University of South Carolina
Evaluating the Work of Your Student
Jamil A. Khan, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering
University of South Carolina
TA TRAINING
 http://www.me.sc.edu/grad/TAtraining.html.
Evaluation of this workshop
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 Q#1.
 What
 Q#2
are the three important traits of a good teacher?
Fill in the blank:
 A carefully
prepared detailed syllabus may prevent potential
_______ during the semester
 Q#3
 In
one sentence, write down what you would want me to do
differently if I were to teach this workshop again.
Modeling Critical Thinking
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 Assign
open ended-problem
 Solution
should meet some constraint but is not unique
 Brain storm ideas
 Encourage out-of-the-box thinking
 Let
me hear your ideas
Effective teaching
students who are having unusual difficulty
and directing them to USC resources for help
 How to gauge your impact on students
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 Spotting



 How
Reading signs, seek feed back
Ask questions outside the class (one on one)
Is the end of the semester student evaluation sufficient? Isn’t it
end-of-the-pipe inspection?
to know when to make changes in teaching the
class


Syllabus
Other changes
 Taylor

your teaching at the level of your students
Honors class teaching
 Balancing
your own research, class schedule with
teaching schedule
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Grading Student work
(Why?)
Plan
DO
Act
Check
The Shewhart Cycle
Test Construction
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 Don’t

go to outer space to pull test material
Comment on trick question
 Test
should show that you are meeting the course
objectives
 Be concerned about the reliability of the test. Test
questions should be clear.

Have it checked out by your peers or by yourself
 Frequency
of testing. I prefer frequent short tests
leading to big test
 Make the test close to reality.


In-class test are artificial
I real life problem solving is different from in-class test
Perspective
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 Grades
measure what is known at the time of the
test
 Students are very interested in grades


In fact way too much focus
Quality of the instruction may be reflected in grades

Don’t teach like elementary school at the same time do not
teach like a monster
 Remember
learning is student’s responsibility, you
can not do it for them

You certainly can find out why a student is not learning
Grading
a teacher you have to demonstrate that you have
the ability to grade
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 As


You can demonstrate this by helping the students continuously
improve
Do you have the credentials?
 Be
unbiased
 Grade should reflect connection between what was
asked and what was turned-in
 Grades are feed-back
 This feed-back should focus on the work not the
person

Separate the work from the student
Testing students during the semester
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 When
to choose essay questions
 When to use short-answer questions
• Class size
 Pop
quizzes
 Regular short quizzes (announced)
Projects
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 Are
open ended but still has some limitations
(constraint)
 Objective is to develop critical thinking
 Time constraint
 Know how far you can push the students
 Share the best method for completing the project
 It is always good to break-up the project into
separate groups and assign weighted grades
Papers
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 Teaches
communication skills
 Follow proper format
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 Evaluating
essays and answers to essay questions
Oral Presentation
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 What
do you look for
 Introduction
 Problem
statement
 Body language and delivery
 Technical contents
 Audio visual aid and its use
 Conclusions
 Question/answers
Grading a Laboratory Report
 COMPONENTS
REQUIRED:
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 1.
Title page - lab title, author(s), lab section, date
 2. Objective
 3. Actual data sheet - with observers and date of
experiments
 4. Sample calculations
 5. Results (tabular and/or graphical)
 6. Discussion of results
 7. Conclusions
 PREPARATION
 1.
GUIDELINES
Use white, unlined paper with no tattered edges.
 2. Must be typed.
 3. Graphs and tables should be professional quality. No
free-handing of curves permitted. Coordinates should be
neatly labeled. All figures must have a number and a title.