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[icicles]

Hi all,

I've been teaching for seven years or so (part-time as a grad student, then full-time starting last year). I just received and read my first set of evals from my first semester in a new TT job at a mostly teaching-focused school. One of the two classes, a lower-division survey, was just fine, very well-reviewed, mostly excellent, etc.

The other, a senior-level class in my subfield (one that undergraduates rarely flock to) was mixed. I have always had really great evals, and this is tough to swallow. I had tried a few different tactics to get the students engaged, and they were just dead in the class. Many students liked me and the class very much. But there were a few who absolutely hated me, including one whose comments were so uniformly negative it is hard to keep them out of my head. The student said that I was condescending and had no business teaching a senior-level class, and that the university should put me in freshman-only classes. Another said that s/he already knew all of the material (most likely impossible for this topic) and didn't learn a thing in the class.

In the past, I'd never have paid too much attention to the more extreme evaluations: I'd work on improving some things in course #2 next time to factor in reasonable complaints, and assume Excessively Negative Students just didn't like me or the class and move on. My subfield is one students generally avoid taking, so I assume the evals would skew a bit lower for that reason.

But now that I'm in a job where teaching evaluations are essential to tenure, I'm quite worried and my confidence is shot. Have any of you been in a similar position? If so, how did you handle it? How much would evaluations from semester 1 (or year 1) factor in to subsequent reviews? I'm stressing about the classes I'm teaching now, second-guessing everything I've done so far, from reading lists to classroom practices to wondering how many of these students already hate me. It's wise to be self-critical, but I feel terrible about everything. All 5 of my classes this year are brand-new classes (my subfield one needed to be adjusted for the curricular requirements here) and it's overwhelming to expect me to teach perfectly when it's all new preps.

It's mildly comforting to know that I can always renarrate this as "I came here and learned a lot about my teaching and improved the way I connect to students," but not as comforting as actually feeling like I'm doing a good job here.

[citrine]

I'm recently tenured at a teaching-focused SLAC, and I would say that the occasional set of mixed evaluations is not going to sink your tenure ship as long as you can put them in context (which you were just doing in your post). Plus, by the time you go up for tenure you'll have a plethora of evaluations, so one mixed set from your first term is just going to look like "Prof. Icicles was still getting used to teaching at this institution" when considered within the context of five years' worth of evaluations.

You really are in a tough position -- I remember what it was like to be there! It really does get better as you settle in and aren't constantly having to prep everything from scratch. What I would suggest as confidence builders (or, at the very least, to give you some actual things to worry about) would be to do a midterm evaluation in your classes to see what students are thinking, and maybe consider getting a peer evaluation by someone in your department or someone from instructional support (if your school has a department like that) to get a perspective from an outsider. Our IS department also does an exercise where they come in for part of a class period with the instructor not there, break students into small groups, take them through an evaluation of the course and provide you with a summary of the feedback.  Any of those measures can give you some good feedback and give you a way to demonstrate to anyone reviewing you that you Take Teaching Seriously and are Trying To Improve, which is all they really want to see in your first year.

[ironproffen]

If you feel comfortable doing so, I would suggest talking to a (tenured, respected) faculty member who teaches an analogous course... possibly in a neighboring department if you feel more comfortable or if your course is an anomaly in your department. Is there someone else who might have struggled with a similar type of course, and how did they deal with it? At my institution, although one might be nervous about sharing negative evals, a new tt faculty member asking these questions would be perceived favorably as being highly concerned about teaching and improving.

Is this course required for a major, and if so, is this type of response typical for this type of course, or how far from typical is it? It's possible that you may only be able to bring the bottom of your evals up to mildly grumbling, and it's possible that everyone at your institution understands this. I used to worry because my worst area on my intro/survey course evals was in "stimulating interest" but it turned out at this institution the faculty in general expect lower scores in that area.

If the course is not required, one issue might be that students had an inaccurate expectation of what the course would be and were then disappointed. If this is the case, the issue might be corrected with time as students inform one another about the course. You could also address it on the first day by asking students what they expect and addressing some misconceptions.

Or it might just be that one crummy class everyone has from time to time. I had one in about year 4, and the evals made me want to crawl under a rock. They were mixed, with some students rating the whole experience as excellent, and others insisting that I should be fired immediately because I didn't care at all about students, had taught them lies, and destroyed their interest in the subject. I did not make any major changes in response to those evals, and yet somehow I've taught the same course several times since then without ruining anyone else's dreams. So do try to improve your teaching (we should always do that, yes?) but try not to let it ruin your confidence.

[dochalladay]

OP, I'm also in my first year on the TT after a similar amount of time teaching prior to this gig. Last semester I also had teaching evals that were below what I had always seen in previous semesters. Not significantly, but enough that I noticed. I chalk it up for both of us to adjusting to a new environment and new students. I don't know if my situation is analogous or not, but in my situation I've had to adjust to teaching more preps than before and balancing teaching with committee work, meetings, etc. That means that I don't have the ability to "gear up" for a while before walking into the classroom like I did in grad school or on the adjunct track. It took me a semester to adapt a little bit to the different circumstances. I can say with confidence that my teaching is better this semester (totally different preps than the fall) and my students are responding more as I get to know them and they me. I wouldn't panic or dwell on a few comments. As always, mine them for what constructive feedback you can and then focus on doing the best you can with this semester's students.

[aside]

After sitting on tenure committees for more than twenty years and at more than one institution, I would say that a pattern of mixed evaluations could hurt your tenure chances, but a few obviously disgruntled outliers in a few courses generally will not.  If you can act on the helpful advice you are getting from other posters, you should lessen the chance of developing harmful trends in your evaluations.

[polly_mer]

Maybe I'm missing something in the OP, but what I see is "Basically good evals, a couple hot heads wrote extremely negative things in one class".  I don't think that's a cause for concern.  As Aside just wrote, genuinely mixed evaluations that point to fixable flaws could be a problem.  I doubt that a few hot heads will be a problem.

[literatur45]

I have also been in a new TT job since last fall, and when I recently got last semester's evals back, I only glanced at the numbers sheet at the top of the pile for each of my classes and then put the envelopes away for the time being. I know myself, and if I had read all of the comments and found the one or two evals that were very negative, it would have completely undermined my confidence in the classroom this semester. The score distribution sheet indicated that there was one person in two of my classes who absolutely hated me or the course, and I didn't want to read what this person had to say while teaching a new batch of classes. So maybe you might also want to wait with reading the evals next time (presuming you have a break from teaching in the summer, for instance)?

In my case, the problem of how to know if my evals will be seen as good is compounded by the fact that several people in my department get perfect scores, even in comparable courses. When I looked at my numbers originally, the average score struck me as pretty good, but my morale suffered a significant blow when I asked others for their scores and found out that they basically get a perfect score from every student. I am meeting with my chair soon to discuss the annual faculty activity report, and I plan to ask more specifically how my scores measure up.

[glowdart]

Some random thoughts:

There's a thread around here called Jedi-Mind Tricks that might help.

Some students just smell new blood (ie new faculty) and then decide it's time to pounce.  You can start to nip that bulls*** in the bud by pointing out that you had taught [X Years] at Other School. If they persist to doubt your credibility because you're "new" and they're the kind of students who tormented the subs in high school, then it can be helpful to remind them of your experience in passing: "So, at Other School, we used to do XYZ for this class, and the students always would tell me that they viewed X topic in Y way.  How do you all feel about it?"  [This will pass, if this is any of what you're experiencing.]

The first few semesters with new students are always a learning process for faculty.  There are student habits and cultures on your new campus that you need to learn, and that can only happen with time.  Sometimes you need to pitch your courses differently, but sometimes you just need to interact with them differently -- here, for instance, giving them access to all of their assignments for the semester in advance at the 100-200 level causes intense panic, but by the time they are in 300-400 level classes, they really like it when I open all of the papers for the semester in week 2 so that they can start planning their semesters.  This is the kind of information that it takes time to figure out.

And remember that you likely get to write a narrative of some sort for tenure/annual reviews/whatever your school does.  Just contextualize the relevant comments; in some ways, a mixed set of early evals gives you something to improve upon.

[erzuliefreda]

I find that freshmen love me (75% of my teaching), while upper-level students like me less. The trick at my school is to give all the folks in the upper-level classes final grades of A or B unless they plagiarize or skip a major assignment (those folks get Cs), and do lots of hand-holding. Tell them how great they are doing, and how impressed you are by their work. Scaffold everything so they can't fail even if they try. Smile all the time. Say how much you love teaching the course. Now that I do these things, the upper-level students like me more than they used to. I save my content-based exams and tough love for the freshmen, who are science majors, etc., and used to such things. For my History majors, we are on a journey of self-exploration, student engagement, and fluffy bunnies.

[penultimate24]

I feel the same sense of dread when opening evals..and mine have been generally positive over the last 5 yrs, but the 'handful of hotheads' can get under my skin.

Deep breath before opening the packet up....

I read through them 2x, then consider how many truly negative comments are written. Usually, out of a class of 30 students, the 'bad' reviews will be limited to 1-3.

YES, they piss me off. But, after throwing a mini fit (especially after the tirelessly dumb comments such as "i didn't like how excessive absences hurt the grade" or "i hated the course theme," or "participation should not count for so much," I focus on the constructive comments (if any are offered).

In terms of "personal attacks," one sticks out in my mind. After my father died, someone harped on an eval that I "brought personal problems into class." This was hurtful as, a) I had a colleague sub for me once while I attended the funeral, and b) by next class it was business as usual. I never mentioned the issue or talked about it in class at all.

Now, this student was likely mad because (I think I know who it was)--their boyfriend was failing in another section I taught. Also, said student was not great (C level) and texted frequently (and lost points as per my policy). So rather than being honest, she attacked me in my weak spot. Yes, I missed class due to a funeral. But, at the end of the day, we need to let this b.s. go.

Ask yourself--did I always teach/prep/grade to the best of my ability? If not--fix that. If yes, then don't sweat the small stuff. Students (esp young undergrads) are usually immature. Rather than saying, "yes, I failed because I missed 10 class sessions," the feedback is, "prof. x is a mean, ugly, stupid idiot."

Consider the source.

[kiana]

I now have a friend pre-read mine and remove the truly vituperative ones with no real benefit. She doesn't tell me if she removed any or how many.

[polly_mer]

At this point, I have started rating evaluations as to whether they can top the truly horrible ones I've gotten in the past.

For example, "Dr. Mer doesn't care if students learn.  All she does is keep piling on the work and watch us fail" isn't even a C.  How can that possibly compare to "Polly is the worst human being it has ever been my displeasure to meet.  Do not ever let her in a classroom again"?

"Dr. Mer is far too strict and doesn't understand that students have lives" cannot compare to "All I learned in this class is how not to teach science.  Basically, I will do everything in my power not to be her when I have a classroom.  I have written a letter to the president about her."

Perspective is everything.

[proftowanda]

At this point, I have started rating evaluations as to whether they can top the truly horrible ones I've gotten in the past.

For example, "Dr. Mer doesn't care if students learn.  All she does is keep piling on the work and watch us fail" isn't even a C.  How can that possibly compare to "Polly is the worst human being it has ever been my displeasure to meet.  Do not ever let her in a classroom again"?

"Dr. Mer is far too strict and doesn't understand that students have lives" cannot compare to "All I learned in this class is how not to teach science.  Basically, I will do everything in my power not to be her when I have a classroom.  I have written a letter to the president about her."

Perspective is everything.

Your students are quite well-behaved in comparison to mine.  You don't get bellowing CAPITAL LETTERS and screaming, exclamatory!!! punctuation?  along with underlining, boxing, and other means of communicating absolute OUTRAGE!!!?

[polly_mer]

You don't get bellowing CAPITAL LETTERS and screaming, exclamatory!!! punctuation?  along with underlining, boxing, and other means of communicating absolute OUTRAGE!!!?

Those were the tame examples that fit in this format.

The formatting here doesn't allow me to post the examples of what I get.  My students don't stop at mere underlining and they are not limited to writing across the page.  The more outraged the student, the less coherent the writing, the less grammatical the writing, and the less probable that the student will write neatly in the space provided for a paragraph.  I have gotten a couple of evaluation responses that wander down the side of the page, across the bottom, across the top of the back page (devoted to the lab part of the class and not a blank page), down one side of the back page, across the bottom of the back page, and then up the other side.

That's the standard for true outrage.  Pikers write the very grammatical couple of sentences with some underlining.  They are wannabe outraged and don't even get a C for outrage.

[bookishone]

Polly, I admire your perspective.

To the OP -- In a way, it's good to start out with some mixed evaluations, because then you can display improvement, which admin will like and respect.

One thing to consider also -- I don't know if this makes it better or worse -- is that in some cases (tenure at your school may be one of them), all that counts is the numerical/statistical record. Individual student comments are excluded. So on the one hand, you don't have to worry about admins reading that one comment that flames you for doing tricks with your pet ferret in class. On the other hand, those readers don't have the advantage of reading between the lines to put the most negatively-scored evals in perspective ("The Proffesor made us read to much! She gave us homework evry nite!")