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[2zebras]

Once upon a time, I had good evaluations and teaching recommendations. Then I got a tt-job at Awful University. There, I had good-to-great reviews from colleagues in and out of my department who sat in on my classes (a total of 8x over two years), but my evaluations weren't as strong. In fact, a handful each semester were dreadful.

Now I'm trying to evaluate whether I want to continue as a prof. I know I don't want (ideally) to be at Awful anymore, but I'm also not sure whether I want to be, or should be, a teacher, period. My confidence has been badly shaken, but it's hard to determine how much is situational and how much is that I'm really not a good teacher.

I guess I'm wondering a few things and looking for some feedback: if I'm really not that good a teacher, is that the end of the road for me in academia? Is it possible that the chemistry with the students at this school was off and it could be better elsewhere? How much time and energy is it reasonable to expend trying to get better or trying to get another academic job before I give up and go to law school or something?

Thanks for any thoughts... I'm in a really difficult place now.

[ph_free]

Hold on a minute, Zebra....There's a lot of evidence to suggest that you are a good teacher. Most importantly, your colleagues are judging you that way, and you have worked in other environments where you have gotten strong evals from students. Don't give students at Awful U. any power over your self-confidence. It sounds to me like you would do well in another context-- and that it might be possible for you to improve at Awful U.

[educator1]

You are using a poor, invalid, and unreliable measure of your "worth" as a teacher.

The first question is, do you have a passion for teaching (or even a strong desire to do so)? Do you find it rewarding? Do you see at least some of your students learning and "getting it"?
If the answers are YES then you have the makings to be an outstanding educator (or may even be one already).

Rely on your colleagues observations and talk with some of the folks in your instructional advancement center (if Awful U has one) and your department chair.

[kedves]

No, don't quit.

It sounds as if you are dealing with an adjustment issue.  When I started teaching as an adjunct at my grad university, my classes were small and full of motivated students, a mixture of adult students from the community and undergrads who were typical in age but well above average in terms of ability and drive.  Teaching typical college students in classes of 100 at a typical regional university was a sharp change and a big challenge for me.  And since we went to online evaluations, average scores are consistent but student comments are longer, more frequent, and more vituperative (as is the case generally, according to the research).  I adjusted each semester and increased my scores, to the point where my marginal returns on improvements are diminished.  I'm not where I'd like to be, but I seem to have maxed out my ratings potential with these students and am content to hold steady.

Don't focus on the negative handful; the sum of comments and mean score are more important.  Those can be improved by objectively considering ways to change.  Take advantage of colleagues' experience about things like expectations, assignments; look into teaching resources on campus; view it as a solvable problem.  If you work on it, then it comes with time; some of the very best, award-winning teachers I've known began as messes--and your situation is not as challenging.

Above all, don't overdo your focus on this.  Remind yourself that your colleagues are happy with your teaching.  In most TT jobs, your teaching aim is to be competent and perhaps a little better than that, not outstanding, and where you score in relation to expectations is far more important than the number alone or a handful of complaining comments.  Research is the key.  If your university is Awful for some other reason(s), then of course, that's different.  But please, don't lose hope on this basis.

[2zebras]

Thanks for helpful comments; I find myself wanting to argue with more positive reads on my situation - which probably indicates some perspective issues!

I think one of the problems I'm having is conflicting inputs.

Students say on my evaluations that they have learned a lot (and at least some have retained enough material that it has come up in courses taught in other faculty in following semesters). At the same time, however, they say I'm dreadful teacher, sometimes on the same evaluation.

My chair, who's only had positive comments on the five times he's sat in on my courses, however, has expressed extreme concern over evaluations. My strong negatives on organization and time to return work on evals - and vituperative is a good word, kedves. His direct positive evaluation of my teaching takes second place to his reading of student evaluations and he is only willing to recommend me for reappointment with reservations due to these concerns.

Maybe a different kind of institution would value input of colleagues over student evals and give time to develop?

Whether I have a passion for teaching has kind of disappeared under the negative feedback and fear. That's why I'm trying to figure out whether if the worse-case evals are true, can I/should I struggle on.

[kedves]

Thanks for helpful comments; I find myself wanting to argue with more positive reads on my situation - which probably indicates some perspective issues!

You're so right.

I know that the criticism stings--more than stings--flays.  However, taking the emotion out of it and looking at the content, I think these students are giving you useful information.  It's not as conflicting as you think.  They are saying that you are a good teacher who has some problems, and those are:
* organization or students' perception of your organization (not the same thing exactly)
* time to return work

If you have other specific information, great, but we can work with those.  Time to return work--that's entirely fixable.  You can reduce some complaining about that by making it well-known and consistent, too.  Announce what it will always be, barring illness or emergency, and stick to that.  My rule for myself is to return everything one week after due date, not later and usually not sooner (except for the very end of semester).

Organization is one I get negative comments about sometimes, too, if you mean during lecture.  I am well organized and stick to my outline, and for higher-achieving students that works, but for the middle- or lower-achieving students, the amount of content I discuss can be overwhelming.  They lack the ability to follow the number of things I discuss, especially if they did not do the reading.  I have had to adjust my vocabulary, simplify to only those most important ideas of the day or week, and slow down.  The other type of organization is during the semester, and there the main things are to pace well and stay on track with the syllabus timeline.

You don't need to have a passion for teaching to do well at it.  I'm a realist.  I wouldn't be telling you there is hope if I didn't see it.  If you're anything like me, the negative comments have an unfortunate way of canceling out the positive ones--don't let them.  Print out some nice ones, save the notes and emails you get from students, and read them when you need a pick-me-up. 

In line with realism--I won't call it cynicism--the biggest predictors of higher evaluation scores are teacher enthusiasm (can be faked/acted) and anticipated grade (not actual grade--can give a challenging final).  Your grading method and distribution must be in line with the department, not with some absolute sense of expectation for college students in Course X or similar.

To show your chair a willingness to work on this, look into the teaching/learning center.

Good luck. 

[a_fuzzy_lurker]

Do you have some students expressing reservations about your teaching style (or specific teaching practices) on your evals?  These aren't likely to be the same student who bring the vituperation, but maybe (preferably) even students whose comments lean toward the positive.

It may be that there are specific, correctable, habits you've picked up that legitimately rub students the wrong way (even while they're learning effectively).  Colleagues evaluating you will be observing (I assume) intermittently, while students see you regularly.  Look for clusters of comments that indicate patterns in your own teaching practices.  Some of these patterns will be good; others, not so much.  You mention "organization" and "time to return work" as areas of concern.  Do your students have a point in these areas?  Emphasizing the things that students find useful while working to overcome habits they find less helpful could boost your evaluations.  (Note:  I'm not suggesting that you alter the rigor of your approach.)

I realize it's hard, in your situation, to be clinical in your self-evaluation, but it's likely to be a long-term help.  Do you have a colleague you trust who could be clinical for you?

On preview:  Also what kedves said about a campus teaching/learning center.

[2zebras]

Yes, I do think students have a point. What they point to are my weak points. I don't return work quickly enough.  I've only repeated one course, the rest have all been new preps and I'm particularly bad at guessing how the syllabus will line up with an actual semester. I'm pretty well-prepared for individual classes but I have a harder time with the big picture and keeping the course on track.

There isn't a lot of support for teaching at my institution. Scratch that, there are things for improving your already excellent teaching - workshops on student-centered learning, technology, assessment, etc (all of which I've gone to), but not 'remedial' teaching. You're hired with the expectation of already being an excellent teacher out of the box. Sadly, no teaching center. No discussions of how to fix real problems either, because the culture is one where you don't admit to having any (and I'm assuming, with the law of averages, that some other faculty, new or old, must have some).

But I'm reassured by the comments/strategies.

[ph_free]

Zebra...My goodness, your chair is basing all of this off of new preps? It takes time to refine a course, figure out content as well as assignments. He or she should know that! Among other things, I would try to get away from new preps for awhile and work on improving the material you already have. Is that a possibility? Returning assignments in a timely manner should be easy to change. If you have a hard time keeping up, it also might be time for you to cut some assignments and/or introduce peer review, a portion of ungraded assignments, etc.

Organization is something I've gotten, too. One thing I have seen at my institution is that power point slides elicit higher student evals. I always resisted doing that as it's not my style or what I believe education should be. And, it's come back to bite me (big time; I had a bad 3rd year review). Is there something easy like that you could to change student perceptions?

[barred_owl]

2Zebras:  Another course of action to take is to scan the "In the Classroom" section of the Forums!  There are hundreds and hundreds of threads there that will contain all sorts of suggestions for managing your time, your students, your course materials.  The great thing is that you won't have to worry about discussing your situation with anyone in your department--all you have to do is log in and start reading!  It's sort of like a free teaching conference, except you'll have to supply your own snacks while you read.

[sugaree]

As others have pointed out, you don't sound at all like a bad teacher and I don't think you should give up just yet (probably don't give up ever).

If time to return assignments is an issue you can work on this, but be realistic. Are students just whiny or do they have a point? i.e., do you return things within a reasonable timeframe (say, 1-2 weeks) or does it take you 3 or more weeks? The latter is a problem, but the former is entirely reasonable and thus student complaints in this area are not warranted. Different people have different ways of dealing with this, but I always make sure my deadlines for assignments in different classes are scattered, so I don't have huge stacks of different things piling up. The downside to this strategy is that one is grading more constantly (rather than going at it in short, miserable bursts).

As far as organization - what does this even mean? Are your lectures and/or class discussions and activities or labs truly disorganized? Or, do students not know how to take notes adequately? If your colleagues have commented positively on these things, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Also, it sounds like you have colleagues observing your classes regularly - could you ask one of them to specifically note potential organizational issues in their next observation? The observer may have strategic suggestions to help you deal with it, or may note nothing is bad (and thus such student comments can be ignored as so much whining). Good luck.

[marigolds]

I agree wholeheartedly with Kedves.  Here are some specific tips that might help with (student perception of) organization, since Kedves gave excellent ideas about time to return work:

1) Frame out the structure of each class in writing and verbally before you start (I write each segment on the board as well as give overviews:  "we'll start with concept x, then do a short group exercise practicing x, then I'll lecture for about 20 minutes on concept y and how it connects to x, then will hand back last week's quizzes and go over the most commonly missed problems.")

2) On the syllabus/class schedule issue: can you just put a list of topics, in order, on the syllabus instead of dating them? That will give you flexibility to take as long as you need on particular topics, and they won't see that your timing is off.

3) ANY announcements made in class should be offered in writing as well; I use Blackboard's announcements, but you could make a habit of sending daily class emails with announcements.  (This is key in direction-giving and assignments, too - written prompts, for in-class activitis and out-of-class work, help to keep them focused.)

4) If, like in Kedves' class, it's partly an amount-of-content-in-lecture issue, broad lecture outlines for them to print and fill in with notes can be very helpful in getting them to see the larger picture, as will making explicit connections between related material.  (ie, "this is a similar problem to last week's, but it adds new concept z, so we have to solve it slightly differently."  This is what you're trying to get them to do - integrate, connect, and apply large amounts of new material - and explicitly modeling this, and helping them place things in relation to each other on a mental concept map, will help the field of material seem more organized and coherent to them.)

[frolickingturtle]

My student evals reflect exactly the same problems - organization and grading time.

This semester has been especially bad (though I don't have the evals yet).  I blame in part my teaching schedule, all three of my classes back to back three days a week, which doesn't allow for really getting my head organized before I need to stand in front of yet another class.

So, in addition to in-class practices, and syllabus arrangement, perhaps looking at your schedule may also help. 

I hate some aspects of grading (mostly the giving of bad grades, and yet I'm a relatively tough grader), and so I procrastinate.  I have resolved to schedule specific chunks of time every week to grading specific assignments/classes.  If I haven't anything to grade that week, well that's just icing on the cake.  I also get to drink fancy coffee or wine while grading.

I'm going to use some of the tips previous posters have provided - good stuff.  I also have found Peter Filene's "The Joy of Teaching" a pretty good reference for teaching.  It's not geared to perfection, but rather good basic skills - or "remedial", as you phrased it :)

You could also ask to sit in on some of your colleagues' classes and look at their syllabi.  It is difficult to understand your relative performance without ever having seen what other profs do at your school.  Most colleagues - esp those who already have tenure and a good teaching rep - will be happy to have you sit in for a few classes.

[tamiam]

The thing is about teaching, that it's not about personality and whether "you" are "a good teacher". Teaching is a set of skills and behaviors that can be learned. Just like any other skill set, you look at feedback and decide what to improve. That's all. Fix the issues. TOo long to return work? Either return it quicker or give less homework. No biggie. Nothing personal.

[2zebras]

Thanks for all the helpful tips about how to improve my teaching ... I wish that I'd come here and posted after my first year when this may have made a difference at this school. Although there're other problems at Awful U., too.

I'm trying to figure out why fixing my teaching should seem so problematic/ insurmountable for me, but "not a big deal" to someone else. I think it's partly because I'm at an institution that puts a huge emphasis on successful teaching (or, making students happy, but that's a different thread) as the marker of success/failure. I've been told, straight out, that I've failed in my primary mission here. I'm probably not hanging on to this job; ie, my redemption as a teacher has to come at another institution.

I'm worried about three things:
1) that I'll get another job as a teacher, and not be as good a teacher as advertised (again), and fail again ... without a chance to settle in and improve. At this point, I have four years of full-time teaching and some part-time behind me - two on tt, and the rest pre-PhD ... aren't the expectations that I've got this figured out and I shouldn't be quite so bad at this?
2) that I'm doing a disservice to the students
3) that the time and energy, and uphill battle, to *maybe* get another job and *maybe* improve might not be worth my, or a school's resources, and maybe this career is just a terrible fit for me.

If anybody's slogged through all of this ... thanks. And if anybody knows a therapist/career counselor specializing in academics ... clearly I need to pay them a visit. :)