What Does Taguchi Say About Students Evaluations of Professors

Student evaluation of instruction is still the primary measure of teaching effectiveness in higher education because only students see professors for the duration of the semester. So far, however, there has been little discussion about comparing the effect of different parameters on student evaluation of teachers. In addition, no research has been found that surveyed interactions between pairs of effective parameters. This paper will focus on these issues. One hundred and one students studying chemistry were recruited for this study. The questionnaire consisted of a table with 18 rows and two columns. Each row of the table belonged to a hypothetical professor. At the first column, we described characteristics of the professor and her/his course. Students were asked to rate their satisfactions on a scale from 0 to 100 in the second column. Design of questionnaires and analyses was performed using Taguchi method. The Taguchi method determined the features of an ideal professor. Based on ANOVA analysis, factor A- the professor s knowledge in the subject- was the most important factor. The Taguchi method also determined the importance of interactions between different factors.

Keywords:

students evaluations of teaching , evaluation methods , student evaluations , teacher characteristics