Apparently a few readers took issue with my suggestion back in April that it was really not that hard to get good evaluations from students.
Always a glutton for punishment, I would like to expand on that idea this month. Although my remarks are aimed specifically at new faculty members at two-year colleges, I believe they apply to other college instructors as well.
From the e-mail messages I received about the first column and from other things I've read, the main complaint regarding student evaluations seems to be that they're capricious. Students don't understand what they ought to value, the argument goes, and so their assessments can't be trusted. They turn the evaluation process into a popularity contest and use evaluations to "stick it" to instructors who are "too hard," even though academic rigor is in the students' best interest.
According to that theory, only "easy" (read: bad) teachers get good evaluations, while "good" (read: hard) teachers are doomed to low marks. An obvious corollary states that the only way to improve your evaluations is by sucking up to students and becoming an easy grader.
Based on my experience -- including 22 years in the classroom and seven years as a department chair -- I would have to say none of those statements are true. In fact, I think the attitudes described above probably say a great deal more about the instructors who hold them than they do about their students. Because let's be honest: Anyone who believes that only "hard" teachers get bad evaluations is probably getting bad evaluations.
As a department chairman, I had the opportunity to review many faculty members' evaluations, observe those instructors in the classroom, see their final grades, and hear firsthand what students had to say about them. From that experience I formed my own hypothesis: Generally speaking, good teachers get good evaluations and those who consistently receive low marks usually deserve them.
The corollary here is that by improving your student evaluations, you can also improve your teaching. And my contention is that you can improve your evaluations, by following a few simple guidelines.
Remember the golden rule. The first key to getting good student evaluations is simply to treat students the way you would want to be treated -- or, if you're my age, the way you would want a professor to treat your son or daughter. That means, among other things, that arrogance, condescension, and biting sarcasm should be checked at the classroom door, reserved for department meetings where they belong.
I've noticed over the years that the faculty members who complain most bitterly about poor student evaluations are the very ones who regale their long-suffering colleagues each term with stories about their lazy, stupid, ill-prepared students. It's obvious those faculty members have nothing but contempt for students, and it's no mystery why students don't respond to their negativity with positive evaluations.
Balance justice with mercy. Some faculty members, in a misguided effort to be tough, adopt all sorts of extreme policies, such as refusing to allow students to make up tests for any reason or penalizing assignments several letter grades for minor infractions.
Good teachers understand that there are times to teach students valuable life lessons and times to cut them some slack. Knowing the difference can be difficult, but tough judgment calls come with the job. In the end, students will respect you more if you are willing to listen and take their circumstances into account rather than just blindly adhering to policy, whatever the outcome.
Maintain your professionalism. College professors are not Wal-Mart employees, required to stand at the door and greet students with a smile. But we do have an obligation to relate to them in a professional manner.
Certainly that involves our demeanor and the way we respond to students verbally. But acting professionally also means that we follow the schedule outlined in the syllabus, weigh grades according to the published scale, and return papers and tests promptly. It means we are prepared for each class meeting and manage class time efficiently. It means we make ourselves available and accessible to students before and after class, as well as during our scheduled office hours.
In short, professionalism is at the very heart of what it means to be a good teacher, because it balances the necessary distance with an earnest desire to serve. Students will recognize that and respond favorably to it -- much more so, in my experience, than if we try to be their buddies.
Keep It Real. I once received a number of complaints about a young faculty member who was requiring students in her sophomore survey course to write three, 500-word essays in a single 75-minute class period. When I confronted her, she responded by saying she had done it in graduate school and, by golly, those students could do it, too.
While that may be an extreme example, I have seen many new instructors, fresh from their advanced studies, attempt to treat freshman and sophomores like graduate students. Try to remember what your professors expected from you as an undergraduate. Pay close attention to departmental syllabi and common course outlines. Talk to experienced faculty members and ask to see their course materials. Then use that information to develop a reasonable set of standards for making assignments, constructing assessments, and determining grades based on the students who actually populate your classes -- not the ones you might wish were there.
It's not about the A. Most students don't really expect to get A's, even though it may seem that way sometimes. What they do expect is that grading will be conducted in a manner that makes sense and seems fair.
That means you need to be very clear, in your syllabus and from the first day of class about what you expect from students and how you will determine grades. Make the entire process as transparent and objective as possible. If your assessment includes subjective elements, such as essays or class presentations, publish your grading criteria beforehand and adhere to them closely. As much as possible, explain to students, through notes or in private conferences, how you arrived at a particular grade.
Above all, strictly follow the test schedule and grade distribution outlined in your syllabus. If you don't, you're not just giving your students a reason to "stick it" to you on their evaluations; you're giving them pretty good grounds for a grade appeal.
Be prepared, and prepare your students. Finally, in order to get the best-possible evaluations, you have to know what kinds of questions students will be asked about you. Before the term begins, familiarize yourself with your college's evaluation instrument. Then let that document influence -- to some extent -- the way you approach the class.
Several years ago, I noticed some of our best teachers were receiving low marks on an evaluation question having to do with learning outcomes. Deducing that many students simply didn't understand what "learning outcomes" meant, I recommended the instructors add sections called "Expected Learning Outcomes" to their syllabi, talk about those outcomes frequently, and, as they dealt with each one, make a point of marking it off the list. Over time, the faculty members who tried that strategy saw their marks on that question improve, along with their overall scores.
More important, I believe some of them actually did become a little more organized in their approach to teaching and that, over all, students probably did learn more -- or at least, understood better what they were learning. So the attempt to boost evaluation scores not only worked, it also helped those faculty members become better teachers. The same would be true for those who resolved to treat students with more respect or become more accessible.
Ultimately, the point is that all of us who teach should be working to improve our student evaluations each year. Because, like it or not, evaluations are more than just an annual popularity contest. They're actually a pretty fair reflection of the job we're doing.
Rob Jenkins is an associate professor of English and director of the Writers Institute at the Lawrenceville campus of Georgia Perimeter College. He writes occasionally for our community-college column.
