Every college instructor has undergone the anxiety (and, occasionally, the anticipation) of looking over student evaluations for a course. Sometimes, courses that seemed to be going well will merit surprisingly poor numbers, with students expressing frustrations that their instructor may well have been unaware of. Occasionally, instructors' anxieties over some aspect of the course will have proven to have been unnecessary, with students offering nothing but lavish praise and high marks..
What You Can Do About Evaluations
Student evaluations have always been a controversial method of assessment. Studies have consistently demonstrated that students with higher grades in a course tend to give it better ratings—leading some to accuse evaluations of playing a major role in the growth of grade inflation—and students have even been shown to give higher marks to instructors that they perceive as attractive. Supporters of evaluations, in contrast, point to positive correlations between high evaluations and student achievement and note a generally high level of agreement between raters in a particular course.
Regardless of what you think about evaluations, however, they're going to be a part of your life as a college instructor. However, you are not entirely at the whims of your students when it comes to evaluations—there are some simple, easy steps that you can take to gauge student responses to the course before evaluation day. There are also several handy techniques than can increase student investment in your course while simultaneously "training" students to provide substantive, positive feedback.
Obviously, if you aren't investing the necessary time, energy, and attitude into your teaching then students will realize this. The tips provided below assume that you're already professionally and emotionally committed to your teaching and your students. These techniques are designed to help caring, competent teachers to better (1) signal their teaching strategy to their students, (2) involve students in the shaping of the course throughout the semester, and (3) equip their students with the necessary vocabulary to provide useful, substantive feedback on evaluations.
1. Encourage Student Evaluation from the Beginning of the Course
The single best way to improve your final evaluations is to have students fill out anonymous "mini" evaluations a few weeks after the course has begun. I generally have my freshman composition students fill out an anonymous survey using Blackboard's course management software after they've completed their first major essay.
I ask students specific questions about which aspects of the course (discussions, group work, etc.) were useful and not-so-useful in preparing for the essay. I also offer areas for students to type out specific feedback about readings and to suggest activities that they'd like to see in the course. Finally, I ask them to rate (on a scale of 1 to 5) the quality of the course so far.
This exercise has benefits beyond helping you catch potential "hiccups" in the class—it also allows students a real voice in the course and its construction. If students believe that you are sincerely interested in their feedback and will make changes to the course based on it (and, of course, you really should be sincerely interested!), then they'll become more invested in the course itself. Ultimately, this investment will translate into better learning and greater student satisfaction.
2. Let Students Know What You're Up To
Chances are that when you design an assignment, a lesson plan, a group activity, or a syllabus you've got a clear purpose in mind. However, as instructors we tend to keep our students in the dark about the thinking behind our own pedagogy—as though we needed to "trick" students into learning. However, most of the students in our courses really do want to learn, and it is helpful to let students know what they'll be learning in the course and how they'll be learning it.
One easy way to do this is to print simple learning goals on the end of assignments. For example, for a paper prompt that asks students to compare a novel and a film adaptation, you might write the following: "This essay assignment will (1) give you practice at comparing and contrasting two different texts and (2) encourage you to think about the stakes involved in interpretive decisions, particularly in the context of an adaptation." If you'd like something less formal, you can also just briefly explain to students why they are doing a particular assignment or classroom activity when you introduce it.
Signaling your intentions is particularly useful in increasing your student evaluation numbers for questions that are meant to evaluate what a student learned in the course. When students understand your guiding logic, they'll be more likely to understand that they have, in fact, learned something and they'll be equipped with a vocabulary to explain what they've learned. You may event find that students actually repeat some of your "learning goals" in their written evaluations!
3. Perform Your Preparation and Concern
Just as student perception of learning will increase when students are told what they are learning, student perception of your own concern and preparation will increase if they can see it. Hopefully, you invest appropriate amounts of time in designing lesson plans and you feel a legitimate concern for your students and their educational well-being. Unfortunately, students won't necessarily sense this unless you demonstrate it to them in some concrete way.
Even if you feel confident that you can lead your class without having notes in front of you, it pays to bring along a copy of your class agenda and refer to it periodically. You may be surprised to find that the organization of your course actually increases when you have a reminder of your vision for each class. Even if the course itself does not change, students will register the presence of your notes as evidence that you have thought seriously in advance about the course and its direction. You may pride yourself on making teaching look effortless, but it may be worthwhile to allow some of that effort to show.
Similarly, demonstrating your concern for your students by actively encouraging them to attend office hours, by making yourself available to those that are having difficulties, and by simply learning and using their names on a regular basis will consistently reinforce your concern and attention. In my experience, students' responses to evaluation questions are influenced more by their perception of whether or not the instructor really cared about them and their learning than by any other factor. Incidentally, this is not something that you can fake—students can tell if teaching is "just a job" to you. However, if you sincerely care about your students and you let that concern show, then your students will notice it.
4. Remind Students of What They Have Learned
Several weeks before giving your students their final course evaluations, spend some time on your own reviewing the questions that they'll be asked. Pay particular attention to questions that address specific learning goals or skills. Then, spend some classroom time over the next few weeks reviewing the material covered earlier in the course: refer back to it in lectures, throw up a PowerPoint of key concepts and ask students if they have any questions or concerns about them, even consider devoting a class to a systemic review of concepts covered in the course. Focus especially on the concepts that the students will be asked about on the evaluations.
When reviewing old material—or when covering new material—use the actual language of the evaluation questions. For instance, if students will be asked to rank their response to the phrase "my instructor focused on choosing the best words to express ideas," then use the central term—"choosing the best words"—in paper comments, in introducing group work, in assigning homework, in any learning situation designed to teach that skill. This technique is especially useful when targeting an evaluation question that seems vague or unclear.
5. Acknowledge—and Apologize for—Your Mistakes
Even with the best of intentions and the most sincere commitment to teaching, we'll all fall short of our own teaching goals from time to time. When this happens—admit it and apologize for it. If you told students that you'd have their papers or exams graded by Friday and Friday comes around and they're not done, then acknowledge your failing and apologize to your students for not getting their work back as quickly as you should have. If you arrive to class late, then apologize in a way that acknowledges the effects of your actions on your students: "I'm sorry for making you wait and for cutting into our class time."
If there are extenuating circumstances, you can mention them or not—what matters is that you demonstrate to your students that you understand your responsibilities to them and that you acknowledge that you didn't meet one of those responsibilities. Of course, you'll also want to make certain that you don't make a habit of turning papers in late, showing up past the course start time, or engaging in any other behavior that bespeaks a lack of concern for the course and for your students.
Think about the attitude that you take with your own students when they make a mistake: most instructors show understanding about one late assignment or missed class if the student acknowledges his or her mistake; however, few instructors are likely to cut much slack to a student that consistently demonstrates a disregard for the course. Your students are likely to behave in the same way—and you owe them the same regard for the course that you demand from them.
Integrating these few simple techniques into your pedagogy will help not only to improve your evaluation scores, they'll also create a more coherent and rewarding learning environment for your students.
Charlene Kinbote - Charlene Kinbote is a doctoral student in English literature. She lives in upstate New York.
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