Prior Subject Interest, Students' Evaluations, And Instructional Effectiveness

Students' Prior Subject Interest in a course showed similar correlations with student ratings of instructional effectiveness in two university settings (N = 1102 classes). Correlations between Prior Subject Interest and different dimensions of instructional effectiveness varied from approximately zero to .44. Though these correlations were not high, Prior Subject Interest predicted student ratings better than any of 15 other student/course/instructor characteristics considered (e.g., Expected Grade, Class Size, Workload/Difficulty, Teacher Rank). Instructor self-evaluations of their own teaching effectiveness (N = 329 classes) were also positively correlated with both their own and their students' perceptions of Prior Subject Interest; the dimensions that were most highly correlated -- particularly Learning/Value -- were the same as observed with student ratings. Since both student and instructor self evaluations were similarly related to Prior Subject Interest, it appears that this variable actually affects instructional effectiveness in a way that is accurately reflected in the student ratings.