Implications for the assessment of the teaching competence of staff in higher education of some correlates of students' evaluations of different teaching styles

Ratings by students of the teaching that they receive in higher education may be seen as types of evaluation within an all‐round assessment perspective. In order therefore that they be used properly, especially in managerial assessments and appraisals of teachers' competence, it is important that the nature of factors correlating with them be understood. The paper shows, from studies done over four years at the London School of Economics and Political Science, that there are few significant correlates of such ratings, as made of three different modes of teaching, although some relationships vary in strength according to whether it is part‐time teachers or full‐time academic staff whose teaching is being assessed. It is suggested that those correlates which do exist should be divided into those based on genuinely evaluative criteria and those based on non‐judgemental ones in order that proper inferences may be made on what they say about performance.