in Engineering Education: An Exploration of the Theory of Rating Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47319

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2024 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015