A Reflection on Student Perceptions of Teaching Quality from Three Psychometric Perspectives: CCT, IRT and GT

Abstract

This chapter discusses student perceptions in terms of three psychometric perspectives that dominate contemporary research on teaching quality, namely, Classical Test Theory (CTT), Item Response Theory (IRT) and Generalizability Theory (GT). These perspectives function as being exemplars for the connection between psychometric theories and the different perspectives on “what a perception is” as well as on how and for what purposes student perceptions should be used. The main message of the chapter is that the choice of a psychometric theory is not merely a technical matter, but also has implications for how the nature of perceptions is conceptualized. After presenting and linking each psychometric theory, their strengths and weaknesses in the context of student perceptions of teaching quality and issues on practical implementations are discussed.