Student Evaluations
January 10, 2011 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Conflict Resolution, Recent MMMs, Student interaction, Tolerance
Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Texas Tech University
[Jan. 16, 2011] —
I recall from my early years as a professor my chairman’s vehement opposition to the very idea of students evaluating their professors while still at the university. His theory was that only when they had been out of college for several years could students objectively evaluate the quality of their education.
His objections and those of others were overruled in the academic universe. Today administrators insist that students complete course and instructor evaluations. These evaluations now carry significant weight in both tenure and promotion decisions.
I recall the suspense of preparing to read my own student evaluations at the end of each semester. Usually I waited a day or two after turning in my grades and as much as possible tried to be in a positive mood.
While numerical ratings of my course, the textbook, and my teaching skills were always of concern, I was particularly interested in comments on open-ended questions. I hoped for a sense of how the course had affected their understanding of electrical engineering and perhaps also how I had impacted them personally.
It was always good to see comments that students appreciated what I had tried to teach them. Invariably, however, some students seemed to think that I was either a poor instructor (e.g. “Why is he still allowed in the classroom?”), were bothered by the fact that I identified myself as a Christ-follower (actually fairly rare as a comment), or that I had somehow failed to insure that they performed well in the course.
Negative comments were always painful, and I wondered how I had fallen short with those individuals. Had they ever come to my office or stayed after class to ask questions? No matter how many good teaching awards one receives, negative student evaluations are always difficult to handle.
Over the course of my career I noted a trend away from students’ understanding that the primary responsibility for mastering the course material was theirs. Rather, they frequently concluded that if they had performed poorly, it was my fault as their instructor. That was what I was paid to do, wasn’t it? Perhaps as a member of an earlier generation, I was reluctant to accept criticisms that appeared to come from that “it’s your fault I didn’t do well in this stupid course” perspective.
I believe that teacher evaluations can provide useful feedback to an instructor. Today I would counsel Christian faculty, and in particular ones just starting their careers, to maintain a “balanced view” of students’ evaluations as they continue to trust Christ to help them be sensitive to the changing needs of each successive student generation.
We must be cautious in allowing positive evaluations to feed our pride. However, God hasn’t called us to allow the negative ones to drive us to despair or resentment. Our knowledge that He will continue to mature us as teachers, researchers, and mentors should be our guide as we regularly deal with those “moments of truth”- grading their exams and reading our students’ teacher evaluations of us.
© 2011 John Walkup
Charity For All
December 7, 2010 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Conflict Resolution, Recent MMMs, Tolerance
James C. Carper,
Social Foundations of Education,
University of South Carolina
[Dec. 12, 2010] –
As we grade our last exams and participate in celebrating Advent, my Christmas wish is for a bit more of what Lincoln said in his second Inaugural Address: “Malice toward none, with charity for all.” It is the lapse of this during one of our South Carolina summers that has come to mind this semester.
It started when James T. Sears, at the time a colleague in our College of Education, announced that he would be teaching a course entitled “Christian Fundamentalism and Public Education” whose stated purpose was “to assist school practitioners and others in understanding the fundamentalist phenomenon and combating its challenge to public education in a secular democracy.”
Hollering Louder
Columbia’s newspaper The State broke the story on its front page. To say that Christians were hollering louder than a stuck pig would not be an exaggeration. His frequent espousal of homosexual causes had already provoked their ire. They protested both with letters to the editor and phone calls to the university’s administration. Neither the tone nor the words of many of these Christians were what I would term respectful.
I decided to take a different tack. I believe that the best thing to do when one person has a grievance with another is to go to that individual personally before yelling at department heads, deans, trustees or the president of the university.
I saw Jim soon afterward in a grocery store and he kindly agreed to meet and discuss the content of the course. When we met, he conceded that he may have used a poor choice of words in the course description. He then invited my suggestions, including guest speakers and reading assignments, since the course hadn’t begun.
I went directly to my office and spent about three hours typing up a selected bibliography, along with recommendations as to persons I would like to see involved in the course and how they might contribute. Jim took my recommendations seriously and included lectures by several outstanding Christian scholars and included readings from a conservative Christian perspective.
A Fair And Balanced Portrayal
Later I was able to listen to taped lectures and was impressed by Jim’s fair and balanced portrayal of the arguments in the course. He didn’t dominate the discussions but only helped to facilitate them. Two of my graduate students took the course and said it was extremely well done, probably one of the best intellectual exercises they had ever had.
I gained from this, and I hope Jim did as well. I was put in a situation in which I literally had to interact face-to-face with someone with whom I radically differed, and yet treat him with respect. He showed that same respect toward me.
Diplomatic Truth Tellers
Sometimes I wonder if this might have been one of the few times Jim has been treated civilly by those who proclaim the name of Christ. He has since left our university.
Unfortunately, stereotyping of people on both sides of the culture wars remains a fact of our public life. Instead of drawing battle lines, we Christian faculty members can be model diplomatic truth tellers. Our cause on campus could benefit if believers listened carefully, spoke softly, and, yes, loved unconditionally.
Merry Christmas!
© 2010 James C. Carper
Photo Copyright 2010 Courtesy flikr user MPBecker