Unintended Consequences: When Innovation in Pedagogy Impacts Student Evaluations

Student evaluation of teaching surveys (SETS) is one of the most controversial tools used in higher education, globally. Recently the impact that SETS had on innovation in pedagogy has been raised as a potential problem. The teaching team experienced a gap between the SETS results generated for a final year undergraduate class that utilised flipped learning as the innovation, and an empirical research project using the same cohort of students that investigated the effectiveness of that pedagogy. Accordingly, from 2014 we established this cross-sectional sequential study over seven semesters to understand how students used the SETS after experiencing this innovation. We conducted thematic analysis on the 588 SETS results from a final year undergraduate class studying at an Australian university and found resisting students used the SETS as a weapon with adoption of the innovation the prime casualty. We recommend SETS be tailored for use where students experience innovation in pedagogy as the use of SETS by students may undermine the adoption of otherwise effective pedagogy and impact the willingness of faculty to pursue innovation in pedagogy.