My vague impression is students are actually pretty good at picking out the bottom of the barrel, inept teaching, but other than that the evaluations are noise.
Eh, that's kind of my impression too, but "bottom of the barrel, inept teaching" can be anywhere from 20 to 80% at some departments.
1. You're providing services to your students, so you are expected to make a good effort to serve them well. That said, you don't necessarily have to compromise your standards and principles at all;
2. There are very few "bad" students that will complain no matter what. Most of the students will actually learn and appreciate your teaching if you do a good enough job.
You can always adjust your expectations when dealing with different students, but this is different from giving up the students when you think they are not "good enough" for you. The best kind of teachers are those who can make students feel satisfied and intellectually challenged at the same time, and I've seen them. So stop complaining and start becoming a better teacher.
The subject also matters a lot
I teach an I trip to mathematical econ class that business and law students are forced to take
I also teach an information economics recovery where I am free to teach whatever I think is cool
In one of the clases my evals are abysmal, in the other I look like a superstar
No, subjects per se do not matter. If you are on top of all the courses you are teaching, you will receive similar ratings.
The subject also matters a lot
I teach an I trip to mathematical econ class that business and law students are forced to take
I also teach an information economics recovery where I am free to teach whatever I think is cool
In one of the clases my evals are abysmal, in the other I look like a superstar
That's not true. Being on top of something and caring about it are very different. And enthusiasm shows.
No, subjects per se do not matter. If you are on top of all the courses you are teaching, you will receive similar ratings.
The subject also matters a lot
I teach an I trip to mathematical econ class that business and law students are forced to take
I also teach an information economics recovery where I am free to teach whatever I think is cool
In one of the clases my evals are abysmal, in the other I look like a superstar
I agree.
That's not true. Being on top of something and caring about it are very different. And enthusiasm shows.
No, subjects per se do not matter. If you are on top of all the courses you are teaching, you will receive similar ratings.
The subject also matters a lot
I teach an I trip to mathematical econ class that business and law students are forced to take
I also teach an information economics recovery where I am free to teach whatever I think is cool
In one of the clases my evals are abysmal, in the other I look like a superstar
I remember some research paper was doing the rounds a few years ago that used a natural experiment to show that students from courses that got bad evaluations tended to perform better in later courses than those who took an equivalent course that got a higher rating. The implication being that courses that get poor evaluations prepare students better for what is to follow.
Thinking of this paper? Carrell and West, "Does professor quality matter? Evidence from random assignment of students to professors," Journal of Political Economy 118, no. 3 (2010): 409-432, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/653808 . Needless to say, it is well done.
My own take is that students should have some sort of a say, but often times it turns out to be too much. As a partial alternative to our current student evaluations, I rather like the "Teaching Practices Inventory," http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/TeachingPracticesInventory.htm . The instructor fills out a questionnaire to assess the extent to which they're using evidence-based teaching methods. Another option is the "Classroom Observation Protocol," http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/COPUS.htm , which does as it says. Keep in mind that these are from STEM education researchers, who study what methods work and don't in their classrooms. Their work is often based on findings from cognitive science.
I teach at a big state school. The good students come to class, the bad ones don´t. Those who come to class give me good evals.
Given that many institutions now do on-line evaluations, one can help assure this by using a few minutes of class time for students to do your evaluations on their ubiquitous devices.
I teach at a big state school. The good students come to class, the bad ones don´t. Those who come to class give me good evals.Given that many institutions now do on-line evaluations, one can help assure this by using a few minutes of class time for students to do your evaluations on their ubiquitous devices.
My state school still offers a choice. I did on-line evaluations my first semester of teaching. Got destroyed by students who didn't come to class. Learned my lesson and used in class evaluations the next semester. 60% improvement in the evaluation. Not all of that is due to the change in format since I did improve with experience, but obviously in class evaluations will not contain the straight 1s from the bad students.
If your teaching evaluations are so bad that they're an issue, you are a bad teacher. Good teachers NEVER complain about teaching evaluations, from my experience.
Weird. At my school everyone complains about teaching evaluations except for the people who are so sick of them they have stopped reading them entirely.