Premium
Non‐instructional correlates of student ratings: a brief review
Author(s) -
Morgan Ben B,
Ogden George D
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-0597.1981.tb00158.x
Subject(s) - psychology , variables , variety (cybernetics) , set (abstract data type) , class (philosophy) , social psychology , variable (mathematics) , econometrics , mathematics education , statistics , mathematics , computer science , mathematical analysis , artificial intelligence , programming language
Summary1 It is clear from this review that student ratings are influenced by a variety of different extraneous variables, and not only by single variables in isolation, but also by the interaction of variables. Although there has been a recent resurgence of research in this area which has contributed to our understanding of the effects of these variables, a considerable amount of additional research is needed in order to explicate the direct and interacting effect of the relevant variables. Research from a wide variety of instructional systems, and cross‐cultural research is particularly needed. 2 Class variables seem to be the most potent set of variables since almost all variables related to the class situation have been found to influence rating. The weakest set of variables seems to be the student variables. With a few notable exceptions (e.g. student grades and grade expectations), the findings with respect to student variables have been inconsistent. At best, the effects of instructor (but non‐instructional) variables seem to be intermediate in strength to class and student variables. 3 The findings of this review suggest that individual ratings must be interpreted in light of the situation in which the ratings are made. At the very least, departmental norms should be established along dimensions based on class variables such as size, level, subject matter, etc. (cf. Hoffman, 1978), and indeed, until their effects are better understood, norms should also be based on certain of the student and instructor variables.