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Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Wed 4/7/2004 5:18 AM
Random Thought: On Student Evaluations
When I put together my post-tenure review book, at the beginning
of the two inch thick tome were xeroxes of the latest student evaluations.
Not some concocted statistical computation, but the hand-written or typed
evaluations themselves, the long ones and the short ones, the good and bad
and indifferent, the glowing ones and the damning one, the "what do you
think" ones, the mid-term ones, the final ones. Every one of them. No
culling out. Over five hundred in all!
Yeah, I've heard all the resistant grumblings about student
evaluations: they're popularity contests; best evaluations go to the
easiest graders; students aren't mature enough to make mature judgements;
students don't know enough to comment on quality of teaching; they're used
by administrators to punish or reward. In the words of the King of Siam,
"Etc., etc., etc." Of all the unfounded rejecting, self-serving, and
defensive reluctant mumblings about student evaluations, the one I find
most interesting is the one that says student evaluations don't improve
teaching. Well, let me take that one on. I stand here to say that
there's a half truth to that. A student evaluation is not a magic wand or
handful of pixie dust. It's not the sure fire fix-it from "This Old
Academic House." It's is not synonymous with "abracadabra." It won't
automatically turn the pumpkin into a coach or the rat into a magnificant
steed or the char girl into a beautiful princess.
Of course, a half truth is a disguised half lie. No, there's
nothing automatic in the effect of student evaluations. They won't
improve teaching if you won't let them, if don't want them to, if you
don't act on them. They will if you do. It's your choice. You can be
closed to them or you can be open. You can turn a blind eye and deaf ear
to them or you can see and listen deeply and sincerely. It's simply just
a simple matter of how you choose to look at a student and choose to
evaluate his or her evaluation.
I have used a variety of student evaluations long before it was
officially required. Thanks to them, my desk floweth over with
less-than-neat heaps of student evaluations. It is they which makes my
desk top look like the annex to the county landfill and is one of the
reasons why my angelic, though neat-picking, Susan won't step foot into my
office. Actually, the growing variety of student evaluations is the
result of "why don't you" comments and suggestions from student
evaluations that have resulted in many a reflective "what if." In fact,
the concept, structure, operation, and spirit of the class over the years
has developed out from my experimenting "let see what would happen"
implementation of student recommendations.
I am constantly, incessantly, every day, pouring over sloppy,
tottering stacks of them. I am opening folders, pulling sheets, looking
for clues, leaning back and staring at the moldy ceiling, deeply
imagining, intently reading and rereading, and listening to their words.
Some evaluations are free written comments; some are responses to my own
questionaire. There are page-long or more evaluations and short paragraph
or one liners; there are seriously taken ones and the not-so-serious taken
ones; there are the ones thought through and the ones quickly jotted
down; there are the ones given lots of time and the ones not given any
time. They are a diverse collection from a diverse gathering of people
with diverse personalities and habits and experiences and attitudes.
But, every evaluation has something to say and says something. If you
know how to read an evaluation, each is an insightful and telling story
that helps you to read each student's story.
So, collected and stacked on my desk is a growing array of
"so what do you think" evaluations written after we've completed the
semester beginning week and a half, community building "getting to know
ya" exercises. There are the community evaluations written after each of
the five to seven projects. There are the intermittent "how are things
going" evaluations. There are the mid-term evaluations. There are the
end-of-semester evaluations. There are the notes I have taken from the
comments in the daily student journals. And, of course, there are the
ones I usually never see or hear, the confidential letters written by
students at the end of one semester and read by the students on the first
day of class of the next semester.
Often I look at the stacks of loose paper and manila folders,
ponder both the time and effort I spend on them, and think. What good is
a student evaluation if it isn't resting on the irons bonds of mutual
respect, trust, and honesty? What good is a student evaluation if the
student feels he or she can't be honest? What good is a student
evaluation if in the back of the student's lurks fear of recrimination?
What good is a student evaluation if I don't take it seriously? What good
is a student evaluation if I don't honestly respect his or her
observations, feelings, attitudes, comment, suggestions, and
recommendations? What good is a student evaluation if I don't sincerely
use it as a proverbial finger on a student's pulse. What good is a
student evaluation if I don't use it to become more aware, more sensitive,
more mindful. What good is a student evaluation if I don't use it to see
and listen more intently? What good is a student evaluation unless I let
it truly inform, inspire, and energize me? What good is a student
evaluation if it doesn't give me pause? What good is a student evaluation
if I can't accept criticism as well as I accept applause? What good is a
student evaluation unless it generates some rich inner dialogue,
thoughtful reflection, and, if need be, an adjustment of my attitude and
action?
If it doesn't do all of that, if I dismiss it with a cavalier
"what do they know," if I ignore it with an arrogant "it's a popularity
contest," if I reject it with a defensive "it doesn't improve teaching,"
if I if I find all sorts of reasons and rationalizations and explanations
to reject its validity, if it reflects merely a reluctant compliance
rather than a deep commitment, all that paperwork is meaningless; all it
does is kill trees, fill a report, create a false image of concern, and
collect dust.
No, student evaluations will help me help myself improve my
teaching and become the teacher I am capable of becoming only if I choose
to let them help me.
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