Teaching evaluations for construction engineering and management: Opportunity to move us forward

Engineering education is challenged to usher in new approaches to preparing its students for their professional careers. Many blue-ribbon committees call for systematic modifications in research universities to clear the path for cross-disciplinary learning communities. In this context, the paper investigates the effect of student ratings as a measure of teaching effectiveness. One survey found that engineering sophomores perceive active student-centered teaching methods as greatly ineffective, while a second survey highlighted that lecture-based teaching underpins student rating forms used at U.S. research universities. With the goal of aligning teaching objectives, learning outcomes, and the criteria for evaluating teaching, a student rating form is presented. The scales of the multidimensional construct are based on the most up-to-date understanding of effective pedagogy, the new American Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology criteria, and a view of the future of our profession. The importance of this paper lies in its science-based proposal underlying a call for the establishment of a coalition to validate a constructive approach to further teaching performance in the field of construction engineering and management.