>Adulation from students is not a measure of good teaching.

Oh but it is: With academic intuitions paying closer attention to sites like this: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ and the role of student evaluations in tenure and promotion decisions (https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1170,) the question is asked and answered.

From the Stanford article, in particular:

"Here lies our dilemma. From an administrator's position, if we are dependent on student evaluations to better our professors' efforts in the classroom and, ultimately, a professor's tenure and promotion, then are we not concerned when many students perceive an effective teacher as someone who perhaps does not deliver correct information but who keeps them entertained?"

And the kicker:

"It is disconcerting to think that an effective teacher may be denied tenure because he or she did not induce laughter in the classroom."

While adulation from students should not be a measure of good teaching, adulation from students is being used as a measure of good teaching.

Harry