Science 2014W T1 - Teaching Evaluation Survey
2014W1
University of British Columbia
Science
Course: MATH 104 108 - Differential Calculus w ith Applications to Commerce and Soci
Department: MATH
Responsible Maxime Bergeron
Faculty:
Responses / Expected:
60 / 75 (80%)
Category Instructions: Based on a 5-point scale, where 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree and 5 = Strongly Agree, please rate
your instructor on the following:
Bergeron, Maxime
University Module
Responses
SD D N A SA
Individual
N
Mean N/A Med. Mode
Std
Dev
Q1 The instructor made it clear what students were expected to learn.
0
1 2 21 36 60
4.5
0
5
5
.64
Q2 The instructor communicated the subject matter effectively.
0
1 8 15 36 60
4.4
0
5
5
.78
Q3 The instructor helped inspire interest in learning the subject matter.
0
1 5 23 31 60
4.4
0
5
5
.71
Q4 Overall, evaluation of student learning (through exams, essays, presentations, etc.) was fair.
0
0 4 30 23 57
4.3
2
4
4
.60
Q5 The instructor showed concern for student learning.
0
0 4 22 34 60
4.5
0
5
5
.62
Q6 Overall, the instructor was an effective teacher.
0
0 7 15 38 60
4.5
0
5
5
.70
Responses: [SD] Strongly Disagree=1 [D] Disagree=2 [N] Neutral=3 [A] Agree=4 [SA] Strongly Agree=5
Q7 - Enter comments below
Faculty: Bergeron, Maxime
Response Rate: 70.00%
(42 of 60)
- Max is a nice instructor whose lectures are the best and we all get high marks on test because he care about students and have help session which is really
helpful!
- Flat out amazing. 10/10 I would have nothing changed.
I really like the amount of examples he gives in class. They are enough for me to fully understand the concepts and i feel really prepared for the midterm. I
- also like how fast he replies on piazza to give us feedback or answers to our questions. However, i wish he would go over some very difficult webwork
questions in class after the webwork is due so we can learn how the answer came up.
- more quizzes on questions from past exams would be helpful in enhancing our understanding on course content and preparing for the upcoming exams
Max was my favourite instructor. I have never been a fan of math but he did an awesome job of trying to make it as interesting as possible. I personally
believe he is the best instructor in the faculty (as our consistent high averages on the exams would show). I consistently did well despite the difficulty of the
- course and I attribute all my success to his teaching. He worked very hard in coming prepared to class and encouraging participation among students. He
replaced the traditional student-teacher relationship with an environment where he wanted everyone to feel comfortable and not intimidated by him. The
whole course wasn't just black and white but more concentrated on the reasoning behind why we do everything in math. Max is just an all-around awesome
instructor and I would recommend any of his classes to my peers.
I'm pretty sure Bergeron teaches his section quite differently from the other sections, and this really helps us learn effectively. My calc teacher last year put
a strong emphasis on simply solving many problems with little conceptual explanation, and it caused me to be very lost during those classes. However with
- Bergeron this year, a strong emphasis is placed on conceptual understanding, with less time devoted to problem-solving, and this has really helped my
learning. I can take the concepts taught in class and go home and apply them to webwork problems as practice rather than using up class time doing rote
calc problems. He's a lot more down to earth than some other instructors as well.
- Max is excellent! He is welcome to questions although I seldom ask question. He clarifies it in details. He is a absolutely great instructor.
- my instructor was very proficient at explaining the concepts and theorems; however, i feel that we could have moved through the coursework a bit faster
and dedicate more time later for review during class.
I am really fortunate and glad that I took calculus back in high school and had a basic understanding of the course. Mr. Bergeron spend too much time on
theories in class that were not useful in my studies. Although, they may have been helpful in understanding the concept for some people but for me they only
- confused me for the most part. However, despite spending time on theories he did however explain the content well and had a good understanding of what
he was talking about. I was mainly lost in class and when I went home I realized what we have been learning about in class for that day. He made simple
and basic concepts confusing and so as result I would be confused. He could have maybe took another approach in explaining the concepts so they were
clear and straightforward from the start.
- He is very good at recognizing the gaps in a student's logic and pushing the student to discover the answer to their problem on their own. This guarantees
that the student doesn't forget the material. It also helps that he's attractive.
- I feel that when he is teaching, he is sometimes vague and conceptual with his explanations.
- His knowledge and passion about the math made the course more enjoyable as a whole. I found myself more interested in learning each topic more in depth
after each lecture. His style of teaching is very simple to understand and easy to follow.
Max did a really good job at taking difficult or obscure concepts and breaking them down into smaller, understandable concepts. He is patient to questions,
- and made himself available to us when we needed extra help. I would have liked more examples done in class, but I don't mind not having them based on
how Max teaches.
I think I would have have a better understanding of the concepts if instead of going through how they came to be we went through more problems. I know
- you started doing them more after the quick survey we had in class and that helped, but I would have liked more especially because my high school math
classes barley had any notes and instead went through a wide variety of problems.
-The use of a geometric approach helps look at the calculus we learned in high school from a different (arguably better) perspective.
-There is always a sense of perspective (i.e. we don't just learn formulas; we usually know how/why they're relevant)
-Sometimes the effort to bring a new perspective or heuristic on a mathematical concept can make things a little confusing, though. Good heuristics are
useful, but a good one isn't available then it's better to stick to the conventional approach. (The use of heuristics is usually a major upside of this course,
though!)
In my personal opinion he was very enthusiastic about math and helping understand why equations and formulas input and output happen the way that they
- do. I learned a lot while being in his class, he is a wonderful professor who is willing to help as much as he can. The piazza comment board thing was a
wonderful idea and it helped the class communicate together outside of the class.
- Max was an awesome prof - very passionate about math and was very clear on what was expected from the course
Max was an incredible teacher. He was a very clear and thorough teacher. I appreciated how he made the whole course coherent. Each topic came logically
after the next. In the beginning, he provided us an excellent foundation for the rest of the year. He focuses on tackling hard problems through breaking them
- down into easier problems. He made sure he proved every theorem, or at least showed where it came from, so we could grasp it intuitively. I especially
benefited from his commitment to this course, as he regularly sent me extra conceptual problems to challenge me beyond the course material. The class was
also engaged throughout. I can't say enough good things about Max as a teacher.
- The instructor was able to show where formulas came from and explained everything slowly. The only suggestion is he should do more examples and give
more quizzes
I took Math 104 last year and, to say the least, I didn't do well. My prof then would rush through the material and was very condescending. Max is by far the
- best prof I could ask for. He makes everything make sense and I feel so much more comfortable with the information and his teaching style. I actually
understand him when he speaks because he takes the time to make sure his students understand the material. He was always approachable
- Mr. Bergeron does a thorough job explaining the concepts on this course. Through his enthusiasm of teaching this course, his classes are always interesting
and makes one ponder about the mathematics.
- Max was a wonderful instructor! Very clear and very precise. He makes learning math fun. His lectures go by so fast - it seems as if he's telling a story about
math.
- Went at the pace of the slowest student, asked for questions constantly. Perhaps choose quiet people to explain to make sure they understand.
The instructor's method was remarkably effective. Maxeme made sure we had a solid conceptual understanding of the material. In order to teach certain
concepts, he makes sure that we understand the concepts by demonstrating the simplest possible scenario of a particular type. With the limited time we have
- for the course, he has been extremely resourceful in explaining certain proofs and even takes the time to email resources for further reading of the
Mathematical concepts taught in class. He also sets clear and realistic weekly targets, which has proved to be an invaluable resource for both preparing for
and doing well in exams.
- Maxime is an excellent professor! He is really patient when teaching his students or answering our questions.
- He was good about relating to students and knew how to keep the material relatively engaging.
- Best math instructor I have ever had. Hands down the reason for our class doing so well.
- He is a very good instructor and inspire my interests in math
Bergeron was overall an excellent instructor. Although some of his earlier lectures were somewhat confusing (especially given his sometimes heavily
geometric methods, which I personally don't prefer), as the course got going he hit a stride and provided excellent lectures. He was always friendly and
- helpful and generally encouraged participation (although perhaps not enough, as it seemed the same few people usually answered). In general, he made
understanding the topics easy (although, to be fair, I've taken much of this course before) and provided plenty of examples. I also appreciated the many
exam examples on his course website.
-
The course itself was great thanks to the instructor, who presented concepts in a new and exciting way, challenging the students and making them think. As
for the course content, less time could be spent on graph sketching (it seemed to be an easy topic that most people were already familiar with) and more
time could be spent on Taylor series etc.
Nonetheless, the course gave me a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts behind calculus. I didn't even know I loved math before taking the
course. Maxime is an incredible professor and a huge inspiration.
- Maxime is an awesome instructor. He is very humorous and he communicates very well with students.
- Nothing specific
- Maxime was a great teacher and he wasn't embarrassed to admit that he had made a mistake and he always tries to help his students out as much as he
can. He's a fun teacher :)
- He's so passionate about math, it's awesome!
- Very clear and to the point
Professor Bergeron made the class interesting by connecting calculus to the interests of many students (e.g. applications to games and real life situations).
However, I would have liked to see him put more effort into his class lectures and notes since there have been days where he made mistakes in his teaching
- (writing things on the board directly based on his notes he usually carries in his hands) in which either students corrected him or he realized it and attempted
to fix it on the spot (which sometimes required the students' input). With this in mind, there is a risk that he might have provided wrong information in which
neither him nor the students noticed, thus causing some confusion to people. I believe he should also master the practical aspects in the material besides
theory because he has made simple errors in his calculations (e.g. using the chain rule and linear approximation).
- Max is a little bit ineffective, while he is still a nice teacher.
- He was an amazing instructor that made math exciting and he also taught the subject matter extremely well.
- Excellent teaching, enjoyable semester.
- For me personally, i think my learning style was very different from how he taught the course. I found that i got confused easily throughout the lecture but
he seemed to be extremely knowledgeable in what he was teaching
- Maxime is the best math teacher I've had in years. Although I'm not good at math and I have always hated it, I enjoyed learning from him. I learned better
after he provided more examples after the first midterm.
He is genuinely passionate about math and though, I don't share the same passion, his excitement for the subject did rub off on me and academically
- speaking, this was truly beneficial for me. I can actually say that I understand what I'm doing in class and why it matters. He explores the material beyond
the textbook and rather than scratch the surface and show us what we can read in the textbook, he gives us the real world context and motivation on the
material we learn, so there is an interest-related incentive to do math. Hope to see him teach more than math 104 in the future.
MATH 104 - 108
Faculty of Science Module
Responses
SD D
Course
N
A
SA
N
Mean
Med.
Mode
Std
Dev
Q8
My academic background provided sufficient preparation for this course.
1
2
10
24
22
59
4.1
4
4
.91
Q9
This course promoted conceptual understanding.
1
1
3
25
30
60
4.4
4.5
5
.80
Q10 The learning activities helped me to succeed in this course.
0
0
19
27
14
60
3.9
4
4
.74
Q11 The workload for this course was appropriate.
0
1
4
35
20
60
4.2
4
4
.64
Q12 I received sufficient feedback on my progress during this course.
1
3
15
24
16
59
3.9
4
4
.93
Responses: [SD] Strongly Disagree=1 [D] Disagree=2 [N] Neutral=3 [A] Agree=4 [SA] Strongly Agree=5