Does Social Desirability Affect Faculty and Students' Perceptions of Excellence in Teaching?

Authors

  • Marcelo Henrique Oliveira Henklain Universidade Federal de Roraima
  • Juliana Rosa Lira Federal University of Roraima
  • João dos Santos Carmo Federal University of São Carlos
  • Jared Wayne Keeley Virginia Commonwealth University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14571/brajets.v17.n3.1065-1075

Keywords:

Psychometrics, Educational quality, Teacher evaluation

Abstract

Social desirability may adversely impact studies of teaching excellence and its evaluation in the classroom. However, to date, no studies have examined to what extent social desirability might impact student or faculty ratings of excellent teaching. This study investigated whether a tendency to provide socially desirable answers was related to relevance ratings of TBC items among 98 faculty and 545 university students from various Brazilian states. The results of this study indicated no association between student responses and social desirability, but a weak relationship for faculty. It is encouraging that social desirability did not seem to impact students’ ratings, which would support the valid interpretation of student evaluations of TBC items’ relevance; however, there is a clear need for studies that deepen and expand these findings and investigate other variables involved in the influence of social desirability, while also investigating social desirability when using TBC to evaluate teachers’ performance.

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2024-09-24

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