Sociocognitive Approach to the Validity of Teaching Assessment Instruments.

This study analyzes the construct validity of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) questionnaires applied in a university context. Using a sample of 3,243 students who evaluate 98 teachers in medical courses, multi-faceted Rasch models (MFRM) were applied to control for variability introduced by rater severity and item difficulty. The SET questionnaires, designed to assess nine dimensions of teaching quality, were analyzed for their effectiveness to capture differential teaching perceptions. The analysis incorporated socio-cognitive factors, based on the Central Model of Student Perception (CSP model), which studies how the perception and facilitative effect of teaching influences student response. Results indicate that students can distinguish between specific dimensions of teaching, which supports the validity of the questionnaire, although challenges related to possible perceptual biases and item interpretation persist. These findings suggest that, despite their usefulness, SET questionnaires require rigorous control of external factors to improve their accuracy and reliability as a teaching assessment tool in higher education.