[This article was originally published on "Teaching Commons"]
Evaluations Overview
Last quarter, while perusing through generally positive evaluations of my courses, I came upon this one: “Emily…needs to work on establishing her relationship with students. In particular, I think that her attitude of finding people’s late entry to class as ‘disrespectful’ should be repressed. I have never had a teacher be so asinine… and I don't find it to be a productive attitude.”
I felt crushed by my student’s words and found it difficult to keep them in perspective relative to the other wonderful comments. For one, I couldn’t get the word “asinine” out of my head. Nobody (except maybe my brother) had ever called me asinine in my entire life. Secondly, for those of us whose reappointment or promotion is dependent in part on these evaluations, and especially for those of us who pour an inordinate amount of heart and time into our courses, negative comments can be demoralizing and make us feel vulnerable. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I teach persuasive writing in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford. I had just spent an entire quarter passionately extolling the processes and practices of writing persuasively, and her argument wasn’t convincing at all. Did she really learn nothing in my class? Quelle horreur!
Tips for Using Course Evaluations
The experience led me to thinking about practical ways for teachers to use course evaluations in an effective and productive way.
Consult the helpful Teaching Commons resource "Interpreting Course Evaluations"
The Teaching Commons suggestions from CTL are enormously useful and easily transferable to many different types of courses—from tips on organizing class sessions to emphasizing conceptual understanding of course material. They also help to clarify and specify how we are being evaluated in the Registrar’s current end-quarter evaluations.
Recognize patterns in your evaluations and use them to update your syllabus
Lehigh University’s Center for Innovation and Learning suggests that you should be prepared to change one or two things about your teaching, as evaluations "are meant to help you identify your teaching strengths and weaknesses and to help you decide where to focus your improvement efforts.”
I keep a long document that includes many different categories for updating my syllabus. One of them is student feedback, and the majority of the items in this category comes from course evaluations. I always make a note right away if there are several similar comments or suggestions.
For example, during several informal check-ins last quarter, my students implored me to reduce the readings and let them focus on writing. However, in my course evaluations several students gave low rankings for how well readings were integrated into the course with a few comments suggesting how more readings might have helped. Next quarter I’ll make sure to be explicit about how the readings relate to and/or amplify the content and include a few more optional ones to help guide my students, particularly around selecting their research topic.
Keep perspective!
As a social scientist, it’s always my first instinct to research what others are saying or have said about something that is interesting me. It turns out a lot of people are saying a lot of things about student evaluations, not the least of which are research-based studies about the various and sometimes troublesome factors that inform feedback. (Check the articles in the “See Also” section at the bottom).
The take-away: It’s important to take responsibility for what you can learn from evaluations, but try to let the other stuff go. (Hint: Read them again a month or two after your first time. It’s been my experience that what I perceived as negative comments the first time I read them didn’t sound nearly as bad the second time around.)
Bond with your colleagues over evaluations
Talk to others about your evaluations. Commiserate. Develop collaborative strategies for using them effectively. The Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning suggests: “Before you look over your most recent set of course evaluations, consider studying them in the company of a trusted colleague. Being evaluated, especially by our students, can feel pretty unsettling and it is all too easy to lose perspective.”
It’s always hard for me to imagine any of my colleagues getting a low ranking on anything. But we all do at some point. It’s a part of what we signed up for. Although the sting of criticism has yet to go away after nearly a decade of teaching, the negative reaction can be ameliorated by sharing the experience with somebody else.
If you already do many of the above and are still bothered by the student feedback, talk to the director of your program or the chair of your department. The Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania calls the evaluation process a “dialogue” and notes that, “Evaluations should encourage you to reflect on your class, but they are not the last word.” Open communication can provide an opportunity to get some context about the students, and give some context about your class.
Stanford instructors can also set up consultations with CTL consultants to go over evaluations and brainstorm strategies for learning from them.
Course Evaluations Conclusion
Student course evaluations are often a part of any teacher’s career. They are a part of our reappointment and a part of our promotion. Understanding them, learning from them, and using them as an opportunity to become a better teacher and colleague is a crucial part of our job.
See Also
Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching section on student evaluations includes a long list of articles, research and other resources on interpreting student evaluations: http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/student-evaluations/#tips
Research findings suggest that professors who instilled the deepest learning in their students score lower on student evaluations and initial exam performance: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/everybody-is-stupid-except-you/201305/do-the-best-professors-get-the-worst-ratings
Recent research suggests that student evaluations of college professors are biased: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2013/10/02/student-evaluations-of-teaching-are-probably-biased-does-it-matter/
One teacher’s first-person account of dealing with teaching evaluations: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/04/student_evaluations_of_college_professors_are_biased_and_worthless.html
How anonymity can encourage negative comments: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30zhuo.html?_r=1&
