Multiple Discriminant Analysis of Student Ratings of College Teachers

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Abstract
Reports of all published factor analyses of student ratings of college faculty were reviewed to determine what common factors had emerged and to identify items likely to be useful in discrimination between teachers. A 39-item form was administered to students of 18 instructors both at the beginning and end of a semester course. Twenty-four items had been included in the form used earlier by Isaacson et al. (5). The current data and those collected by Isaacson et al. were analyzed by multiple discriminant analysis and the results were compared to those obtained by factor analysis. While results of the analyses were generally similar, the differences between the results of multiple discriminant analysis and factor analysis point to differences between student stereotypes of teacher behavior and differences in actual behavior between teachers. For uses in which the primary concern is to compare one teacher with another, the dimensions derived by multiple discriminant analyses seem likely to be more useful.

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