Monday, April 16, 2012
I take student evaluations very seriously
I have always taken student evaluations very seriously. I pride myself in being able to discern constructive criticism from immature and mean comments. Last Wednesday, I told my Latin American Civ class that I would do the student evaluations today. Because there was a showcase of undergraduate research going on on campus, only 11 out of 21 students showed up. They were all students that I know liked the class and would have given me very good evaluations. However, I postponed them for next Wednesday. I want to know the opinion of the majority of the class. This is the third time I teach the course, but the first I am really satisfied by how it turned out. And I really want to know if most of the students share that perception. I also postponed the evaluations because two out of the three brightest students in the class were absent. And I really want to know their opinions and suggestions. I may be risking lower evaluations numbers by doing what I did today. But I take my teaching really seriously, so having my students honest opinions is what's more important for me.
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I think you did the right thing. It's better to have as many students as possible doing the evals -- even if they hate you, which I'm sure they don't. I also take evals very seriously, and in fact, do midterm and final evals, so that if there are problems mid-semester they can be addressed before the class ends. I think that's one of the greatest pedagogical tips I ever got. Sometimes the students have great suggestions at midterm and I use them to make things better. It's very helpful to me, and the students benefit as well. :)
ReplyDeleteSince I tend to teach some courses over and over (like this one), I've been adjusting syllabus based on evaluations. I'm hoping to have some of the smart brains tomorrow, I want to know their opinion.
ReplyDeleteAt my institution, we are encouraged (forced) to track students who could not complete course evaluations in class for a variety of reasons.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that however hard I try to explain my students that these evaluations are very helpful (like you, I take them very seriously) and that I need very detailed evaluations, I always end up with platitudes such as "Great job!," "Prof. X creates a comfortable learning environment," or "Prof. X was helpful." Maybe I give too much importance to my teaching persona, but I need more detailed comments.
Well, I don't get detailed comments very often either. I like some that'd say something like "I liked the materials in class but I thought the article X was not related to the overall topic of the class", or "Prof SP should have balanced better X and Y topic" or something like that. I did made an effort, on this particular class, to incorporate more visual material (from the documentary "Centinelas del Silencio" to analyzing indigenous representations in Mexican muralists last class). That came up from a specific critique from the previous time I taught the class.
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