The quality of student ratings of teacher behaviour

In a research project into the effectiveness of mathematics teaching in the first year of secondary education, external observers and students rated teachers' behaviour. The reliability and validity of both methods were established. The results show that teacher behaviour is assessed well when student ratings are aggregated at the classroom level. The quality of aggregated student ratings is as good as the quality of data from external observers. The predictive validity of aggregated student ratings is higher than the predictive validity of external observations when subject motivation is taken as a dependent variable.