John Soares, author of Writing College Textbook Supplements
Found an interesting post over on the Texas Community College Teachers Association blog about new legislation in the Texas legislature that will require student evaluations of college instructors to be posted on the Internet for all to see. Here’s the gist of the post that relates to student evaluations:
As the Regular Session drew to a close, the Senate inserted the following sentence in a bill designed to promote “transparency” in higher education: “Institutions of higher education included in this section shall conduct end-of-course student evaluations of faculty and develop a plan to make evaluations available on the institution’s website.”
Experienced faculty members have learned that, while student evaluations can be extremely useful, the results can vary arbitrarily, depending upon a host of circumstances: time of day, the number of students who registered late for newly opened classes, the educational background of students in a particular section, attendance on a given day, and other factors unrelated to the quality of instruction. Faculty members also report that intellectual rigor, the complexity and difficulty of assignments, and whether essay exams are required can also influence student evaluations. Today, students who wish to pursue a path of least resistance can chat among themselves prior to registration, but HB 2505 could give them a more efficient tool.
These are among the many concerns that TCCTA plans to share with the Coordinating Board as the law is interpreted and implemented over the next two years.
I taught at the community college level for several years before I left teaching to focus on my writing career. Like many instructors, I was a bit nervous about evaluations. My average evaluations were fairly high, so my department chair was pleased with me. And I definitely gleaned some valuable tips from the evaluations that made me a better teacher.
But I was always a bit uncomfortable with the process, and to what degree student evaluations could be used in deciding who gets to keep teaching or gets promoted. I think evaluations only reflect a small part of how well a teacher teaches and how well students learn. As stated on the TCCTA blog post quoted above, there are many factors that can skew student evaluations.
What do you think of student evaluations? In what ways are they useful? In what ways are they flawed?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
John:
I think student evaluations of teachers taken alone, or baldly posted on a website without context might have little utility except helping lazy students find easy courses.
To be useful to students planning their academic schedules, the student evaluations (the latest and the average over the teacher’s time at the institution) should appear in context with:
1. the course description,
2. whether or how often the particular teacher has taught the indicated course,
3. the kind and frequency of examinations,
4. a list of what other courses the teacher has taught or is scheduled to teach, and
5. a faculty or department evaluation or rating.
I had a couple of college courses with teachers whose English was almost incomprehensible, and my daughter flunked a calculus course where she couldn’t understand the teacher. (I asked her why she didn’t drop it.)
As more courses are taught online, we have to develop a useful, transparent method of comparison for evaluating relative teacher competence when selecting educational course offerings.
Margaret, you are absolutely right that students need to have a good idea what an instructor is like, especially regarding his or her ability to teach the subject.
I too had a couple of teachers in college that I could not understand well at all, and I’ve lived in Europe for a couple of years and speak Swedish and some German, plus a smattering of French and Spanish, so I’m used to accents and other languages.
I really like your list of suggestions. Thanks for sharing it.