Variability of Student Ratings of Accounting Teaching: Evidence from a Scottish Business School

Citation

Coles C (2002) Variability of Student Ratings of Accounting Teaching: Evidence from a Scottish Business School. International Journal of Management Education, 2 (2), pp. 30-40. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/bmaf/documents/publications/IJME/Vol2no2/Coles_Student_ratings_of_accounting_teaching_abstract.pdf

Abstract
Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) questionnaires are a tried and tested method of canvassing student opinion, but research in the US has shown that opinions are prone to contamination by certain influences. The present study is an analysis of SET questionnaires issued to every student taking modules taught by accounting lecturers in a Scottish business school. The responses were subject to a 5-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, using MINITAB, in order to determine whether the influences of 1) class size, 2) electivity, 3) centrality or peripherality to the ultimate degree choice, 4) cohort year and 5) mode of assessment, impinged significantly upon student response to the questionnaire. Key results indicate that the centrality or peripherality of the module to the ultimate degree choice seems to have a major bearing upon satisfaction. One of the principal implications which follows is that, if lecturer pay and prospects are to become partially influenced according to performance and if student satisfaction (gauged by SET results) is to be part of the performance criteria, then management should take care when interpreting SET results of lecturers delivering accounting modules to students whose ultimate degree aim is a non-accounting subject.

Journal
International Journal of Management Education: Volume 2, Issue 2

People

Dr Christopher Coles

Senior Teaching Scholar, Accounting & Finance