Customer Satisfaction Theory in Public Administration Education: Revisiting Student Evaluation of Teaching

Abstract

Who are the customers in public administration (PA) education? Many scholars have criticized the tendency of educators to misidentify students as customers. At the same time, a multitude of PA education programs have utilized the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) as a means to gauge consumer satisfaction. However, there is lack of knowledge about the relationship between Customer Satisfaction Theory (CST) and SET. This study is focused on investigating the potential link between SET and CST, in order to gain a better understanding of instructional evaluation, and examines the impact of 13 aspects of SET on the evaluation of teaching effectiveness. This study finds that students prioritize the attributes of an instructor's perceived effectiveness, which are disproportionately influenced by negative responses on certain measures within the evaluation. This study concludes by discussing improvement strategies for instructors, as well as future implications of instructional evaluation at the department and college level.