Determining students' concepts of effective teaching from their ratings of instructors

Abstract

The Cklahoma A. and M. (College) Rating Scale was used by some two thousand students in rating 55 instructors. Factor analysis of these verdicts regarding 18 traits plus general estimates of the teachers' effectiveness showed the composition of 4 factors which might be called empathy, non-absentmindedness, organization, and verbal fluency. The pattern of correlations between particular trait estimates and the judgment of general excellence suggests that students evaluate instructors on the basis of fundamentally important, rather than on superficial, characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1954 American Psychological Association.