From ratings to rankings: A complementary approach for student evaluations of teaching in higher education

Abstract

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are key for enhancing instructional quality in higher education, serving to improve teaching practices and assess teacher performance for decision-making. Traditional SETs, based on complex rating systems, often suffer from inconsistencies in rating scales, student fatigue, and small difference in mean evaluation, limiting their effectiveness in evaluating teacher performance. In this study, we propose a ranking-based approach, where students rank teachers based on overall performance rather than scoring individual aspects. By aggregating these rankings, a comprehensive, university-wide ranking of teacher performance can be obtained. This approach could address rating scale inconsistencies, and enhance the utility of SETs for decision-making processes by delivering teachers’ ranking that best reflect student expectations. Successfully implemented at a Chinese university, this approach has demonstrated its effectiveness in producing reliable rankings and supporting data-driven administrative evaluation, offering a promising complementary solution to the challenges faced by traditional SETs systems.