Most students fill out evaluations for each of their classes at the end of every semester. These forms, called Student Evaluation of Teaching, are generally 20 to 30 questions long. Most of the questions rate the class instructor along with how well students felt they learned the material.
Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles taught a literature course last fall. This course was set up to be taught only once. However, she did not give her students the evaluation forms they would normally fill out in other classes.
“So? I don’t see why that’s important,” Patterson-Randles said. “It was a very special class and we had a full schedule. We didn’t have time.”
As it turns out, she isn’t required to have her students fill out evaluations because she’s not a faculty member. She works in the administration, so she didn’t break any rules by skipping her class evaluations.
It’s important to note the other faculty members on campus make time for SETs every semester, even at the graduate level.
Some students in her class wanted to evaluate the course.
One of the students said they didn’t like the structure of her class. The student said they didn’t think there was as much teaching involved and they didn’t get as much from the course.
The student has a valid complaint of the teaching method. Essentially, it was a discussion-based class where the instructor moderates while the students discuss ideas about the material they have read.
This course was designed after St. John’s Great Books Seminar program at St. John’s College.
Most people think these evaluations are a direct measure of the instructor and the course. However, SETs are an indirect gauge of teaching.
Indirect measures include what students think they learned. It’s not dealing with the course’s objectives directly since it’s based on perceptions.
A direct measure of teaching, for example, could be a pre-test followed by a post-test. It directly shows how well the student learned the material.
Sometimes instructors receive negative feedback, but it doesn’t necessarily show they’re not doing their job as a teacher. An instructor could be doing a fine job, but their teaching style just doesn’t please their students because the course is rigorous.
SETs sometimes aren’t fair just because the students want to complain about the class if they didn’t like it. It isn’t fair for students to rate their class poorly just because its structure rubbed them the wrong way. It’s childish.
Ultimately, the students’ opinion of the instructor doesn’t do much good on its own. On the other hand, their opinion of the class and how it is taught is important and should at least be documented.
Instructors do not have to report their students’ evaluations. They can use them in their annual report, but they are only encouraged to do so. It’s not required.
A professor should be required to include a SET in their report. It’s their responsibility to include not only direct measures of their teaching ability, but indirect as well.
If IU Southeast claims to have four core values, especially integrity and a nurturing environment, students’ opinions should not be ignored. All thoughts concerning courses should be embraced.
IU Southeast is a learning institution. The students here are paying piles of money to learn skills needed in the job market and elsewhere. As such, every student has the right to say exactly how well they think they’re spending their money.
After all, IU Southeast isn’t the only college in the area. Students have a choice as to how and where they spend money to learn skills.
It’s starting to become clear that money is the driving force behind most institutions. Rightfully, colleges are no exception. The money IU Southeast receives to pay its faculty ultimately comes from tax-payers. As a result, faculty members are paid by tax revenue.
The IUS community has a right to know how well their money is spent. If one instructor isn’t teaching their class very well, the students shouldn’t be stuck with them. That’s one reason student evaluations work. It’s all in the public record.
However, evaluations are incomplete by themselves.
One problem is they give instructors no time to act on a specific problem with a class. Evaluations come too late for the class to be changed or altered in any way, since the class is over by the time students fill the forms out.
A later class by the same instructor could be changed, but those solutions come too late for a struggling student.
Still, if another class is going to adopt the St. John’s Great Books Seminar program, there should be a record of whether or not that model worked well. It may only be a snapshot, but it is a part of a larger picture.
There is a way to augment the current SET forms. Instead of asking questions about the instructor, the questions should be directed at the quality of teaching.
There should be a seperate form evaluating the instructor. Teaching is related to learning, but for the SET, the two should not be combined.
All IUS instructors have an important job to do. If their teaching methods aren’t working for the students, it’s up to the instructor to strengthen their own teaching methods. Evaluations can help point out a course’s strengths and weaknesses.
Even when a class is only taught one time, there should be proof students learned the material. Evidence will show if the class structure adapted to their learning needs. Even if some of the evaluation is negative, there should be a record of it for future reference.
It is not only a student’s privilege to fill out an evaluation form, but it is also a right. The students keep this university open. We have the right to say how well our instructors are doing, no matter who they are.
Joseph Dever
Editor
jwdever@ius.edu