Obviously, I meant "designated," not "designation." Getting old sucks.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Allison
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 11:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: More on Evaluations of Teaching
Me must administer student evaluations during a designation time period before final exams. A student picks up the evaluations, administers them, and returns them to the dean's office. We cannot be in the room while the evaluation is being administered.
The students are anonymous, and faculty do not receive results until long after final grades are submitted.
The instrument we use for the evaluation is quite poor. Students are not asked about whether they came to class, whether they prepared for class, or anything else about their contribution. They respond to 5 somewhat objective questions about the professor, such as whether he or she effectively transmitted information, but of course this question hurts a professor who ever uses the Socratic method or otherwise calls on students. Then there are 2 questions asking students to subjectively evaluate the professor and the course. All questions are standardless. The administration and others pay no attention to anything other than the statistical summary of the results for one questions--the subject and standardless question about how the student rates the professor.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Virginia G Maurer
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 10:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: More on Evaluations of Teaching
I think anonymous students should be thrown out and only signed evaluations counted. Of course, the instructor should not get the evaluation until after grades are finalized. It would force students who wanted to make a point to articulate the point carefully in a constructive manner, and this is an excellent skill for a manager. Social media seem to foster people lobbing anonymous pot shots. Serious student evaluation of professors should be taken as seriously as professor evaluation of students. The goal, in both cases, should be honesty and transparency and improvement of the academic process.
________________________________
From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of Hotchkiss, Carolyn
Sent: Fri 4/16/2010 11:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: More on Evaluations of Teaching
The bigger question is how we give student evaluations their due in evaluating teaching, but no more than their due. Sitting on the P and T committee (yet again), I'm always struck by the lack of better kinds of evaluation of teaching. As a committee, we're pretty good at realizing that some comments students intend as bad are actually good, but good teaching does not necessarily win you a popularity contest. I know several years ago, ALSB people from Syracuse and Georgia (was it Fran and Jere?) came to each other's institutions to do teaching evaluations. Did that project have a longer life? Are there other mechanisms for evaluating teaching that go beyond the classroom visit from a colleague?
Carolyn Hotchkiss
Professor of Law
Babson College
781-239-5528
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