Students' Ratings of College Teaching: A Social Validation

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Abstract
This investigation was conducted to demonstrate the applicability of social validation procedures to students' ratings of college teaching. The premise of social validation is that criteria should include items that are meaningful and important to consumers. This study is unique in that the criterion was based entirely on students' ideas about effective teaching. Results indicated that there was a significant canonical correlation between four scores from a conventional instrument and two socially valid criteria (Rc = .83). However, there were also important differences between the two measures. In particular, the socially valid instrument contained many items describing teachers' interpersonal behavior and presentation of class material, but only one item reflecting subject mastery. These results suggest that social validation procedures are applicable to and important for the evaluation of college teaching.