Re: Student Evaluations of Teaching

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

Hi all-
        Steve makes the common error of equating a good show in the
classroom with effective teaching.  And I speak of "good show" with some
degree of precision because I am an experienced actor (and budding
director) in a highly respected community theatre.
        Let me make the point, for starters, that we don't know who our
effective teachers were until many years after we have experienced them.
Then, as we find ourselves applying lessons learned, and experience
gained, we can occasionally look back and recall where we learned the
lesson, or encountered the experience.  Often we will find that the
influential person was never encountered in a classroom setting but was a
peer (I was blessed with some great ones) or a coach (my debate coach).
        The teacher to whom I was most indebted (next to my big sister)
was the one in third or fourth grade who excused me from all of the
assigned reading (which was old stuff to me) and left me to read on my own
- provided I gave an oral book report to the class from time to time.
        The studies that show a high correlation between socio- economic
status and academic achievement are consistent with the viewpoint that
most learning takes place outside of classroom. Children of parents with
high academic expectations come to school sith many of the lessons already
learned - such children learn to read at home before ever starting school,
for example.
        The bottom line: the effective teacher is one who inspires the
students to learn on their own.  One cannot detect such inspiration by
observation of the classroom setting because if the teacher is truly
effective then the classroom is irrelevant.
                        Regards,
                                Jack

Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
not up.
                          Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>

On Mon, 27 Dec 1999, Steven D. Richardson wrote:

> I should be clear...that classroom observations of teachers in a high school
> setting seem effective. I know that when my administrator has visited my
> room, he always has picked up on several improvements/changes/strengths.
> Point being, they are accurate in seeing the strengths in the classroom. At
> least in the high school setting, a lot can be seen in the tone of the room,
> structure of the classroom environment, and how the instructor interacts and
> teaches their pupils.
>
> I grant that not all are as lucky as I and that I have a good situation but,
> it can be done effectively. I would imagine that if someone watched your
> classes, labs, and saw how questions were answered, etc. they could tell
> where improvement was needed. They could also tell if a person was
> incompetent. I think that people are afraid of having other people involved
> because they fear judgment. If people shared more and invited people into
> their classes before the dean, etc. had to get involved, if things were more
> collaborative, struggling people could get help rather than they continue to
> get poor student evaluations, nothing happens, and they are not effective.
>
> I'm officially off my soap box,
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve