Using Student Evaluations of Teaching to Support Faculty: Use Proportions Instead of Means to Analyze SETs

Abstract

We analyze student evaluations of teaching (SETs) for 17 courses covering 760 students taught by 11 faculty. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of analyzing SETs using means and proportions. We find that both methods provide similar results for some questions and different results for others. When the results are different, we find that proportions lead to a more accurate and complete analysis that is essential when using SETs for faculty training and support. Eight out of 11 faculty members asked that the department evaluation reports should be based on proportions rather than means, and none preferred means