| It is that time of year. The end is in sight. But before we can close the books on this semester, we have to administer course evaluations in our classes. To get more informed feedback, I often ask students to comment on specific practices or content of the course that I am concerned with improving. For example, I may have replaced a test with a project, developed a new approach to group work, or created course materials to help guide student readings.
Generally, if students are okay with a practice, they do not go out of their way to address it in course evaluations. Instead, I hear from one or two students who did not like the practice or content change. By asking all students to comment on these, I get a better picture of how the change was received and how to move forward.
With this backdrop in mind and considering the hard work of the Task Force to Reimagine the Process for Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness and Student Experiences, the piece Ready to Discuss Course Evaluation Bias with Your Students? Here’s a Script by Nichole DeWall seems timely. While student feedback can be messy – Is it biased? Can students access teacher effectiveness? – DeWall notes that teaching without feedback is like an engineer designing roller coasters without riding them. And as Regan A. R. Gurung notes, The Unexamined Class Is Not Worth Teaching. |
