We have a system of student feedback where students evaluate their teachers on various parameters. I teach a class that is made up of 3 sections (all sitting together). Each section has different subject combinations in addition to Chemistry. The total class strength is around 60.
In my evaluation, for the parameter "class control" two sections have given me 4.2 and 4.5 on 5 and one section average is 2.5.
They all sit together for my class. A low value of the parameter "class control" means that I allow the class to get noisy and that I am not able to get their attention for my lecture. So how can I get different values in the same class for a parameter that is not very subjective ?
In fact, I did not really pay much attention to this when I got my report, but my colleague in the Chemistry Dept had also got a similar score in the same parameter and mentioned it to me.
Is the feedback format faulty? or do the students not understand what is to be done? Or do they just randomly mark whatever they please and it has averaged to 2.5 ?
4 comments:
Students are not answering individual questions carefully. They are just reflecting their opinion on the course, and that opinion modulates answers to all questions. So, it is possible that that section did not like the course for some reason. (I guess they had a different tutor or a lab incharge, whom they did not like.)
Another example of question whose answer has surprised me is, "did instructor take all classes." On a 0-4 scale, they are expected to tick 4, if the instructor took all 40 lectures, tick 3, if instructor took 38-39 lectures, etc. Now, one would expect that if instructor took all classes, then all students will tick 4. But I often find that 95% of the class will give me 4, and 5% of the class will give me 0 in every semester. And these 5% would have given me 0 in all questions.
Taking all classes is another
non-subjective parameter. It's surprising. For questions like "does she have enough knowledge of the subject?" I can understand that different views are possible, but in these parameters there cannot be different answers. If like you said,students just project their general view of the person/course on to this feedback, how seriously can you take it then?
In my class there was one student who was very influential, as in, he used to take people for treats, help them, play with them and all.
25 is the passing mark (not the overall, just the internal cut off)out of 50. He got 24 and he as usual, followed the teacher to get that extra mark. Teacher refused to give as she was very ethical. This annoyed the student and as a result he and his entire gang gave the teacher 0s in all the columns without even giving a glance to the questions.
So, do not take these feedback forms seriously.
@ Anonymous: It's not the grade in the student feedback that bothers me, it's the discrepency, that too in a parameter that is not very subjective.
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