Modelling results of student evaluations to improve the quality of teaching in accounting departments

Abstract

The Course Evaluation Questionnaire is a student evaluation instrument designed to measure the teaching performance of academic organisational units. The statistical qualities of its scales, as well as their sensitivity, reliability and validity have been confirmed in other studies. This study situates the development of the CEQ within the context of public sector reform in Australia, which emphasised accountability measured through performance indicators. It reviews previous research using the CEQ and attempts to apply the CEQ in a new way, by using responses from students who were enrolled in a first year accounting subject at three established universities, to construct a model which quantifies the relationship between students' overall satisfaction score and certain variables which were tested for their contribution to students' satisfaction. The variables which were found to make a statistically significant contribution to student satisfaction were: good teaching; clear goals and standards; appropriate workload; emphasis on student independence; gender; language background; and university. The major conclusions reached are 1) that of the five CEQ scales good teaching appears to be most strongly related to overall satisfaction and that positive effect is the same at all three universities, 2) that gender affects satisfaction at all three universities and 3) that language background has an effect at two universities. The implications of these findings for quality teaching in accounting courses and for accounting education research are discussed.