11 1 construct validity of a questionnaire can be determined psychometrically by calculating the extent to which an item loads on (in other words, “belongs to”) a scale that is used to measure a construct. The theoretical foundation of the items therefore needs to be very solid, as a construct validity measure by itself does not tell much about the underlying theory regarding the construct being measured. The construct validity of a questionnaire can also be assessed by experts by asking them to what extent the questionnaire covers all elements of the construct being measured. Content validity refers to the extent to which a measure represents all facets of a given construct. Concerning the content validity of students’ teaching quality ratings, several factors can influence the ratings students give to the quality of a teacher’s teaching. For example, the average teaching quality score may be lower in a class with many low-performing students, without the teaching quality really being lower. Or female teachers might receive signif icantly lower ratings from male students, although they are doing just a good as job as male teachers do. Or popular, well-liked teachers may receive higher student perception scores regardless of the quality of their teaching (Atlay et al., 2019; Ben-Chaim & Zoller, 2001; Bijlsma & Röhl, 2021). Some associations might not be legitimate, because the factors are unrelated to criteria for effective teaching and beyond the teacher’s control, such as age and gender (Benton & Cashin, 2014). Other factors such as teacher popularity cannot be eliminated, as they play a role in the teaching process (Bijlsma & Röhl, 2021). Content validity can be investigated psychometrically by checking to what extent potentially influential factors affect students’ ratings. 1.4 THE IMPACT OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHING QUALITY Students’ teaching quality ratings basically and primarily provide information about how students experience their teachers’ teaching (Wisniewski & Zierer, 2021). In order to have these measures positively impact teaching quality, the teacher must receive and use the feedback data to improve their followup lessons. Fraser (2007) argued that the improvement of teaching quality based on student ratings includes five steps: (1) Data on student perceptions of teaching quality are collected; (2) The results are provided to teachers as feedback; (3) Teachers can identify elements of their lessons that need improvement and consider alternative ways of acting; (4) Teachers carry out improvement-oriented actions based on the feedback; (5) To determine the effectiveness of the actions undertaken by teachers, student feedback can
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