Hello friends, In this community, we usually discuss assessing and evaluating students. I wanted to switch gears a bit and invite a discussion about whether or not you ask learners in your classroom or your program to evaluate their classes and their teachers. What kind of evaluations are you using? What questions do you ask? What format does the evaluation take? What purpose do the evaluations serve?
Thank you for telling us about your practices with inviting students to evaluate their class and their teacher.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP
Comments
Hello colleagues, In my local program, we ask students to complete an online evaluation of their teachers twice a year. The results are compiled and shared with teachers. The responses are always quite positive, which is great, but I would welcome some concrete ideas for ways to improve. I'm wondering if the wording and/or choice of the questions would make a difference.
Larry Ferlazzo, a prolific writer and teacher who teaches both high school students and university classes, routinely asks both groups of students to evaluate him. He publishes the results on his blog -- as he says "warts and all." The responses Ferlazzo gets from students offer concrete suggestions on ways to improve his classes. He asks four simple questions:
What is your reaction to Ferlazzo's approach and to the responses he receives from students? I am interested in hearing how programs handle this issue. If you ask students to evaluate their classes/teachers, how is this working for you?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP