evaulations
Too often individuals are focused on receiving a good evaluation that they fail to see the true goal of a factual evaluation system. Evaluations are really just a benchmark to identify where you are in comparison to the goal or standard set. But many (myself included) tend to take evaluations personally.
No matter how we try to convince our selfs not to take it personally we all still feel like that to some degree. I do find the constructive information usefull.
The easiest way that I find to deal with this is that I don't look at my evaluation right away. I wait a couple of months after the class has ended before I read the evaluation. This way, I can separate the evals from the students and try to see if there is a trend in the evaluations themselves.
It's easy to take evals personal because they're about YOU. I try to accept the 'constructive criticism' as 'sharpening the blade'.
That is also to see what's working or not.
I believe that if you teach to maximize the learning of the student and work on keeping the class interactive and interesting, you will have more positive evaluations. Also, the negative points of an evaluation are a learning experience for us. There is always room for improvement. It is not a popularity contest, we are instructors.
i do not take evaluations personally. people are entitled to have an opinion, just as instructors have opinions about their students.
You have a great point in that throughout our careers we will be evaluated on many levels including being evaluated by students. Teaching for evals is counter-productive to your students learning experiance. I always let my students know in the begining if the course; that they will be evaluating me and that I do look to get the best scores. I then let them know that if they can't give the best to please be honest and let me know why they cannot give the best score. However I would like to know before the end of the course what is missing so that they; the students get the most out of the course
Thanks William for bringing the perspective back to an often missunderstood topic. Evaluation is no more than an answer to the question "How did I do?" When the question is posed an answer WILL come and it doesn't have to be a pretty one. Otherwise how will we move forward and improve? You're so right about not patting yourself on the back for the good ones and don't beat yourself up over the critical comments made. Take them for what they really are. A taste test. Some bitter some sweet. If you take your performance personally you will take evaluation the same way.
As a Chef Instructor I try to instill an understanding in my students that evaluations are a fact of life. Every customer they will serve from this point forward will evaluate the quality of their work - they need to adjust their thinking about evaluations. Don't get too full of your self with the good ones and don't let the bad ones do anything other than point you in the right direction.
Also, whenever possible I try to evaluate their activities as a team member. In most businesses you will sink or swim first as a team, then as an individual. Hard for many to allow themselves to be evaluated based at least partially on the input (or lack thereof) of others. Tough but necessary skill.
I do not believe you should take it personally. If your entire class is having trouble reaching the goal or standard that has been set then maybe you want to look at yourself to be sure your delivering the material correctly.
I agree with this. I will begin to remind the students of this. It may help them to study more.
Evalutions should be a way to measre your self to see if you are reaching your goal that was set . It is a good way to compare how far you need to go or find that you have reached your desired results.
working for a good evaulations and not anything else is cheating the students out of a good course
I dont believe anyone can convince me that an evaluation is not pesonal, most people take it that way wether they want to admit it or not...but we have to a a way of setting a standard
