We Don’t Trust Course Evaluations, but Are Peer Observations of Teaching Much Better?
James M. Lang, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Student evaluations of my spring English composition course arrived the other day, and I read them with the usual stew of satisfaction, frustration, and puzzlement. The numbers looked good, and I heard plenty of praise. But, as always seems to happen, the same teaching technique inspired completely contradictory reactions.
For example, while I don’t show too many PowerPoints in English composition, every time I introduce a new writing strategy I’ll throw up a few slides with definitions and examples. One student praised the slides as the most helpful tool for her learning — another called them useless and recommended I eliminate them from the course.
Contradictory statements about my methods I can handle; I’ve seen them all before. But this round of reviews also included a comment from a student who said I didn’t "connect well" with the class. This was a community-engaged learning course in which we took a field trip together to a homeless shelter, spent lots of time in group activities in class, and shared personal perspectives on our understanding of poverty. I also followed my own advice and made a point to arrive in the classroom a few minutes early and engage in informal conversations with students.