Best-Worst Scaling: a ‘magnifying glass’ method for university teaching evaluation

You are here

Research and Development in Higher Education Vol. 32: The Student Experience

July, 2009, 715 pages
Published by
Helen Wozniak and Sonia Bartoluzzi
ISBN
0 908557 78 7
Abstract 

Student evaluation of teaching at universities is subject to widespread debate. The discussion in the academic literature relates to various aspects of teaching evaluation including the range of determining factors and, broadly, the validity of its measurement of teaching effectiveness. This paper focuses on the measurement of the relative importance of the different aspects of teaching covered in a teaching evaluation instrument. Best-Worst Scaling is proposed as a new method to evaluate university teaching. Based on a pilot study of a small undergraduate class, the findings of the study demonstrate how Best-Worst Scaling, in comparison with conventional rating scales, better highlights the true differences in measurements across a range of teaching evaluation criteria. In doing so, it provides enhanced feedback to educators about students’ perceived teaching performance along various dimensions of teaching.

Keywords: student evaluation of teaching, rating scales, Best-Worst Scaling