Dive Brief:
- Preliminary findings from researchers at Teachers College and Yeshiva University "raises questions about the value of higher-prestige institutions in terms of their teaching quality."
- Inside Higher Ed reports the team trained faculty observers on a common rubric about teaching quality and academic rigor and then sent them into nearly 600 classrooms at nine colleges and universities, three with high prestige, two with middling levels, and four with low prestige.
- Researchers identified five measures -- cognitive complexity of the coursework, standards and expectations of the coursework, level of instructor's subject matter knowledge, extent to which instructors "surfaced" students prior knowledge, and the extent to which they supported changes in students' views -- and in only the first did prestigious institutions outperform their peers.
Dive Insight:
The team of researchers have emphasized that their findings are only preliminary, especially considering they only observed once class per teacher. Given they made it into 587 classrooms, researchers expect average performance is still reliable, however.
The study breaks from more popular thinking about quality by focusing on in-class rigor, rather than student outcomes. Researchers said this is something faculty have more control over, because so many other factors influence whether a student graduates or gets a job.
At least one critic, however, has said there is little evidence faculty can even impact students behaviors in more cognitive capacities.