Stress from Student Evals
We get evaluated from students semi-yearly, not the administrators. If they had a bad day, got a 96% on a test not a 100%, felt irritated, they will get even & throw you under the bus.
Hi Mr. Ripstein,
I think this is a great solution to get the students to think about how they will respond at the end of the class. Often times the first reaction or response is not always the most appropriate. By taking a step back and allowing time to reflect, the student may not feel that the situation that occurred that made them upset was really quite as bad as they originally thought. I agree with a lot of the other posts that it can sometimes be unfair to be graded on the feedback given by students unless this feedback is consistant in all classes and with various different groups. Sometimes you will have the one or two students or a group of students that teem up, and take on a poor attitude resulting in negative instructor feedback. I've had that happen before. If our evaluations are going to be based on this information, then whoever is doing the evaluation should look at various different classes with different student groups.
I am also utilizing the every 5 week format, but just as mentioned before I also do quite a few classroom observations and we then put those two pieces together to properly coach and evaulate my staff. We also do random Midpoint surveys, mostly on those that did get low scores the module before, so that we can gauge improvement or a need to further coach them.
My students also complete an evaluation every 5 weeks. It can be very difficult and stressful as an instructor when you know they have done a good job but because it was a tough course and grades were low the student feels they deserved better they rated the instructor poorly. We need to have equal weight in our peer classroom evaluation to go with a student who is upset with grade and not turning in their assignments.
Tula, That sounds like a tough challenge. I much prefer it when feedback and evaluations are 360 degree, including perspectives from administrators, fellow faculty members and students alike. I feel these are much more fair and balanced than the evaluations you describe.
Dr. Melissa Read
This is an area that frustrates me greatly being in my position. My campus bases our evaluations based on the "student evaluations" of us. This is very unfortunate because you cannot make everyone happy. There are terms when I get a great class, highly motivated, they are response to learning, and give me high evaluations. Then there are terms that I have students who could care less about learning and don't want to be in class. So when the surveys come around for them I get horrible markings. It is very frustrating to get 99% markings then the next term get 60% markings. How can one handle this type of stress? I do notice this does affect me outside of work.
Christopher, Interesting system. Being evaluated every 3 weeks is enough to keep anyone on their toes. You are right about the difference between anonymous and identifiable evaluations. You receive different feedback with these two scenarios. For me, the anonymous evaluations are more genuine and honest, but they can certainly sting a little too.
Dr. Melissa Read
I totally agree with you Michael about the stress that comes from student evals. The students take out everything (and blame the instructor for everything) that didn't go right during the term. They assume zero accountability for their grades/issues. I have actually had to "teach" my students how to properly complete a student eval. They have no idea what constructive criticism is and I am finding it very helpful to talk about the purpose and credibility of their responses.
My students complete an evaluation every 5 weeks. It can be very difficult and stressful to an instructor when they know they have done a good job but because a few of the students might not have gotten the grades they felt they deserved they rated the instructor poorly. I think this is where the classroom observation plays a large role; the program chair will see firsthand how the instructor does in the classroom. It is also important that the lines of communication are open between the PC's and their instructors; by doing this if there is anything of importance going on with the students their Instructors can keep the PC informed. I have found that quite often it is usually the students that have had a difficult time throughout the class that rate instructors poorly.
Where I work the student evaluate the instructors every three weeks. We experience this "I'll get back at them" reaction quite often. One of the solutions we have devised is by using an online survey where a student must sign in to leave comments at anytime during the course. This gives them pause to reevaluate their responses because it is no longer anonymous.
Michael, That's a tough situation to be in. Instructor evaluation seems to work much better for me when it's conducted from multiple vantage points. The student perspective is important, but peers and administrators should also have a voice for true 360 degree feedback.
Dr. Melissa Read
