Re: Teacher evaluations for 1st year physics

[sample@lyon.edu (John D. Sample)]

At 3:34 PM on 11/15/96, <phys-l@mailer.uwf.edu> wrote:
> I am the only full-time person teaching physics in an engineering technology
> division of a community & technical college (part of the University of Akron).
> I was talking to my division chair today about my evaluation of teaching >
> numbers -- he thought I should work on minimizing my evaluation "range"
> which > is usually something like "low to high" or "medium to high".  I
> believe I'm at > a disadvantage to the rest of the department because mine
> is the only 100%
> service course offered.....my students have to take physics because its
> required, not because it's part of a field that they are directly interested
> in (at least that's the way the kids usually see it).  Students who do
> well to
> reasonably well in the class tend to rate me fairly high.....the ones who
> don't do well (usually not even coming for help after I request it) rate me
> low.
>
> This brings me to my question:  What do those of you teaching first year
> physics to non-majors (or mostly non-majors) tend to get on your teacher
> evaluations?
> Do you see a big range/ high standard deviation?
>
> As an aside, I have done things to bring up my "scores" in the past but I'm
> not sure how reasonable it is to expect all high or even medium to high
> ratings.
> For instance, I do:  cooperative learning, conceptual
> demonstrations/questions, totally changed our mechanics labs to Realtime
> Physics computer based, help sessions, etc.
>
> Thanks in advance for any input!
>                                 Sue Ramlo
>                                 Asst. Prof of General Technology & Coord of GT
>                                 Community & Technical College, U of Akron

Interesting question.  I'm in roughly the same situation, and I have
grappled with it as well.

I agree that you are at a disadvantage.  That is something you can try to
point out to those who matter, making sure it doesn't sound like excuses or
whining.

Do you get to choose or write some of the questions on the evaluations?
If so, think about questions that get at the reasons why some students
might not like being there, etc.  One thing many resent is the assumption
we teachers make that they are competant or at least passingly familiar
with the prerequisites in math.  I'm surprised how many students get their
hackles up when expected to remember things from prerequisites.

Do you get evaluated by non-science/math faculty for tenure or promotion?
If so, watch out for the misconception among those folks that
science/engineering students automatically like all other science and math
courses.  At least one member of our humanities faculty considers physics
to be part of the biology major, and NOT a service course.  After all, its
just another science course for a science student.

How do the powers that be look at your scores?  Do they average them?   It
sounds like it from the advice given by your dept head to try minimizing
the range.  If your scores look like mine, most are 4's with some 5's and
3's on a five point scale.  The median is almost always a 4, but there is
always a malcontent or two who try to tweak the system and score me at
straight 1's.  As a result, the average is usually between 3.0 and 3.5 with
a median of 4.  (We have small classes.  Can you convince the powers to
look at median rather than mean?  I can't, and as a result, I too am under
some pressure to get the scores up.

Finally, I find my philosophy somewhat at odds with the whole process.
Decent evaluations from students have real merit, but I would feel that I'm
not doing my job if the students didn't feel some pressure to work hard,
and this will cause some scores to be less than perfect; especially since
students often come unprepared for the course (poor mastery of
prerequisites), and with unrealistic expectations (I can read my notes 6
times the night before exams and do well).  I don't have control over
either of these, and it seems that no speech or syllabus can overcome the
notion that physics will be taught and tested in accordance with their
expectations...expectations learned from numerous poorly taught (IMHO)
courses which they have rated highly.  As far as I can tell, the sure
formula for very high evaluations is entertaining, lively lectures with
exams taken straight from the notes.

I hope that others with more experience will chime in and
correct/contradict me and provide further thoughts on this issue.

CHIP