Attribution and interpretive content analyses of college students' anecdotal online faculty ratings: students' perceptions of effective teaching characteristics

Abstract

This dissertation documents a mixed methods doctoral study that accessed a popular online faculty rating system situated in the public domain, to reveal adult students’ perceptions of effective teaching characteristics in three community colleges located in British Columbia, Canada. The study is informed by two phases including a quantitative analysis of attributions and a qualitative interpretive content analysis of 300 randomly selected student anecdotal evaluations of their classroom experiences that were cross-referenced to the empirical research that formally defines effective teaching characteristics. Six attribution themes emerged from the students’ online perceptions: Articulate, Competent, Content-expert, Empowering, Perceptive, and Trustworthy that in their complexity were re-articulated for latent symbolism and problematised through an adult education lens. These findings subsequently led to development of the ACCEPT Model of Student Discernment of Effective Teaching Characteristics.
 The research findings contribute to a further understanding of students’ ability to discern and report effective teaching characteristics through an online faculty rating system that is informal and less traditional, for the purpose of improving teaching and learning practices in college settings in British Columbia. There are six recommendations provided that will be of interest to administrators, faculty, students, and institutional researchers regarding student evaluation of effective teaching characteristics and adult learning needs.