RATING THE PROFESSOR TA & PFF Workshop– Spring 2011 Artze-Vega

Workshop overview Historical Context Student Evaluations The Teaching Portfolio

HISTORY OF TEACHING EVALUATION  60s: Conducted primarily in response to student demands for accountability  70s: Developmental reasons  80s & 90s: Driven by administrative needs  Recently: National interest in improving undergraduate education, public demand for accountability, legal demands for improved teaching evaluation, and faculty demands (Ory, 2000 )

SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT TEACHING SourceExamples Students Student evaluations Interviews with students Long-term follow-up of students Peer Review Classroom visits Colleague evaluation of materials Self Reflection Teaching activities, reports, & self-reviews Measures of student achievement *From UCLA’s Office of Instructional development

STUDENT EVALUATIONS What do you think of them? Why?

Mark Edmundson “Edmundson: one to five, stand and shoot” (p. 39). Edmundson, M. (1997, September). On the uses of a liberal education. Harper’s Magazine, 39-49

Common Critiques, Thoughts, & Concerns They rate only student satisfaction (as in customer service) Research says: SETs are legitimate indicators of student satisfaction which is in turn linked to effective teaching It’s a personality contest Research says: “Students want instructors who know what they are talking about and who also care about them…Neither the stand-up comic with no content expertise nor the cold-fish expert with only content expertise receives the highest ratings consistently” (Ory, 2001, p.4).

Common Critiques, Thoughts, & Concerns Related to class size & instructor gender Research says: “Not a serious source of bias” (Cashin, 1992); no significant relationship Not valid Research says: This debate was over in the 1980s. (See Ory, 2001 for a succinct summary of the validity debate) Linked to instructor characteristics (rank, age, research productivity) Research says: minimal impact

Factors Known to Influence Student Ratings Electives vs. required courses (strongest variable) Professor vs. TA (higher for faculty members) Course level (higher ratings in higher-level courses) Discipline (not large, but consistent differences). In descending order: Arts and Humanities; Biological and Social Sciences; Business; Computer Science; Math; Engineering; Physical Science Grades: Yes, those expecting high grades give higher ratings, but does not mean it’s because instructors are giving away grades; could be that students feel they learned a lot & thus deserve a high grade

Informal Student Evaluations Ratemyprofessors.com  Includes more than 6.8 million ratings for over 1 million instructors from over 6,000 different colleges across the U.S.  Students consider them more honest and more representative  Some evidence that poor evals. linked to poor grades  One study found them strongly correlated with standard evals.

Informal Student Evaluations Fast Feedback “Intended to provide some objective information about your class and to identify areas for improvement in a quick & efficient manner” (Courter, ). Mid-semester Evaluations Similar to end-of-term evals. Sample forms of both:

THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO Why would you want to develop one?

What is a Teaching Portfolio? “A coherent set of materials that represents your teaching practice as related to student learning” (Sorcinelli, 2000). “A description of a professor’s major strengths and teaching achievements. It describes documents and materials which collectively suggest the scope and quality of a professor’s teaching performance” (Seldin, 1997).

Common Components Teaching experience & responsibilities Teaching philosophy & goals Teaching methods & strategies Activities undertaken to improve teaching Goals & plans for the future Supporting documents

The Teaching Philosophy “A self-reflective statement of your beliefs about teaching and learning. In addition to general comments, your teaching philosophy should discuss how you put your beliefs into practice by including concrete examples of what you do or anticipate doing in the classroom.” From

Another definition: “A purposeful and reflective essay about the author’s teaching beliefs and practices. It is an individual narrative that includes not only one’s beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the ways in which he or she enacts these beliefs in the classroom. At its best…gives a clear and unique portrait of the author as a teacher, avoiding generic or empty philosophical statements about teaching. They are also effective exercises in helping one clearly and coherently conceptualize his or her approaches to and experiences of teaching and learning.” From

Questions to Help You Get Started Great sample teaching philosophy statements available at ing%20Statements%20(ALL).pdf What are your objectives as a teacher? What sets you apart as a teacher? How would an outside observer describe your teaching? What specific skills and knowledge should students gain in the classroom? What teaching methods do you consider most effective? Why? How do/will you measure your own effectiveness as an educator? What motivates you to teach? How do you motivate students?

Avoiding Common Teaching Portfolio Mistakes  Including too much material  Inserting it in raw form Solution: Think of the portfolio as an argument. *From Mues & Sorcinelli (2000)

Peer/supervisor Observations

Questions & Future Events Questions??? Future Events: TA Development Working with Overwhelmed College Students Thursday, March 24 th, 3p.m.; location: Newman Alumni Center Conference Room PFF Assessment 101 Monday, April 4th & Thursday, April 7th, 3-4:30; location: Newman Alumni Center Conference Room