= Premium Content

  • Monday, May 28, 2012

Previous

Next

When’s the best time to read teaching evaluations?

May 24, 2011, 11:00 am

By Mark Sample

Thumbs DownThe spring semester is coming to a close, which means that many of us will soon be receiving our teaching evaluations for the semester. We’ve discussed course evaluations before on ProfHacker: Brian has tips for getting the most out of your evaluations; Jason has suggestions for interpreting the data on evaluations; and Heather has considered what to do when student evaluations totally miss the mark (and recently shared our readers’ ideas as well). I’ll add to the discussion of course evaluations with a simple question:

When is the best time to read teaching evaluations?

Up until recently it never occurred to me to read my evals any other time than the moment I received them. In some institutions this may be as soon as grades are officially turned in, in others, it may not be until weeks or months after the semester is over. But whenever it is, I assumed the default move was to tear open the envelope and read your evaluations the minute you had them in hand.

But last week I heard an intriguing piece of advice: don’t read your course evaluations until it’s time to teach that particular course again, whether it’s a semester later or years later. The theory is that if you’re not reading them in the heat of the moment, with the course and the students still fresh in your mind, it’s easier to be more objective about the evaluations. They hurt less and mean more.

Also, you’re often in no position at the end of the semester to change anything about the course, so why not maximize their effectiveness by reading them when you are in a position to take them into account—right before you teach that particular class again.

Have you tried this delayed use of evaluations? Does it work for you? When do you think is the best time to read evaluations?

[Disapproval photograph courtesy of Flickr user striatic / Creative Commons Licensed]

This entry was posted in Teaching and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Print
  • Comment
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=789858898 facebook-789858898

    This is a good suggestion.  Though I’ve always favoured “never” as a good time to read student evaluations.  Seriously.  The comments are polarized and while the “instructor was the best teacher EVER and walks on water!” comments are more fun to read than the “worst instructor I ever had” comments, neither of them are useful.

  • lizgloyn

    I’m not so sure I’d go as far as waiting for the next time you teach a given course; you might get feedback on instructional styles, types of assignments or teaching experiments that you want for the next time you teach, not just the next time you teach that particular curriculum. I can see the point about giving yourself some distance from evals – but, frankly, the negative comments are always going to hit the mark, no matter how long you wait, and the good comments are valuable for forward planning, job applications, tenure review and many, many other constructive projects. So while I wouldn’t read them the day after the final, I’d probably not leave it until the end of break either. 

  • fluffysingler

    I do read my right away so I can remember what I had done and mark what went particularly well and what went not so well.  Then I can plan assignments accordingly.  If you throw out the best teacher ever and worst teacher ever comments (kind of like the olympics eliminating the highest and lowest scores), you then get a pretty clear picture of you class. 

    I also revisit them later on to see how I’m doing with ongoing issues, what I have corrected, etc. 

    And revisiting it later, after the class is over and you have forgotten many of the students then does away with the tendency to try to figure out who gave you the “worst instructor ever” comments!

  • drnels

    I first read through them when I get them.  I think waiting until the next time you teach the course means you won’t see any of the general comments that might help you in other classes.  It’s very helpful to me to know right away if students liked a particular use of technology or the style of an assignment.  I also type up all of my evaluations usually the summer after the year.  I do this to help me with my annual review (it’s easy to copy-and-paste comments) and when I went up for tenure.  I still do it because it will help when I go up for Full Professor.  Plus, having all the comments typed out helps me recognize patterns and think about how to use them best.

  • stevegilbert

    “Best time?” is secondary question.  First question is “How can faculty respond usefully to students’ conscientious course evaluations?”  I.e., demonstrate to students that their constructive responses to course evaluation requests will be treated respectfully and contribute to course improvements.  See transcript, recording of ”Holy ****, you’re actually listening to me:Student-Faculty Collaboration to Improve Courses”- ended with discussion of need for trust, respect between faculty and students! Fridaylive session 5/20/2011 ttp://tlt.gs/frlvfacstudcollab 
    Note for other comments:  I emphasized “conscientious” course evals – not the frivolous or hostile ones.

  • raza_khan

    I am of the view that the faculty must read them right away.  Regardless of the fact what the students wrote or filled out bubbles,  take it for it is worth – a tool to improve.  Otherwise, faculty members will be stagnant pool of water when it comes to professional developlment…. of course you know what happens to stagnant water.

    I would not want to wait till I teach the next course.   The student evaluation just may help us out…. it may miss a mark as Heather pointed out but in itself that tells us something as well.

    Raza
    _______________________
    Raza Khan, Ph.D.
    Dr.Raza.Khan@gmail.com

  • nyhist

    when I recently team-taught a course for the first time, reading the evals soon after we finished the course and discussing them among ourselves helped us plan for the future–eg knowing that at least one reading assignment had not worked, we knew to look for another one; and we also recognized how lectures should be reshaped. If we had waited until the course wasn’t fresh in our minds, it would have been far less useful for us–and for our students the next time around.

  • greensubmarine

    I’m with fluffysingler. What about reading them right away prevents you from returning to them the next time you teach the course, or taints your later reading of them? Immediately after the semester you’ll still have a clear recollection of what you thought worked and what didn’t, so the opportunity to immediately match those judgements with students’ reactions is valuable. Read them, make some notes on your syllabus, read them again next time you teach it. I don’t see any value in just shelving them for a later date.

  • nmhouston

    I always wait until the next time I teach the course, or a similar one, when I’m in a mindset to put student feedback to good use in redesigning the course.

  • denadavis

    I tend to be in the NEVER school myself, although I like the idea of waiting until I am going to teach the course again.  However, our Dean makes discussion of the last year’s evals part of our annual review, so it is necessary to read them before the annual meeting.

  • eryx1959

    I think I’ve solved this. For most of the past 15 years, I’ve written my own evaluation form covering the specifics of the course including the text, lecture notes, and study guides, as well as the quizzes, exams, and assignments (their frequency, difficulty, and effectiveness), with lots of solicitations for comments. I have my students fill these out during the final along with the rest of the departmental teaching evaluation and assessment forms. My students get about 2-2.5% of their total grade for filling out my form, which they put into an envelope and write down their initials/PIN. I tell them that if they do that, they get the points (I haven’t had more than a couple so far who were so cynical that they just “initialled and ran”). I open up the envelope once I file the grades, and the results are not only timely but VERY useful (much more so than the departmental forms, which I don’t get until the next semester). It also has greatly reduced whining by students “on the edge”. I am able to tell them on the final day: if you get a ‘D’ with a final score of 69, it was really a 67. This activity and the comments haven’t hurt at promotion time, either.

  • alabaster

    My course evaluation numbers have always been fine, but after years of reading comments and getting stuck on the negative ones (for various reasons), I decided never to read them again. The few negatives far outweighed the positives in my head and sapped my energy.  I just piled the comments up (still in their envelopes) on a shelf by my desk, and when I retired, dumped them.  A load off my back.  Recently, when called back to teach a course, I *did* read the comments and was pleasantly surprised.

  • mrmars

    I’m also in favor of “NEVER” as a good time to read student evaluations. While I think they are a great indicator of what the students liked, I’m not so sure that their remarks have much to do with what the students learned, or could have learned, if they could have gotten past what they didn’t like.  

    I go to a good dentist and his work has proven to be great in respect to effectiveness and long-term durability.  However, if you asked me to rate him immediately after I’ve been x-rayed. stuck, drilled, and filled, my evaluation of his techniques might not be so generous.  Right then I’d love to tell him how to do his job better. In fact, in the heat of the moment, there are instances when I’d prefer to attempt my own root canals. Then I remember that I don’t have the required background and experience, so I defer to his judgement of how to get the job done, and assume that the pain and discomfort involved are necessary; but maybe it’s not and I should complain about it and then – in light of my opinion – he’d do better?  To complicate matters, he tells me that I’m responsible for my own teeth and that I need to work on them  - floss and such – outside of class, . . er office, visits, and that if I don’t put some work into maintaining my grades, . . er teeth, I meant teeth,  there is only so much that he can do for me after the fact; but I pay him well (he’s expensive) so I don’t see why I should have to do a lot on my own?  Anyhow the point is I’m a bit ambivalent about all of this, so my evaluation of his work would probably vary depending on the circumstances.  So its probably a good thing that my opinion isn’t used by some higher power to determine if he gets to keep his job, gets promoted to Full dentist, etc.  But I digress.

    I try to keep an open mind about student evaluations, as many seem to think that letting the evaluated evaluate the evaluator is a good thing, but I have my doubts.  I DO believe that it would be helpful if the evaluation forms could be changed a bit.  As I’m sure all are aware MUCH discussion has already gone into their makeup over the years, but usually this is in regard to the content of the questions. I would like to see some alterations in the physical form of the forms.  After all good trees are sacrificed in the name of assessing the assessor, so it would be nice if the forms could be multi-purpose.  Larger forms for example, about the size of the average newspaper, would make it easier to re-use the forms (before or after reading at the discretion of the individual involved) in the bottom of a bird cage.  More pliable paper would make it easier to wrap fish in them, and so on.  The possibilities for re-use of such paper products are substantial for those with imagination. So to sum up, I think that – all things considered – how one reuses the forms is more important then when (or if) they are read.  Reduce, reuse, recycle!

  • jk0000

    I’m surprised by this discussion. In my current and previous department (and I thought this was standard) we are expected to write a formal comment on the results of a course evaluation soon after receiving them. This is made available to all students (along with a summary of the results of the evaluation). It’s also reviewed in the Education Committee, who go quickly through all courses and their evaluations at their regular meetings to keep an eye on potential problems. Don’t other departments have the same system?

    Though I do have a comment about how to improve your course evaluations: In my previous department our education director radically revised the standard evaluation form to make the initial questions focus on student effort: e.g. How much time did you put in to the class (Average Time Expected HERE)? Was the material hard for you? Do you feel you did as well in the class as you would have liked? Did you make use of supplementary materials to aid in learning course content, if so what? etc. By placing these types of questions BEFORE the standard questions like “Did you find the lectures useful?”, “Were lectures clear”‘, “How was the level of difficulty of the exam?” the average course evaluation improved quite a bit. By first reminding the students that they are !! partially responsible for their results in the class they take a more objective perspective about the organization/setup/teaching style of the course.

  • dillon

    Although it takes a bit of time, I always type up my eval comments every semester.  As a part of my process, I’ll look back at the string of comments from the previous term’s classes as I process the new ones.  This gives me longitudinal perspective.  I can see things that had been mentioned before that are no longer present, and makes it easier for me to take the “this class sucks” types comments in stride when I see them in the overall context of multiple semesters.

  • http://www.samplereality.com Mark Sample

    @chronicle-1a21482ce0697bba328a027a70d045bc:disqus  I had never encountered what you describe before: of faculty having to write formal comments in response to course evaluations. I’d be curious to hear if others here have done that.
    I do think like your recommendation that evaluation forms begin by focusing on student effort. Unfortunately, many colleges and universities have standard evaluation forms, and they do the opposite. In my own case, I can tack on additional questions to the evaluation, but they come at the end of the form, rather than the beginning.

  • matt_l

    I like the idea of looking at the evals when you are getting ready to teach the next class. I think that is an interesting approach. When I first started teaching, I read them first thing after grades were turned in. Now, I wait until I have time, I’ve got a two or three semester backlog right now, that I hope to get to in the summer. I usually do a mid semester review, so the end of the semester course evaluations seem less pressing.

    I enjoyed the comments where people said “never.” I used to work in theater as a stagehand and technician. The mantra there was, “Never read the reviews until after the show has closed.” I think that was good advice in that situation. You cannot do your job effectively if you are always looking over your shoulder and worried about what the critics think you should be doing.

    The difference with teaching is that the “show” never really closes. I am always teaching western civ, every semester. So its useful to look back over the semester and see what worked. Students are pretty good at telling you when they learned something, or when a particular class or reading did not work for them. Since you are trying to reach that audience, its worth listening to them. The key is to know what the limits are of their feedback. They know when they have learned something, but cannot tell you why they learned it. That is where your expertise as the instructor has to come into play.

  • dpmccain

    Where I teach, student evaluations were linked to the bonus program.  Some instructors provided academic bribes for excellent evaluations, while some of us simply insisted that unless the criticism was constructive, and proofread, it was best for students not to post comments about the class (or the instructor).  My issue is the weight the survey held in being assigned classes for the upcoming quarter.  Adjuncts are usually waiting in the wings for classes, and evaluations can mean the difference between four classes and one. 

    Additionally, students who had dropped (or been dropped) were still “encouraged” to complete surveys, and some used it as a mean-spirited way of getting back at instructors.  Also, I would like the surveys to show the author, and allow for response.  When a student has not submitted assignments and/or rarely attended class, it would be nice to be able to note this in a response. 

    As to reading the evaluations, each quarter I tell myself I am not going to read them; but I always succumb, because I have received some valuable input from students about the design of the class…but some of the comments, that are based upon liking a class (or me), rather than recognizing its value, still wound. 

  • http://twitter.com/mapastory KBS

    Stanley Fish wrote something similar last summer for NYT. I figure that when students come up to me to tell me that because of my course, they were able to write a 10-page researched essay for engineering or some other course, I’ve gotten the Stanley Fish student evaluation.
    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/deep-in-the-heart-of-texas/

  • gopher

    Never?! Seriously. That’s nuts. If there’s a problem revealed by the evaluations it’s a professional duty to do something about it. I know that opening evaluations and waiting to see what hurtful things could be written is a bit stressful for 30 seconds in the faculty mailroom, but … then I open them and am always amazed (after a short five years teaching) that the students are, on average, probably too nice in evaluations.

    I think one always has to remember that one student can say anything, and you shouldn’t worry at all about one bad comment. But see the same general comment several times (in one course or over time), and it may be worth thinking about doing something about it.

    The old taunt that it only hurts it its true has some validity here. The gratuitously negative comments and the irrelevant comments about sartorial style, gender, or your accent are symptomatic of students with their own problems. But the poorly phrased comment about how you teach that hurts for a moment. That might be truthful. That might be worth thinking, can I improve that aspect of my teaching?

    Student evaluations are in no way perfect, but they do measure something. They at least measure how well you motivated students to care about what you were teaching. If comments are so bad you don’t want to look at them, there’s something wrong somewhere. Is the student culture toxic? Are the evaluations poorly designed? Or, has the professor lost all interest in what the students think about their performance in the classroom? Hopefully it’s not the latter.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

  • The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • 1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W.
  • Washington, D.C. 20037