🚀 go-pugleaf

To respond to Victor's question about whether I have an explanation for the
viciousness I eluded to earlier -- I wish I did have. I don't know what
usually goes on in undergraduate classes where students are filling out the
forms; naturally I'm not present when mine are being done, and apart from
one or two individual students I have never been the recipient of a really
savage attack. But the scene I reported was one I actually witnessed, as a
graduate student, in a small department (there are only about 14 or so faculty
and 60 grad students in my department) where everyone knows everyone else. I
cannot account for it except to say that I have noticed a similar (though
perhaps not as extensive) view of evaluations amongst my undergraduates. I
think it says a lot about the climate of the university -- the use to which
evals are put and so forth. Somebody said (the thing I hate about this medium
is the inability to check back to someone else's messages while you are com-
posing your response! A great difficulty when there are multiple messages)
that it's this element -- ie the use made of the information -- that is of
greatest import. THis is certainly true, but I think the design of the
instrument is also important, as Doug's comments about the sexism indicate.
Many of the forms I've seen *invite* negative comments -- sort of when did
your instructor stop beating you   kinds of questions.

Also, here at UW many (most, in my experience) of the tenured faculty do
not use evaluations at all and are not required to. THey are forced on
graduate assistants, whether you wish to have them done or not, and though
the form allows you the option of having the information sent only to you
and not to your department, most departments insist that the TAs send their
results to them. ANd you do not have the option of refusing to have your
evals -- or at least the numbers-- published. THis seems a real invasion to
me, especially if the purpose of these things is to determine promotion, etc.
In what other profession would a person's performance evaluation be published
so that "consumers" could check it out? Can you imagine demanding that of
your accountant, say, or the teller at the bank who handles your money?

I am in the rather uncomfortable position of sounding as though I don't
believe in student evals at all, which is not the case. I have collected
them pretty faithfully over the years, and have gotten helpful information
from them. But not usually from the forms; the most helpful have been those
which invited narrative comments, mostly because they allowed the student
to clarify what s/he was intending to say. THe forms are often too wide open
to interpretation to be really useful -- what does "available" mean? THat
the one time I went to my professor's office, he was out?

I also agree that the emphasis on anonymity, despite the very real concerns
about instructor objectivity in grading that it is meant to protect, encourages
irresponsible and thoughtless reviews in some students. VIctor's system sounds
very good; I'm sure evals are here to stay, and I for one don't like the forms,
but is a system like the one Victor suggests viable for all institutions? Wish
I had an answer.

One last anecdote to cheer y'all, and then I'll stop..... One of my colleagues
once gave the required scantron form to a class with whom she had a very
positive experience, and who seemed to genuinely like the course and be learning
a lot from it. The class decided, as a joke, to fill out the entire form
negatively -- a real savaging. (They did not realize how seriously the
administration took the forms). When this instructor received her numbers, she
was shocked and devastated -- she had naturally expected her usual very
positive evaluations. Because she didn't know what had happened, she felt
really betrayed. Some of the students were in another class she was teaching
and explained to her what had happened -- but she had an awful time
 communicating
this to her department and to the administration in general. An awful lot
 depends
on who is reading them and what will be done with them, I suppose.

But enough from this quarter -- I think I've more than had my 2 cents worth.

Jen
jmaclenn@milton.u.washington.edu