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[educator1]

Evals just came out
One student commented:
"he is a poor grader. if you get one word wrong in a paragraph long explanation he will mark off up to half of the possible points even if you calculate everything else perfectly"
P.S. the word involved is the mathematical equivalent of yes or no.

Two different students, same class:

"He is a great teacher and teaches in a more relaxed way in class so I felt more comfortable to guess the answers when he called on me even if I wasn't sure if they were right."

" He was very condescending and made me not want to approach him at all."

These two comments came out on the report literally one after the other:

"Strongly disliked this professor. Needs to be more organized. All he has is a bunch of random word docs that he puts online as his "notes." He thinks he is efficient but he really is not. NOT a good teacher."

Followed by:

"Cannot speak highly enough of Dr. Educator, it was a pleasure to take this course with him. His lectures were clear and concise, took as long as the class needed to explain concepts. His level of patience was astounding and he was always available for students and willing to help -- overall a consummate professional. Exams and quizzes were fair and scheduled appropriately throughout the semester."

[cc_alan]

These two comments came out on the report literally one after the other:

"Strongly disliked this professor. Needs to be more organized. All he has is a bunch of random word docs that he puts online as his "notes." He thinks he is efficient but he really is not. NOT a good teacher."

Followed by:

"Cannot speak highly enough of Dr. Educator, it was a pleasure to take this course with him. His lectures were clear and concise, took as long as the class needed to explain concepts. His level of patience was astounding and he was always available for students and willing to help -- overall a consummate professional. Exams and quizzes were fair and scheduled appropriately throughout the semester."

I usually find the contradictory evaluation comments to be amusing. I wish I was able to find out who writes the evaluation comments for these opposite-pair comments. Not because I want to be vindictive but because I'd really like to know who made them so I can think about how I interacted with those students.

In your case, I think it's pretty obvious that the negative organization comment is actually a comment about the student and not you. While we interact with students differently, it's not possible to be both organized and disorganized. I'm totally guessing, but I bet the negative student was looking more for answers than help with learning the course material.

Alan

[onthefringe]

In fact, I think sometimes comments like this one:

His level of patience was astounding and he was always available for students and willing to help

are from good students describing our interactions with these students:

"Strongly disliked this professor. Needs to be more organized. All he has is a bunch of random word docs that he puts online as his "notes." He thinks he is efficient but he really is not. NOT a good teacher."

who are unfortunately unable to recognize a good thing when they see it.

[secundem_artem]

Interesting discussion.  I've always thought that the first 2 questions on any evaluation form should be:
1.  What is your name?
2.  What grade do you expect to receive in this course?
I'm lucky that my department head is not troubled by anonymous poison pen comments.  I have to stand behind my evaluations of students and because of that, I temper my wording and try and keep it constructive.  Too many students just vent and then wonder why nothing ever changes.  They may be factually correct calling me an a$$hole, but that's not exactly actionable information that I can use for improvement.

[polly_mer]

They may be factually correct calling me an a$$hole, but that's not exactly actionable information that I can use for improvement.

When I do the midterm only-for-my-benefit evaluations, I tell students that I can't improve from a comment like "Worst instructor ever", even if it's true.  However, I will seriously consider suggestions for actions like "Lecture more on the big picture before assigning homework", "Do more examples in class instead of lecturing on the big picture", "Give more comments on homework", or "Give fewer comments on the homework to return them more quickly".

Students then either give me something useful or they contradict each other and I say, "Looks like I'm basically doing ok teaching to the middle since the suggestions contradict each other".

The only comments from my education majors that are completely unreasonable are the calls for less work.  I don't know any way for people who cannot do elementary-school science and math to pass a college-level class in that without a ton of work.

[bcohlan1]

Students then either give me something useful or they contradict each other and I say, "Looks like I'm basically doing ok teaching to the middle since the suggestions contradict each other".

This is why I've basically given up on such midterm evaluations. I did them for years, and they contradicted each other on every point; students, of course, don't know that this has happened, and they think I'm just unresponsive to their suggestions.

[polly_mer]

Students then either give me something useful or they contradict each other and I say, "Looks like I'm basically doing ok teaching to the middle since the suggestions contradict each other".

This is why I've basically given up on such midterm evaluations. I did them for years, and they contradicted each other on every point; students, of course, don't know that this has happened, and they think I'm just unresponsive to their suggestions.

Why don't you tell students what comments you got?  When I lay out the score:

A) 5 people on more lecture, 5 people on more examples, 5 people for more in-class group problems

B) 8 people on more comments, 7 people for getting their homeworks back early,

C) 7 people for more quizzes, 7 people for fewer quizzes

students sigh and later write good things on my final evaluations including mentioning that I listened to students and respect their opinions.

[ohnoes]

"Dr. Noes is the best instructor I've had in this program.  Dr. Noes is funny, interesting, and helps me become a better basketweaver.  I love going to class on MWF because it is very boring."

[mandibleclaw]

Eval for friend at other uni...

Prof X is god for this class.

Friend says it means good, but if it were mine I would have it framed on the wall unaltered AND become my computer wallpaper.

[brixton]

I was on a tenure committee for an English prof.  A student wrote: I'd rather watch cement harden than take this class.  The rest of the comments were positive. We decided that that one was positive too:  it indicated her students had mastered the art of figurative language.

[helpful]

Lectures are interesting, but bring a pillow

[icicles]

A suggestion that we move all of the desks into the circle to conduct class. This was in a class that had large rectangular tables fixed to the floor.

[melba_frilkins]

A suggestion that we move all of the desks into the circle to conduct class. This was in a class that had large rectangular tables fixed to the floor.

Well, break out the wrenches and jackhammers.

[skeptical]

I once co-taught an intro-level class with a colleague. One of our precious students referred to my colleague as "a waste of human flesh." Now that's mean (but she included the statement in her tenure file).

[ptarmigan]

Seeing this thread prompted me to check again. I still have no reviews on rmp, but I do have one on another site. Yay! Finally, everyone can read about my work performance on the Internet!

My favorite (official) review from my one and only teaching semester so far said, "I thought she was rather funny; unfortunately, most of the times when she would say something funny, no one would respond," which I enjoyed because that was exactly my observation about that section. (My other section laughed when I was funny.)