Reliability and Validity of Psychometric Instruments: the Example of Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness

This article outlines the main types of reliability and validity for psychometric instruments by looking at the example of student evaluation of teaching effectiveness (SETE). In the USA, in particular, students are asked to rate their lecturers in terms of quality of teaching, for example. Psychometric questionnaires used to do this have to show that the scores gained for lecturers are an accurate measure of teaching effectiveness rather than just the students' unsubstantiated opinions. This is the establishing of validity (ie the questionnaire measures what it claims to measure). While reliability is the consistency of the questionnaire. Theall and Franklin (2001) are confident about students' ratings: "No one else is as qualified to report on what transpired during the term simply because no one else is present for as much of the term" (p48).