[Sean Smith on EFL] As a teacher, how do you rate?

Teacher evaluations are a bittersweet pill that every university instructor faces each term. Many teachers look at these evaluations as a flawed popularity contest, and to a point they are right, even though a lot of information can be gleaned from these students` responses if you look carefully.

The first thing that teachers should do is get a translation of the standard questions. This way you`ll be able to see exactly what the university is interested in regarding students and their assessment of instructors.

A problem with most evaluations is that they include the same questions university-wide and thus are too general to be a true evaluation of a teacher.

Now take a look at your overall average; how does it compare to others in your department and the university in general? If your numbers are low, look at all of your classes. Is there one class that brought the average down? If so, examine that class in detail and try to remember how the class felt during the semester. Were there any incidents that stand out that could have brought your average down? This specifically happened to me this semester. I have even isolated the incident and I know exactly what I will change for future classes.

If your numbers are all around the same, then it`s time to look at your scores for each question. If there are one or two questions bringing your average down, you now know what topics you need to develop for the following semester.

You can get the most information from the comments students leave you. These will be mostly written in Korean, and it may require you to find someone you can trust to translate the comments for you.

Take a look at your negative criticisms and decide if they are valid. Then, look at your positive comments and use those to help you to understand what to continue doing in the classroom.

Finally, the best comments are the ones that are both negative and positive. This indicates that the student found the work difficult but recognizes the value of what you have done.

The best way to get feedback from students that will help you to be a better teacher and also improve your standardized evaluations is to conduct your own evaluations. On my evaluations (available for download on my blog) I ask standard questions such as "was your instructor on time for class" and "your teacher gave you enough time to practice" - these are questions that I know the answer to. I am always 5-10 minutes early to class, so if a student gives me low scores on these questions, I will not place much value on the remaining answers.

On the second half of the page I ask questions specifically about activities we have done in the class. This is where I get the most useful information for tweaking and adjusting future semesters.

I conduct these evaluations on the last class before exams. The evaluations are distributed in class with instructions to not include names or student numbers. I then nominate one student to collect the surveys when finished and bring them to my office. I leave the room so that students do not feel intimidated by my presence and feel free to respond as they like. I also take care to not look at the surveys until the grading is completed.

While the standard evaluation system at many universities is flawed, it can still be useful to you and should not be dismissed as invalid and merely a popularity contest.





To contact Sean or comment on this column, visit his website eflgeek.com - Ed.