Class Evaluations
As I was completing my online class evaluations, I considered their purpose and significance. Although I understand the importance of feedback, I do not believe that the method through which our university administers evaluations is effective. First of all, I feel that if I voiced a concern about a class, nothing would be done about it. University policy dictates our time here. Curriculums have been made to suit the learning styles of the “typical student”. Hundreds of students listen to the same material lectured on by one professor. Why would that one teacher change their class just because a few students voice a concern? Also, the timing of the evaluations is not chosen wisely. At the end of a semester students are just finalizing their last projects, tests, and papers. Grades for the most part have already been determined. Why would a student care about shedding light on a professor’s inadequacies when nothing they say will better the experience they will take from the class. The class is over; any complaints will just be a waste of time and energy. Evaluations should be a dynamic process that is available to students throughout the suration of the class. Feedback should be always provided to the instructor if a class if to be effective.
April 25, 2008 at 2:55 am
Wise thoughts, Lauren. Many people who study education advocate the sort of feedback you advise: dynamic, taking place throughout the semester. At the same time, I think your view is, in some regards, cynical, and I”m sorry if anyone you’ve encountered has led you to that view. Conscientious instructors care about whether they are reaching not just the “average” student, but each student. As such, they read their evaluations seriously. I can guarantee you that there is not one full-time instructor in English Composition, whose evaluations I see (and whose teaching I also evaluate), who does not agonize over bad evaluations–even if only from a couple students–and attempt to take legitimate (constructive) criticism and make changes based upon it.
A couple issues: To assume that a bad grade given a student is a result of bad teaching is, I think, faulty logic. Sometimes that’s the case, and sometimes not. (A good grade is not always a result of good teaching, either.) Also, to assume that commenting on a class is a waste of time assumes that there is no collective gain. Even in the worst case scenario, the fact is that if a teacher is really awful and you give that teacher a negative evaluation and that teacher doesn’t bother to change: then, at least, you’ve done your fellow students a favor by warning them off a bad teacher, have you not?