Evaluating academic faculty for promotions often include assessing their teaching abilities. Is it sensible to base these on Student Course Evaluations?
Geoffrey Alderman wrote in the Gaurdian that a reason for the decline in academic standards has been the 'increasing and increasingly stupid use of students' course evaluations as pivotal factors in the academic promotion process.'
Does anyone have a deeper insight on how the use of such student evaluations have impacted faculty at their own institutes? Have they led to dumbing down?
How much confidence would you have in the teaching ability of the applicant if the evidence was exclusively based on Student Course Evaluations?
Student evaluations serve the same purpose as a canary in a mine, they are a warning system about teacher performance. As pointed out by Dennis, many factors apply. I sat on a promotion and tenure committee one time where one of the members said the candidate's teaching performance was mediocre. Upon examination of the teaching evaluations in questions N=3. Only three students had answered them. One loved this teacher, one hated them, the last was about in the middle. This is hardly a statistically valid sample. I pay more attention to the comments. If there is a trend, rather than one or two malcontents, then there may indeed be a problem. Should the evaluations be counted? Yes, but only as a part of an overall evaluation system of evaluation. Depending solely upon student evaluations to rate a teacher is the mark of a lazy administrator.
Student feedback is one of the mechanisms. Other mechanisms could be - Self-assessment by the teacher,
peer evaluation of the teacher
evaluation by superior,.
Assessing quality of teaching is a complex matter. One can have some proxy measures. These measure could be employed by teacher himself such as-
look at the face of the student to whom you have delivered
engagement of students after the class hours
connection with students after they pass out
remembrance of students on happy events such as teacher'day, birthday /marriage anniversary greetings etc.
In summary, course evaluation forms may not be the only source of feedback !
Assessing academic performance based solely on student course evaluation may be flawed and biased. Other variables must equally be considered such as peer evaluation, etc.
Student course evaluation should definitely be considered a component of a teacher's evaluation. However, if
(1) there is a low return rate;
(2) returns only from hateful, or revengeful students;
(3) questionnaires lost in the mail;
(4) evaluations handed in and then swiped . . .
The bright student would want to know how the teacher would handle each situation.
Dennis
Dennis Mazur
I think the management will look at it seriously if the same kind of evaluation or comments from students repeat themself during many semeters.
Student evaluations serve the same purpose as a canary in a mine, they are a warning system about teacher performance. As pointed out by Dennis, many factors apply. I sat on a promotion and tenure committee one time where one of the members said the candidate's teaching performance was mediocre. Upon examination of the teaching evaluations in questions N=3. Only three students had answered them. One loved this teacher, one hated them, the last was about in the middle. This is hardly a statistically valid sample. I pay more attention to the comments. If there is a trend, rather than one or two malcontents, then there may indeed be a problem. Should the evaluations be counted? Yes, but only as a part of an overall evaluation system of evaluation. Depending solely upon student evaluations to rate a teacher is the mark of a lazy administrator.
As we all know, the university at least have three mission: teaching, researching and social service. As the faculties of the university, they have the duty to do some teaching. And in the most time, teaching and researching is complementary. So, I think use student course evaluation to judge academic performance is definitely necessary.
When we evaluating academic faculty, we must consider the purpose of the evaluation.When it just for make sure the faculties' academic ability, maybe we can ignore the student course evaluation. But when it comes to promotions, we must make sure the faculty have the ability to teaching well.
Of corse, because of teaching burden, some faculties may be have little time to do researching. In this case, the problem is is how to design the student course evaluation to make it more reasonable, how to combine the student course evaluation and other stakeholders' part rather than blame the student course evaluation.
When we use student course evaluation, we need consider the context of different institutions and different discipline.
No matter what kinds evaluation, they definitely have some shortcomings, what we should do is combine the different stakeholders' opinions, and make a more reasonable decision.
Teaching evaluations can be very helpful if designed correctly and filled in by enough students - sort of like collecting data for a research study. However, there is a danger of placing far too much emphasize on the numerical ratings. Numbers are clean and easy to read, but do not offer rich detail about the quality of teaching and how it might be better.
I would strongly suggest collecting formative (non-numerical) feedback throughout the term (maybe 3-5 times) to help understand what is and is not working. That way you can respond to problems before it is too late.
Finally, the idea of dismissing the feedback of students is, in my mind, ludicrous. The only purpose of teaching is to help students learn. If you look down on students or treat them as less, you have already lost the focus. Yes, some student comments are ridiculous and even outrageous - that's life. But if you have a lot of comments, you can get the big picture. And if you collect regulator feedback , you can avoid most of the extreme responses at the end. I believe effective teachers respect their students.
A question that keeps researchers and academics debating. Mix feelings mostly. And up to the specific University Policy.
Check this article:
Article Faculty Perceptions of Student Evaluation of Teaching Process
The important duties of the faculty member are to improve the level of students in addition to research work, I think that part of his assessment is his ability to teach, but the student's assessment of the faculty member has negative aspects with a limited positive presence.
Evaluation is absolute essential for performing the progress of student & subsequent guideline for their witness for the subsequent progress.As you know student evaluation can be judged by periodical test & their grades they opt besides this can be also judge by the half year test of the all subject in the line with their final examination .
With this evaluation for the students become the guideline for the career .
This is my personal opinion
The answer is in text of Matti Wiberg: Students as quality evaluators: recipe for disaster? (Economic Challenges for Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe, 2015, ISBN 978-83-8019-270-06).
Another paper we worked on is from the student perspective.
Article Students’ Perceptions of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) Process
I think it is very important for students to evaluate their professors performance. The professor is there for the students, not just their career advancement. Some professors are horrible teachers and year after year they are allowed to stay and make the life of students miserable. Why? If the professor is doing a great job, students will evaluate them appropriately, if not then the professor should reflect, review teaching style, and methods.
This article is from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Semester-s-Ending-Time/243212?cid=wcontentgrid_hp_9
Great article that raises many issues on students evaluating faculty. I don't believe faculty should lower standards just to receive good rating from students. If the rating scale is flawed, then the institution should review and revise the scales so that teachers can be rated appropriately. However, the reality is that some professors are poor instructors and nothing is done to remove them from the classroom. Not every instructor has the skills to teach (they have knowledge but can't relate them in an academic setting). They are wrecking the lives of students, they hurt the reputation of the departments, and the universities where they teach. There are pros and cons to this issue, and everyone will have a different opinion, and perhaps based on their personal experience.
I am of the opinion that using only student course evaluation to judge their academic performance is right."ONLY "when these variables like teaching method, teaching material,environment ,etc are properly checked otherwise the evaluation will be some how biased
Here is another article on student evaluations from the Chronicle of Higher Education that brings up some very interesting points. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-We-Must-Stop-Relying-on/243213?cid=wcontentgrid_hp_9
I believe it could well be used as just one element in faculty evaluation, but just one element.
I agree with so many of the comments, if they are to be used, they must be just one element in the evaluation process. If they are administered and collected, they must have a purpose. They should be a resource to potentially identify problems within the instructional setting, but not as confirmation of a problem. Validation only after a deeper examination into a possible issue.
Jumping in again, I very much agree there are so many dynamics connected to student evaluations (easy class, popularity, etc) but they can reveal interesting trends. If they are consistently negative, something is very wrong and those trends should not be ignored. Every instructor can not score within the top 10%, but you also do not want someone always in the bottom. Find the problem, develop a solution. Sometimes academic instruction is not the right profession for the teacher.
Dear, Thanks for sharing. In my opinion, only in parts. Student performance, positive or negative, does not demonstrate the whole. Teachers also need to get into the process. Best regards!
Usually we look for sharp outliers statistically and we follow up and investigate such causes by revisiting the class records, interviewing students, instructors and then create alternative action routes. This helps avoid mistreatment of data and results.
Hussin Jose Hejase, Does your organisation also investigate outliers that are overwhelmingly positive? Or is the emphasis on investigating negative outliers?
A very good question Dr. Koutentis. Sure we do investigate successful performers and taken as examples. Actually we do a comprehensive assessment involving the hierarchy of the faculty, students, peer instructors, and the instructor him/herself.
We are a new University and we care to build things right.
A correlation of all above answers meets very well dedicated literature about judging academic performance, however, procedures must be updated occasionally.
Thank you for including me in loop, Students Feedback is important. Have shared Students feedback forms to Final year BDS for the 1st time @ LUMHS in 2014-15 & was glad to see Positive Comments- need to document this also. Think, it was for the 1st time "Student Centered learning" was done. FDP is important & the multi modal analysis be used.
I agree that if they are to be used, they should be just one element in the evaluation process.
Feedback and dialogue with students is always important. However, in certain situations, where there is already some animosity towards the teacher, this may not have the best results. I say this, because in some classes, there are antagonistic leaderships, fruit of individual freedoms and thoughts not always aligned with the practices and good norms of coexistence and respect.
Dear Koutentis,
It is a question that leads us to various questions, depending on the particularity of its National State. In any case, the evaluation of the course for promotion will only stimulate competition among students labeled "more capable". This type of competition still in the process of professional training leaves to limbo all the values related to morality and ethics, as well as the own critical reflection about this own mechanism of evaluation.
I concur with Dr. Etter and Dr. McElreath. Additionally, I've seen some instances where annual faculty personnel performance assessments completely excluded any feedback taken from student reviews.
There should not be any harm in making students' evaluation as one of the criteria for teachers. Students may not have maturity level required for proper evaluation, but this can be some what regulated by using questionnaire with provided answers wherein students are required to tick the answer of her / his choice.
Provided there is a clear policy about it and how this evaluation fits a portfolio of performance appraisal tools.
The outcome of the course evaluation give an evaluation of the given knowledge, which may be far away from the real need of the work market. as well it may not ensure the quality of skill performance to meet that needs. So I don't agree.
as well it will not measures the behavior, and attitude of the students.
Yes, since students are our primary customers, but not only - they are usually not too objecitve are their opinion is based on many different things and not only the quality of teaching. We did researxh on former students vs. Current students ( available on RG). Very interesting.
I guess if the university or institute depend on professional committee to assess the performance of the academic and in the same try to take opinion of cleaver student on performance of the academic , Thank u , God bless u
Dear Mohammed, it's an interesting concept to collect the opinions of all the students but then to introduce a weighting to those opinions based on the abilities of the students.
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