Comments on: Should Student Evaluations of College Teachers Be Public? http://writingcollegetextbooksupplements.com/blog/2009/06/02/should-student-evaluations-of-college-teachers-be-public/ Freelance Writing for College Textbook Publishers: Instructor Manuals | Test Questions | Student Study Guides | Companion Sites | Lecture Outlines | PowerPoint Presentations | Internet Exercises | Lab Manuals | Copyediting | Find Editors | Win Assignments | Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:37:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John Soares http://writingcollegetextbooksupplements.com/blog/2009/06/02/should-student-evaluations-of-college-teachers-be-public/comment-page-1/#comment-32 John Soares Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:32:37 +0000 http://writingcollegetextbooksupplements.com/blog/?p=180#comment-32 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. 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.

]]> By: Margaret http://writingcollegetextbooksupplements.com/blog/2009/06/02/should-student-evaluations-of-college-teachers-be-public/comment-page-1/#comment-31 Margaret Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:41:21 +0000 http://writingcollegetextbooksupplements.com/blog/?p=180#comment-31 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. 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.

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