BY DAVID A. VAREL When I was an undergraduate at a liberal arts college in the early 2000s, our student evaluations were all qualitative. We were asked to write short essays describing our experience in our courses—what worked, what didn’t, what could be improved. It was clear from this design that the chief audience was…
BY TAMMIE CUMMING, M. DAVID MILLER, FREDRIK DEBOER, AND JENNIFER BERGERON It seems that almost no aspect of academic life has been untouched by the coronavirus pandemic and the drastic measures governments and institutions have taken to respond to it. Nearly every postsecondary institution has adopted distance learning, forcing many faculty and students to adapt…
BY HANK REICHMAN Over two years ago, on November 3, 2017, I posted an item to this blog about the ordeal of Georgette Fleischer, a Barnard College adjunct writing instructor who was summarily dismissed from her position after 17 years of successful teaching. Here, from that post, is the background: For seventeen years Georgette Fleischer…
Last month I posted an item about two studies demonstrating that student evaluations may not be the best way to measure either student learning or instructor effectiveness. One of those studies was co-authored by Philip Stark, chair of the statistics department at the University of California, Berkeley. He has now co-authored with Anne Boring and…
Two days ago I posted an item, Questioning Student Evaluations, which reported on two studies that call into doubt the utility of student evaluations of teaching as a mechanism for determining teacher effectiveness. In response, AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum, an economist, shared the following paper, adapted from an FAQ he prepared years ago for faculty…
Most colleges and universities are nearing the end of their fall terms. Hence it’s time not only for final examinations but also for collecting student evaluations of teaching (SET). Student ratings can be high-stakes. They’re used to evaluate teaching when faculty members are being considered for tenure or promotions. They’re also employed in decisions as…