Discussion Paper of the Institute for Organisational Economics 7/2013

Können sich Hochschuldozenten bessere studentische Lehrevaluationen „erkaufen“?
Laura Lütkenhöner
July 2013

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Abstract 

Can University Lecturers “Buy” Themselves Good Results in Their Students’ Teaching Evaluations?

This study comprises 128 cases in which the same students have evaluated one lecture at two different points of time. The special feature of the study is that only such cases are considered in which the grade, expected or already received, has improved at the second point of time in comparison to the first point of time. The results suggest that correlations between grades and students’ evaluations of teaching (which are often observed) are not fully explainable by the grading leniency hypothesis and/or the students’ characteristics hypothesis. Rather university lecturers seem to have the opportunity to “buy” themselves good results in their students’ teaching evaluations. However, binary logistic regressions also reveal the influence of other aspects on the likelihood that a student whose grade has improved gives a better teaching evaluation. These aspects are the student’s gender, his or her parental home and the fact whether or not he or she has already finished an apprenticeship. The likelihood for such a reaction also differs between individual lecturers.