Does familiarity breed contempt?

Student evaluation of faculty teaching performance is fast becoming a high-stakes game, but few are interested in measuring attributes influencing good teaching - most settle for some sort of statistical interpretation of counts.

The SFT (Student Feedback about Teaching) scheme at James Cook University in Australia is based on Rasch modelled estimates of responses to a Likert-type scale. In order to help to address a perennial question about how difficult it is to teach large classes, responses for classes smaller than N=30 were pooled, as were responses for classes larger than N=150 to generate the DIF plot above. While about half of the items located close to identically for both groups (with suitable allowance for measurement error), it was easier for students in small classes to report satisfaction with the `Interest' their teachers showed and the `Assessment Information' they provided. While teachers of large classes were reported as doing better at achieving the subject's `Aims', the largest DIF effect was for the easiest to endorse item: the teacher in the large lecture theater is much more readily seen as being an `Expert' in the field. (Disclaimer of personal interest; the author teaches classes of 450 first year teacher education students about developmental psychology.)

Trevor Bond

From: Trevor G. Bond, "Accountability in the Academy: Rasch measurement of student surveys", Survey Research in Education SIG, AERA 2002.

Does familiarity breed contempt? Bond TG. … 16:1 p.859

Does familiarity breed contempt? Bond TG. … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2002, 16:1 p.859

Rasch Books and Publications
Invariant Measurement: Using Rasch Models in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 2nd Edn. George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan
Other Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen

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