Celebrating 10 Years
of Teaching Excellence
“Take the professor, not the class.” It’s a common refrain on campus when students ask friends for advice. But it’s not to get an easy “A” or an entertaining semester. When asked, students more highly recommend professors who are better teachers.
New research finds that students are more likely to recommend professors who help them navigate challenging concepts, set clear expectations, and create a supportive learning environment. Clarity is key: 40 percent praised instructors who simplify complex topics and are transparent about goals and grades. Students also recommend professors who use interactive practices, and nearly a third praised instructors who bring real-world relevance into class.
A quarter of respondents appreciated teachers who are responsive, offer additional resources, and show genuine care for student success.
These and other findings are from a new paper sponsored by the Lumina Foundation, from survey research of 1,300 college students across 22 institutions conducted by the Association of College and University educators (ACUE).
We shouldn’t be surprised. Despite patronizing stereotypes about how students are more interested in football games, parties, and social media, the data add to our understanding of what students and families value in a college education—effective teaching for real learning. Plus, it confirms that students know what they’re looking at; they’re able to distinguish instructional approaches that work better than traditional “chalk and talk.”
First, the “enrollment cliff” has colleges and universities scrambling to improve recruitment and retention. Schools should invest in their professors to advertise and deliver a quality of education that students find more valuable.
Second, today’s course evaluations have lost their usefulness and legitimacy. Too few ask unbiased questions about specific teaching methods that provide useful feedback to professors and administrators. Better instruments, including ACUE’s Student Survey, identify growth areas for continuous improvement.
Third, we shouldn’t leave it to sensational online ratings to inform students about a professor’s strengths. With better surveys and data from a broader and reliable cross section of students, we can publish student feedback every term. Doing so would make our teaching open to scrutiny and improvement, meeting the same standard we expect of our research.
Finally, it’s time to rationalize our human resources—the country’s 1.5 million hardworking professors. For too long, higher education prepared and expected professors to conduct research, at the neglect of teaching. Then, adjunctification created a de facto teaching force, albeit just as untrained or supported to teach well. Yet this new study also finds that adjunct instructors and tenure-track professors received higher recommendations than their more experienced, tenured colleagues. It suggests that our new generation of professors is ready for more differentiated and equitable roles, relative to our student success imperative. It’s not unlike what’s happened in healthcare, with different practitioners trained, staffed, and supported for different responsibilities. Like good healthcare, effective teaching matters.
Students know it, and we should listen.
Join us on Thursday, November 14 from 3 – 4:15 p.m. ET for “Why Students Recommend Professors: Good Teaching Through Student Eyes,” where we will bring together a member of the ACUE research team, a faculty member certified in ACUE’s Framework, and a professional academic advisor/adjunct instructor to discuss the Student Perceptions of Teaching research findings and their impact on teaching and learning in 2024 and beyond.