Author Topic: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?  (Read 4595 times)

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Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« on: February 07, 2016, 06:14:56 PM »

Offline jpotter33

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In my previous academic teaching appointments as a graduate teaching assistant, I've received nothing but excellent marks from my students and the professors that oversaw the classes. I even won an award for best graduate teaching assistant in that particular school of the college blah, blah, blah.

I just received my first student evaluation from a class that I taught at the rank of professor, without oversight, at a different university than I'm currently a doctoral candidate. Overall, they were pretty good, and I was at the university average or above it by most marks. I did have a couple comments that I was a hard grader who expected a high standard out of his students, so that was actually some helpful feedback.

However, I had one student who absolutely ripped me in the survey and comments throughout the entire evaluations. Of course, this student was a bad student and a problem throughout the semester. He could barely put coherent sentences together, and on three different occasions he questioned the fairness of my grading (calling me smug in the process), which he mostly misinterpreted anyways. He turned in many assignments late, even ones that I'd given him extensions on, and he regularly misquoted me, his classmates, and the text to argue things that he would later get points deducted for. Even in the poorly written evaluation comments themselves, he cited an example where he misread an argument and said that I was basically proselytizing for saying that he should justify his arguments instead of just stating them without argumentation. He was obviously the issue.

How worried should I be about these kinds of comments and ratings on my student evaluations? Even though it was really only one student that gave me negative marks, this being my first evaluation as a professor without oversight has me worried that it'll look bad on my record to even have one negative mark like that. I've talked to some of my colleagues, and apparently this kind of stuff is pretty normal, i.e. students who do bad tend to take it out on the teacher.

Does anyone else have any experience with this type of stuff that can give me some advice on this issue?

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2016, 06:27:21 PM »

Offline Smitty77

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Hey jpotter,

I have been teaching for about 25 years, but my full-time gig is in the NC Community College System, but I have taught for two universities part-time.  I would not in any way worry about student evals.  The most motivated students are the unhappy students that typically have struggled with your class.  I am sure that you are a fantastic professor!!  Congrats on being a doctoral candidate!!

I would take it as a compliment when students say that you are a hard grader!!!  I am personally sick and tired of the dumbing down of education in the U.S.

Keep up the great work jpotter!!

Take care,

Smitty77

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2016, 06:31:37 PM »

Offline jpotter33

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Hey jpotter,

I have been teaching for about 25 years, but my full-time gig is in the NC Community College System, but I have taught for two universities part-time.  I would not in any way worry about student evals.  The most motivated students are the unhappy students that typically have struggled with your class.  I am sure that you are a fantastic professor!!  Congrats on being a doctoral candidate!!

I would take it as a compliment when students say that you are a hard grader!!!  I am personally sick and tired of the dumbing down of education in the U.S.

Keep up the great work jpotter!!

Take care,

Smitty77

Thanks man! TP!

That definitely makes me feel better. It's just frustrating when you get students like that, because most of them have no idea how much work teaching really is. There really does seem to be an entitlement culture instilled in students nowadays, and they think that they deserve a good grade, regardless of the work that they put into the class.

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2016, 06:59:38 PM »

Offline hpantazo

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From my experience, overall it sounds like you have very good ratings, I wouldn't worry about it. As you and Smitty said, students who do poorly often take it out on the teacher in the evals. As long as it's 1 or 2 students and not a large percentage of the class, then you are doing well.

Still, what I found myself, is that you can often learn from the evals of such students who perform poorly and rip you in their evaluation if they add comments. Often enough, in the mess of negative comments, there were 1-2 valid points that I realized I could improve upon if I wanted to reach certain types of students. I found that listening to these points and trying to improve on them makes you an even better teacher. When they don't leave comments though, there is not much you can do.

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2016, 09:45:19 PM »

Offline Smitty77

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Hey jpotter,

I have been teaching for about 25 years, but my full-time gig is in the NC Community College System, but I have taught for two universities part-time.  I would not in any way worry about student evals.  The most motivated students are the unhappy students that typically have struggled with your class.  I am sure that you are a fantastic professor!!  Congrats on being a doctoral candidate!!

I would take it as a compliment when students say that you are a hard grader!!!  I am personally sick and tired of the dumbing down of education in the U.S.

Keep up the great work jpotter!!

Take care,

Smitty77

Thanks man! TP!

That definitely makes me feel better. It's just frustrating when you get students like that, because most of them have no idea how much work teaching really is. There really does seem to be an entitlement culture instilled in students nowadays, and they think that they deserve a good grade, regardless of the work that they put into the class.

You are more than welcome!!:-)  You are spot on about the entitlement culture my friend!!  BTW, what do you teach?

Take care,

Smitty77

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2016, 09:53:34 PM »

Offline Cman

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I've been a professor for 7 years at a university and taught about a thousand students. The student responses are important but in my experience they are always taken in context by the powers that be. And they care about the overall score you get relative to the average or median.

Regarding the comments themselves, I never get use to them. They can be brutal and unfair and many students don't realize how hard it is to teach and how much work we teachers put in. I try to ignore the obnoxious comments and try to address the helpful comments by tweaking my class going forward.

Congrats on the teaching gig. Best of luck.
Celtics fan for life.

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2016, 10:07:36 PM »

Offline DefenseWinsChamps

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Hey jpotter. I've been a teacher/leader for 7 years. In a public teaching position, there will always, always, be people who don't think we do our job well.

The key is not to become bitter against that student or project that student's attitude on future students. I honestly think that pity is the key. A student like that has such a victim mindset that they can't even see that you are trying to help them. Pity their lack of self-awareness. Don't take the attack personally, but flip it around as an indictment against them, not out of anger, but out of genuine care/pity for their well-being.

Both constructive and destructive criticism can be helpful. It's been put like this: When a farmer spreads manure on his field, sometimes, the manure will have partially digested or undigested seeds. Many birds will often pick through the manure to eat the seeds. Any kind of criticism is a lot like that. We pick through the crap to find any seeds of truth, and then, like mature adults, we use it to sharpen us.

I have often found that the most immature, harsh, cruel critiques had a seed of truth. Having enough humility to admit the seed of truth without it shaking your confidence or causing you to question all your methods can be really difficult.

It sounds like many of your students appreciate you. Don't let the squeaky wheel get all the attention.

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2016, 12:00:57 AM »

Offline jpotter33

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TPs all around. Thanks for the encouragement and advice, guys. It's nice to know that others deal with these problems and get through them, too.

Smitty, I'm teaching in the humanities, mainly ethics, logic, and critical writing/thinking. I'm hoping to develop some more courses in healthcare ethics (what my PhD is, or will be, in) and philosophy of religion in the near future. What do you guys teach?

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2016, 12:26:28 AM »

Offline Csfan1984

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I got a chuckle out of this. I was an honor student who always rode my professor/teachers hard in evaluations. I was just giving back same constructive criticism.  ;D

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2016, 01:34:44 PM »

Offline Celtics18

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My experience has always been that teacher evaluations were meant to be anonymous and that teachers weren't supposed to see them.

Is that not the case where you teach, Potter?

Seems odd.
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Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2016, 01:39:05 PM »

Offline Monkhouse

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My experience has always been that teacher evaluations were meant to be anonymous and that teachers weren't supposed to see them.

Is that not the case where you teach, Potter?

Seems odd.

I heard the same exact thing. At my old community college, one of the professors who gave me a good letter of recommendation asked me not to worry about evaluations. Rarely does it ever really hinder or become a nuisance unless the classes continuously seem to fail expectations or students give terrible ratings. But it has to be on a large scale from what I heard. (Professor was also not supposed to disclose this information to me, but she didn't seem like she cared that about losing her job, since she was an excellent professor who engaged her students, and consistently had excellent academic results.)
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Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2016, 01:42:31 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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My experience has always been that teacher evaluations were meant to be anonymous and that teachers weren't supposed to see them.

Is that not the case where you teach, Potter?

Seems odd.

We see them, but they are supposed to be anonymous.  Sometimes you can pretty easily figure out who wrote them, though.


To the OP: it's pretty universal in my experience that in any typically sized class there will always be 1-2 students who adore you and 1-2 who despise you.  Once in a while you'll get the really vitriolic (or gushing) kind.  Neither group is really very helpful, unless you start to see a LOT of negative.  Focus on the comments in the middle that have more specific concerns or likes about the course.  Look for common themes that are cited repeatedly. 

Also note that eval ratings have been found to actually negatively correlate with preparedness in later courses (meaning good evals are driven more by lax standards and easy grading than anything else).  Don't pay as much attention to whether they're negative or positive as if the students are perceiving you as the kind of instructor you want to be.


EDIT: After re-reading, don't worry in the least about a harsh eval like that affecting your career.  Everyone who's taught has enough experience to know they can be disregarded unless they're alleging illegal behavior or something like that.  Even the averages aren't given too much weight unless they're abnormally poor.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 01:57:39 PM by foulweatherfan »

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2016, 01:44:28 PM »

Offline slamtheking

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I thought student evals of professors were anonymous and that compiled results were reviewed by administrators to be later discussed with the professors.

Anyway, if you're getting full access to the evals, take the approach that 1 or 2 negative rants aren't an accurate picture of your performance.  there's always someone with an axe to grind and that's typically the tool they will use.  however, if you receive a higher volume (10-15%) of negative comments, determine if there's a common thread.  if so, there may be something to it.  if you get a higher volume than that, there's some real issues going on you need to consider (including changing professions depending on what those issues are).

just my 2 cents

Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2016, 02:01:38 PM »

Offline Celtics18

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My experience has always been that teacher evaluations were meant to be anonymous and that teachers weren't supposed to see them.

Is that not the case where you teach, Potter?

Seems odd.

We see them, but they are supposed to be anonymous.  Sometimes you can pretty easily figure out who wrote them, though.




Shady.  Students are told to give honest feedback, then they are placed in those sealed Manila envelopes to give the illusion of anonymity, but you are confirming that--as every student has always expected--the professors get to see those evaluations anyway.

This has of course always seemed like the main reason (along with laziness--and maybe a bit of loyalty, "code of the playground" thinking) that very few students give honest or in-depth feedback on those things.

JPotter,

If I were a college professor and a student actually took the energy to write a negative rant on one of those Evals, I would hope that I would seriously consider the possibility that there was something in my teaching that I could work on improving.

Hopefully you learn something from this experience that informs your teaching going forward and helps you to clarify your goals as a teacher.

Good luck.  Remember, you are teaching for the students.
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Re: Teachers/Professors: How Important are Student Evaluations?
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2016, 02:09:41 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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My experience has always been that teacher evaluations were meant to be anonymous and that teachers weren't supposed to see them.

Is that not the case where you teach, Potter?

Seems odd.

We see them, but they are supposed to be anonymous.  Sometimes you can pretty easily figure out who wrote them, though.




Shady.  Students are told to give honest feedback, then they are placed on those sealed Manila envelopes to give the illusion of anonymity, but you are confirming that--as every student has always expected--the professors get to see those evaluations anyway.

This has of course always seemed like the main reason (along with laziness--and maybe a bit of loyalty, "code of the playground" thinking) that very few students give honest or in-depth feedback on those things.

If I were a college professor and a student actually took the energy to write a negative rant on one of those Evals, I would hope that I would seriously consider the possibility that there was something in my teaching that I could work on improving.

Hopefully you learn something from this experience that informs your teaching going forward and helps you to clarify your goals as a teacher.

Good luck.  Remember, you are teaching for the students.

Why would you think the professors don't see them?  The point is to give the professors feedback and it's not like administrators are itching to spend time communicating what's in them in a completely rephrased way to every professor for every section.  Administrators and dept. chairs rarely even talk to you about them unless there's an unusual negative trend present.  Anonymous just means your name's not on it, not that the professor never sees it.

But how the evals are delivered actually depends on the school - at schools with paper evals we got copies of the individual forms and a summary sheet.  At my current school with only online evals we get aggregated results on the numerical ratings but every written comment is pulled out and provided to us under the corresponding prompt.  So it's not like handwriting can be recognized any more, but in writing-heavy classes you get a very good feel for how some individuals write.  And the bad writers tend to have more distinctive "styles" than the good and average ones.  Or they will cite a specific situation or interaction that only applies to them.

Like I said earlier if you're hearing the same criticism repeatedly there might be something to it, provided it's not something like "too high of a standard" which I consider a positive.  And there's always room for improvement somewhere whether the students are able to ID it or not.  But the kind of situation jpotter's describing is much more likely a problem student who doesn't like being challenged on subjective material or corrected on objective stuff. 
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 02:16:10 PM by foulweatherfan »