An Analysis of the Sources of Bias and Error in Student's Evaluation of Teaching

To evaluate faculty members’ teaching effectiveness, the most common method of data collection is using student assessment scales. The potential for false results and the ambiguity of the source evaluation alone can lead to bias and error. This paper by adapting an analytic method using data collected from literature review, articles and books examined this question: “which errors threaten students’ perception of their teachers teaching?” Results showed that there are at least eight sources of bias and error in perception of students as follows: error in instrument content, error in interpretation of the meaning of ratings, showmanship, error in instrument reliability, mixed purposes of evaluation, inconsistent methods of instrument administration, common rating error effects, and errors in data implementation. Therefore, to reflect a border continuum of the teaching characteristics of all sorts of teaching, current evaluation systems need to be reviewed and changed. Finally, the paper proposes a model to solve this problem.