Students are in no position to know what type of training is good for them. To put so much weight on teaching evals is to turn teaching into a clown show. The students just want to watch a clown perform and to be entertained. They want an easy A and a show. That's why so many of them can't even divide fractions. Absolutely retart system.
Teaching evaluations are a scam
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You are exactly right. I am old enough to remember the days when there was no teaching evaluation. Students learned as well back then as today.
The teaching evaluation system was created by administrators for their own convenience, to control faculty and expand their business to underprepared students.
Students are in no position to know what type of training is good for them. To put so much weight on teaching evals is to turn teaching into a clown show. The students just want to watch a clown perform and to be entertained. They want an easy A and a show. That's why so many of them can't even divide fractions. Absolutely retart system.
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You poor pathetic loser. It's not OP's fault you're a simpering, impotent child who can't handle a class without reverting to pandering and groveling for their approval.
You provide educational services, dumb ass. Like in any services, you need to clean up the client's ass and smile. Or did you want to do your research all the time without any burden of real responsibilities?
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Sure, some students just want an easy A, but most actually want to learn. They learn better if they think the material is relevant. They learn more when the instructor presents it in a more accessable way. Do these things and you will get good evals. Moreover, increasingly you are competing with an army of Ph.D.s willing to take adjunct and non-tenure track teaching positions. They are doing these things.
Sure, course evaluations are affcted by those seeking an easy A, but they are also affected by those who wanted to learn. So evals have a lot of noise but do contain signal too. And they are cheap compared to any alternative. Besides, your chair is not stupid; he knows if your students suffer more in the next course.
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To get good evaluations, your knowledge about the subject does NOT matter too much,
however you need to be able to entertain the students by making jokes like a performer.To get good evaluations, your knowledge about the subject does matter too much,
however you need to be able to entertain the students by making jokes like a performer. -
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.
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I think the important point is that you need to interpret overall teaching evaluation scores conditional on grade distributions and difficulty ratings/ hours spent outside class. Obviously, one can buy better evals with higher grades, but the best teachers can be challenging and well rated.
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Yep. There is more information about those in either of the tails. But we counsel our new APs that if they are in the right tail, they are probably not allocating their time efficiently.
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.
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Sure, some students just want an easy A, but most actually want to learn.
Even the ones who don't want to learn will feel bored and insulted if you just tell jokes all day.
Yep. There is more information about those in either of the tails. But we counsel our new APs that if they are in the right tail, they are probably not allocating their time efficiently.
Probably, but I'm freaking amazing so it just happens. Sorry.