Student Evaluations (Was: Lazy?)

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

> The only way student evaluations can be considered
> valid is if they are administered in every instructor's
> courses every term (pardon any grammar error there).
> Only then can admins get a statistically accurate of an
> instructor's performance, and then only if the
> instrument is designed to evaluate the *course*, of
> which the instructor is only one component.
>
> Basically, I don't feel students are qualified to evaluate
> faculty. Are patients qualified to evaluate a doctor's
> medical competence (I'm not including non-medical
> things here, such as sense of humor or bedside
> manner).

Valid for what?  The word valid has a specific meaning in regards to a test.
In this case it may only be valid as a popularity contest.  The only way to
test student performance is to have a separate test in each comparable
course which measures what the students actually understand.  I doubt the
dean is either competent or has the time and energy to make up such a test
and make sure that it is administered.  Of course the physics community has
such tests as the FCI, FMCE, Tufts Heat evaluation, Tufts Circuit
evaluation, MPEX, and others.

There are actually independent evaluations of some doctor's performance.
Every time an operation is performed in a hospital setting the removed
tissue is carefully reviewed by a hospital committee.  If some doctors
remove too much undiseased tissue or too little there will be a review of
the doctor.

The only reason for a dean wanting to get good student reviews might be that
they are looking at the bottom line (money) for a school.  This happens in
private high schools.  If you are unpopular, they come down on you.
However, there are ways of improving popularity while maintaining good
student understanding of concepts.  Being up front with expectations helps,
as does telling them the reasons why you do certain things.  When I was at
Duke my popularity was great, but now that I am doing some research based
teaching my popularity has fallen.  However students now know what to expect
before the sign up for the course, so my evil reputation actually increases
my popularity.  I use Socratic dialog and don't often answer questions.  I
ask them!

Of course those who are bothered by nasty deans could always gather a few
research articles which show that student evaluations are worthless, and
give them to colleagues, the deans, and to the university president.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.