Talk:Teaching Evaluation

Teaching Evaluation - Strategies that have worked for me:

Karen Gardner

• In-class midway evaluation - at the beginning of the next class discuss the points that were raised and discuss solutions with the students. If an answer cannot be reached ask the students to have a meeting discussing both sides of the issue to determine what would be the best solution. Also ask students what has worked well in the course saying that you will ensure that is not removed and think of ways to possibly make it even better

• In-class midway evaluation - if a suggestion has not been thought out by the students discuss this with them explaining the rationale for why this subject/procedure is being taught in this manner

• End of term evaluations - let the incoming class know you have read the previous class's suggestions and are implementing the following changes based on that feedback. Let them know you will be asking for their feedback on these changes to see how successful they have been

Simon Bates

• The first day of class is a great opportunity to set out the rationale and expectations that you have for the course, the students and what they can expect of you in return. This, plus modelling the sorts of activities you will do in subsequent lectures, is tremendously important and can set the tone for subsequent interactions. The CWSEI produced a really good 2-pager on the first day of class: http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/files/First_Day_of_Class.pdf

Luisa Canuto

• I organize my students’ comments in two groups: ideas/possible changes & things I cannot change. Then I bring the comments back to class to talk about them to my students and explain which changes I am planning to make and which ones I will not make and why. I do encourage to ‘keeping an eye on me’ and helping me make sure I do implement the changes in the desired way.
• I also take the opportunity to further ask for feedback when my students come for their interviews, twice each term — I teach a language course and students are expected to come for an oral interview as part of their course. I invite students to discuss — and agree on — strategies to help them learn better.

Pam Kalas

• To encourage and increase participation in both midway and end-of-term evaluations, I try to take every possible opportunity to highlight course activities and "policies" that were originally suggested by students, especially when such activities and policies seem appreciated. If students make useful suggestions that I can only implement in subsequent iterations of the course, I contact them when I get to implement "their" changes to let them know that their ideas do make a difference.

Roselynn Verwoord

• Whenever I ask students for feedback on the class and on my teaching, I always ask them the following question: "Why I am asking you for feedback?" The reason that I ask them to think about this question is to help them practice metacognition and to help them think about another tool (asking for feedback) for their teaching toolboxes as pre-service teachers.

Amrit Mundy

• Being explicit about your rationale for what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and how it might help.

Selected article for our discussion:

• Neath, I. (1996). How to improve your teaching evaluations without improving your teaching. Psychological Reports, 78(3), 1363-1372.

Some pointers for discussion:

1. Neath's begins the article with a discussion about the differences between formative and summative evaluations. How are both employed at UBC and how are the results used to inform practice?

2. [This question is borrowed from the CWSEI posting.] A number of Neath's suggested tips for improving teaching ratings are (intentionally) facetious (e.g., "be male"). Are any of his tips a worthwhile means of legitimately improving teaching?

3. Several of the tips Neath offers may convey information about student preferences in relation to class structure, content or design. How might these tips be used to inform how we develop a new course or approach a course redesign?

4. Neath criticizes the use of teaching evaluations as a measure of teaching effectiveness, what other measures might be more appropriate and how can they be employed in a large institution like UBC? What conditions, attitudes, environments, etc. would need to change for these to be effective?