Today I'm examining the evaluations for my undergraduate course from last semester. The course is called Development of Sociological Thought, but it's basically the theory requirement for our sociology majors. The section was capped at 30. I pushed a few students with especially low grades to withdraw early. 25 students completed the course, of which 20 completed the evaluations.
I should note that I ask students to complete evaluations at the beginning of class, rather than at the end. When students complete evaluations at the end of class, the form becomes the only barrier to leaving the classroom, so they tend to complete them fairly quickly. By distributing evaluations at the end of class, the forms become a way of delaying my lecture, so they are happy to take their time and give lots of thoughtful feedback.
Here's the summary of the evaluations. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of students who made the comment.
What worked well?
Major success stories:
What didn't work?
Suggestions:
Lot of items were listed as useful components of the course, but I focus on those that are mentioned multiple times. Discussion, the feedback provided on papers, the readings themselves and the professor's explanation of the readings, the organization of the class and professor, and the variety of theoretical perspectives all topped the list. These are the elements that I'm going to preserve if I seek to make changes to the class. In contrast, with only 2 people mentioning the powerpoint slides, I might end up abandoning them as I grow less interested in using powerpoint myself.
The quantitative scores were very high. They demonstrate first that the general consensus about the course was overwhelmingly positive. This is important to note because the structure of the open-ended questions tends to make it seem as if the students are ambivalent about the course. If you ask what contributed to student learning, and what needed improvement, and if students answer both questions, then they will seem to be ambivalent about the course. But the numbers provide a better barometer.
The scores also fit into a longer narrative about my teaching at Temple over the years. I taught this course every semester that I've been here and scores have steadily improved, with these being my highest yet.
The question about diversity asks students to comment on the instructor's sensitivity to the diversity of the students in the class. Many students leave it blank. It is therefore meaningful to me that 16 out of 20 chose to actively write in a statement that I am sensitive to these issues.
I am please by the confirmation that the process that I use to teach writing is working.
The most common answer to what needed improvement was nothing. These are students that actively wrote this in, not students who left the item blank. Additionally, there were a few comments about the level and amount of reading. In my experience, every professor receives a few of those comments.
While I certainly note the various suggestions, there's only one that I'm inclined to implement. That is the request for a week's break from journals in the middle of the semester. The current organization of the course involves 2 weeks of introductory material, 10 weeks of theoretical material (a different paradigm per week), and 2 weeks about the writing process. I might move one of the weeks on writing into the middle of the semester, since students are writing stages of the paper throughout the semester.
I admit to being tickled by the request that I be more relational and show that I care. I've made a deliberate decision not to tangle with the emotional lives of my students. I feel that this is not my job. My job is to teach them sociology and I think the best thing I can do for students is teach them as much sociology as I can, as enthusiastically as possible. Their emotional lives are important, but they are not part of my job. It's the job of their mothers, friends, and counselors to worry about those issues. Although the student intended this as a suggestion, with a hint of criticism, the comment actually confirms to me that the teaching persona I've developed is apparent in the classroom.
Overall, I am very pleased with the evaluations!
I should note that I ask students to complete evaluations at the beginning of class, rather than at the end. When students complete evaluations at the end of class, the form becomes the only barrier to leaving the classroom, so they tend to complete them fairly quickly. By distributing evaluations at the end of class, the forms become a way of delaying my lecture, so they are happy to take their time and give lots of thoughtful feedback.
Here's the summary of the evaluations. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of students who made the comment.
What worked well?
- Discussions (8)
- Feedback on papers (7)
- Readings (5)
- Explanations of the readings (5)
- Organization (4)
- Learning a variety of theories (4)
- Approachable professor (3)
- Knowledgeable professor (3)
- Breaking the paper in segments written across the semester and then revised (3)
- Powerpoints (2)
- Attention to writing style (2)
- Did not stray from the syllabus (1)
- Connections to real world issues (1)
- Having readings/journals end a couple weeks before the end of the semester so students could focus on papers. (1)
- Journals (1)
- Du Bois selections (1)
- Enthusiastic professor (1)
Major success stories:
- Upper range scores (U) on all course- and instructor-related questions. (There's one question about how "well prepared" the students were for class. The score on this question was in the middle range although it's a 4.3 out of 5.)
- Means of 5 out of 5 on two questions--"instructor clearly explained the objectives" and "instructor was well organized"
- Since this is a course I teach repeatedly, I note that these are the highest scores I've received for this class and that there's been a consistent improvement across semesters
- I also note that these high scores were received even as the average grade for the course was a B-. That's a higher average grade than I used to have for the course (it used to be a C). But I'm doing a better job of catching the potential failures early now and advising them to withdraw.
- Sensitive to diversity (16), ("but please add some ethnic Hawaiian analysis").
- "I really enjoyed this course. I took it my last semester but I still felt the course helped me to understand a lot of what was going on in my other classes. Dr. Kidd was very approachable and gave very helpful feedback. This class has really prepared me on so many levels. I especially liked that he went over the many grammar mistakes people make and reviewed a lot of what I feel I had forgotten from high school and grade school."
What didn't work?
- Nothing. Everything was fine. (5)
- Readings too difficult (3)
- Too much reading (2)
- Paper too structured (1)
- Professor gets impatient with questions asked at the end of class (1)
- Too much pressure to participate (1)
Suggestions:
- Papers should be due at midnight, not before class (1)
- No papers due just before Thanksgiving (1)
- Provide extra credit opportunities (1)
- Less grammar lessons (1)
- Relax the attendance policy (2)
- Fewer journal submissions (1)
- Instructor should be more relational with students and show he cares (1)
- More textual analysis, dissecting the readings (1)
- Discussion questions to guide the journals (1)
- Add a one-week break from journals in the middle of the semester (1)
Lot of items were listed as useful components of the course, but I focus on those that are mentioned multiple times. Discussion, the feedback provided on papers, the readings themselves and the professor's explanation of the readings, the organization of the class and professor, and the variety of theoretical perspectives all topped the list. These are the elements that I'm going to preserve if I seek to make changes to the class. In contrast, with only 2 people mentioning the powerpoint slides, I might end up abandoning them as I grow less interested in using powerpoint myself.
The quantitative scores were very high. They demonstrate first that the general consensus about the course was overwhelmingly positive. This is important to note because the structure of the open-ended questions tends to make it seem as if the students are ambivalent about the course. If you ask what contributed to student learning, and what needed improvement, and if students answer both questions, then they will seem to be ambivalent about the course. But the numbers provide a better barometer.
The scores also fit into a longer narrative about my teaching at Temple over the years. I taught this course every semester that I've been here and scores have steadily improved, with these being my highest yet.
The question about diversity asks students to comment on the instructor's sensitivity to the diversity of the students in the class. Many students leave it blank. It is therefore meaningful to me that 16 out of 20 chose to actively write in a statement that I am sensitive to these issues.
I am please by the confirmation that the process that I use to teach writing is working.
The most common answer to what needed improvement was nothing. These are students that actively wrote this in, not students who left the item blank. Additionally, there were a few comments about the level and amount of reading. In my experience, every professor receives a few of those comments.
While I certainly note the various suggestions, there's only one that I'm inclined to implement. That is the request for a week's break from journals in the middle of the semester. The current organization of the course involves 2 weeks of introductory material, 10 weeks of theoretical material (a different paradigm per week), and 2 weeks about the writing process. I might move one of the weeks on writing into the middle of the semester, since students are writing stages of the paper throughout the semester.
I admit to being tickled by the request that I be more relational and show that I care. I've made a deliberate decision not to tangle with the emotional lives of my students. I feel that this is not my job. My job is to teach them sociology and I think the best thing I can do for students is teach them as much sociology as I can, as enthusiastically as possible. Their emotional lives are important, but they are not part of my job. It's the job of their mothers, friends, and counselors to worry about those issues. Although the student intended this as a suggestion, with a hint of criticism, the comment actually confirms to me that the teaching persona I've developed is apparent in the classroom.
Overall, I am very pleased with the evaluations!
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