USU Welcomes Scholar Geared Towards Helping Teachers Everywhere

Educators at Utah State University and from the community are invited to a campus lecture by Raoul Arreola, an expert on reliability and validity of student rankings. Arreola’s lecture is Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 3 p.m. in the Eccles Science Learning Center, Room 130. The lecture is a part of the Provost’s Lecture Series for Faculty Development and is hosted by the vice provost for faculty development and diversity.

“No matter how successful people are as teachers, there is always the question of how we are perceived by students,” said Ann Austin vice provost for faculty development and diversity at USU. “Raoul Arreola helps us understand the question that strikes the heart of all of us as teachers.”

 

Arreola, an expert in the science of student ratings, authored the best-selling book Developing a Comprehensive Faculty Evaluation System and is on the faculty of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center where he has held several administrative positions including chairman of the department of education and director of institutional research, assessment and planning.

 

“People with high teaching evaluations may wonder about the reliability of the results, and people may attach qualifiers to their evaluations,” said Ausitn. “Raoul is an expert in the science of student ratings and helps us find the best ways of asking questions about teaching performance as well the best ways to evaluate the responses we get.”

 

Arreola has compiled and analyzed more than 80 years of student rating literature. There are several myths surrounding evaluations that Raoul will discuss, including if you grade easily you get better ratings; if you are in science, engineering and math you get poorer ratings; and if you teach large introduction classes, you get poorer ratings.

 

“Arreola’s work on student ratings has been in-depth, substantive and scholarly,” said Austin. “We invite all educators to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to hear him speak and share his expertise.”

 

The Provost’s Lecture Series for Faculty Development is a program that brings noted international scholars in teaching and learning to the USU campus. More information on the scholars, recordings of the lectures and extra learning tools are available online.