Student Opinions of the Quality of Teaching Activities Poorly Predict Pedagogical Effectiveness

As universities increase expectations for evidence of student learning, journals like Teaching of Psychology (ToP) have come to expect outcome data from authors describing teaching techniques. Our comparison of ToP articles published in 1996 and 2006 showed a significant decrease in reliance on student opinion and an increase in the use of more direct assessment data. In a second study, we evaluated whether requiring more direct measures of learning is justified. For 2 classroom activities, students' opinions regarding enjoyment and usefulness of teaching activities poorly correlated with exam performance. It appears that the expectation for direct measures of pedagogical effectiveness is warranted.