Validity and fairness of utilising student evaluation of teaching (SET) as a primary performance measure

ABSTRACT

In a super-saturated world of academia, the real power has slowly moved from academics’ ownership of their own means of production to a more managerial ethos, with all the accompanying control systems, surveillance, bureaucracy, performance audits and judgements that that entails. Student evaluation of teaching (SET) has become a significant evaluation tool, focusing on front-line contact and quality of teaching, allowing students to make that judgement call. This leaves out a large part of the picture of how institutions are managed and function, putting the onus on the academic and their relationship with students, teaching capability and cohort results. This leads to a sense of unfairness and poses questions about the validity and reliability of judgement calls based on student evaluation of teaching data and subsequent fairness in reward and recognition. This work considers the perceptions of Jordanian academic staff in a private institution of the use of SET as a summative tool for performance appraisal. This research has confirmed that the use of SET as a dominant, if not sole, factor in judging performance can extenuate academic stress. Thus SET results need to be used in a measured way.

KEYWORDS:

• Student evaluation of teaching
• higher education
• Jordan
• work–life balance
• work–life conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caryn Cook

Dr Caryn Cook is a senior lecturer in the School of Business at the University of South Wales (USW). Her research interests are qualitative social research, higher education and adult education. Her current research focuses on human resource management (HRM) within post-Soviet spaces, social capital and informal institutions. Caryn is also interested in research on sustainable prosperity in South Wales. A further area of research concerns the tensions of the academic working life, including the work–life balance and work–life conflict, both within the UK and internationally.

Joanna Jones

Joanna Jones is a senior lecturer specialising in the digital economy and general management. She has been lecturing at USW since1997 and is currently course leader for a range of undergraduate business courses at Newport City Campus. Jo’s research interests relate to the digital economy, including implications for small and medium enterprises, online pricing practices and social networking. Jo is also interested in pedagogical research and has co-authored several papers with Ruth Gaffney-Rhys on issues such as student satisfaction, the introduction of formal student contracts, student evaluations and social networks. She also has an interest and expertise in curriculum development. Prior to entering academia, Jo worked as a business/spreadsheet modeller for a major utility company.

Arwa Al-Twal

Dr Arwa Al-Twal is an assistant professor in HRM at the American University of Madaba, Jordan. She has a PhD in HRM, a professional diploma in HRM (Associate CIPD), an MSc in HRM and an MSc in Management. Her research interests include researching HRM effectiveness in the higher education context, Wasta (nepotism), social capital, performance management and performance appraisal, employee engagement and the empowerment of women in the workplace.