Student evaluations can be used to improve teaching, and here’s an excellent resource to inform those efforts. Author Guy Boysen writes, “The purpose of this teacher-ready review is to provide a comprehensive, empirically-based guide for the use of student evaluations to improve teaching” (p. 273).
Since course evaluations started being collected online, response rates have plummeted. In one study they ranged from 23 percent to 47 percent with the mean at 33 percent, compared with a range of 33 percent to 75 percent with a mean of 56 percent for
In higher education, we often think about how we can improve our teaching and learning. If you are like me, you wrestle with this question after a well-prepared lecture does not go as expected, or as you are trying to make sense of your student
Reflect on these questions and then discuss them with a colleague, with your department, or with other interested parties:
When observing or being observed you can use this checklist. It will help to identify areas that are going well and areas that need attention.
Teachers don’t always have the best attitudes about student rating results, and for reasons that are clearly understandable. Institutions often don’t evaluate teaching in the most constructive and useful ways. However, feedback from students is an essential part of any effort to grow and develop
It’s a feedback mechanism that’s been around for some time. Most often used during a course, students are asked to fold a sheet of paper in thirds and label the columns stop, start, and continue. Then they are asked to identify aspects of instruction that
Teachers everywhere recognize the need to be clear. It’s one of those parts of effective instruction whose importance almost goes without saying. An unclear explanation causes confusion and prevents learning. By the 1970s, there were already more than 50 studies that explored and documented the
Most student rating instruments include a question related to the feedback provided by the instructor. It may ask whether it was constructive, actionable, delivered in a timely manner, or some combination of these characteristics. Most teachers are conscientious about giving students feedback. Because they devote
Are students taking their end-of-course evaluation responsibilities seriously? Many institutions ask them to evaluate every course and to do so at a time when they’re busy with final assignments and stressed about upcoming exams. Response rates have also fallen at many places that now have
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