I read this in the Chronicle today; I found it kind of funny and a little bit disappointing. Here is the link :
http://chronicle.com/article/I-Want-to-Make-Them-Squirm/129122/
It is about a adjunct professor who got 2 bad student evaluations. He was angry about it, he figured out who really the students were by their hand writing. He was ready if he saw them again, to give them a piece of his mind. I understand the person was mad and he is in stressful position. Probably he is on a tenure track and is worried that one or two bad evaluations will cost him his job. Here is my answer: I understand he is a human just like the rest of us, he is allowed to be angry, but writing an article about the situation is crossing the line. You are supposed to be an educator, not someone who is ready for revenge (for a comment that someone wrote on evaluation). You should read those evaluation anonymously and not go searching for its owner. Take it as a thing to work on or just an opinion. Hopefully you can try to evaluate yourself and determine if it is true or not. If it is true, change you way of teaching, if it is not, then either continue the same way you have been teaching or change it up a little.
Try not to judge your own students, you are there to teach them, help them learn how to learn. Finding an opportunity to belittle them in a magazine about Higher education is very unprofessional, and proving: you Mr. Fern are maybe not that great of a teacher as you believe you are.
Looks like this person is not ready for criticism. And one of the comments did say something about "not taking students seriously"... well, it is difficult to accept criticisms, but it does build character and we do reflect on ourselves when we actually stumble upon a criticism - do read my post on the HRC blog entry about 5 stages of grief :)
ReplyDeleteRose
I don't really agree that writing this article crossed the line. It's entirely anonymous. The author was venting, probably fully aware that "Ms. Mentor" would reply in the way that she did.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, the author's anger is based on his/her desire to be a good teacher.
I feel that the author was just venting out as he/she talked about the other option - greeting and talking politely with those students. Yes, I agree that it is part of his/her job to face the bad evaluations and learn to accept them. However, there comes the question of validity of student evaluations - in the present form. I believe that this text does makes us a bit more aware of the "randomness" of student evaluation. I tried looking up some research on teaching evaluation, and there are some interesting facts - such as correlation to evaluation scores and grades, teachers clothes and the 30 seconds long first impression. So make sure you are prepared for your first year student evaluation - just don't bring your students cheese and wine.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough situation! None of us really like to get negative feedback, but it's important to hear and take into consideration in order to self-improve as an instructor. Plus, the student eval is an opportunity for the student to have their chance for input. On the other hand, student evals often play a role in tenure considerations and other departmental matters. Some students don't take them seriously, which can be frustrating. I can see how it would be a stressful situation for the instructor, but "wanting to make them squirm" is a little much!
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