It seems to me that student evaluations or surveys as they
should more correctly be called should (pie in the sky wishes here)
be for the faculty members use not the administrations. Students
cannot fully evaluate a faculty member. I have worked at tw
(two) institutions. One used student evaluations as a means to
"get" faculty that fell out of favor with the administration and
the other
my current institution
believes that these surveys are
useful only to the extent that they offer some feedback to the
faculty member about the classes perception of his or her teaching.
They are not used as a determinant of promotion or tenure. Instead
faculty evaluations of other faculty are used. I feel this is a
much more equitable and favorable method of using these surveys
As has been pointed out to me in an anology that I would
like to share here
students begin to believe they are expects at
evaluating the faculty. It would be similar if people were called
every night and asked what the weather will be tomorrow. Before
long the people would believe that they actually had substantial
abilities or were experts in predicting the weather. The would not
be just as students are not but they would believe they were. So
what is meant here is that since we keep asking the students to
evaluate the faculty they eventually believe they are experts on
the subject
which they are not.
Finally
I am entering this discussion late
but I wondered
if anyone had told everyone that Academe had an excellent issue
this past fall
August I believe
dealing with this very issue. I
would recommend it as essential reading to anyone in the teaching
profession. One acticle puts forth the argument that students
actually excuse their lack of effort and learning because of these
surveys. The surveys offer the student an opportunity to shift
the blame for their shortcommings to someone else. Since the
students know that they will evaluate the faculty member at the
end of the semester this may be relevant to their approach all
semester.
One last note. Faculty evaluations
good or bad
by students
can ultimately be used against the faculty member if the administration
wishes to do so. Using bad evaluations against the faculty member
is straight forward. Using good evaluations is less straight
forward. Here the evaluations are combined with the grades given
for the class and the claim is made that the faculty member is simply
trading grades for good evaluations. I have seen this happen by
the administration at the first school at which I was employed.
In that particular case it seemed to be true since students in that
class did not recieve a grade below a B and the school's average
ACT/SAT scores were well below the national average.
I will be interested to hear everyones opinions on this
subject.
Loren Rice
The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma