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
Source
Examples
•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
Students
*From UCLA’s Office of Instructional development
What do
you think of
them? Why?
STUDENT EVALUATIONS
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
It’s a personality contest
service)
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).
Research says: SETs are
legitimate indicators of
student satisfaction
which is in turn linked to
effective teaching
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, 1994-7).
Mid-semester Evaluations
Similar to end-of-term evals.
Sample forms of both:
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/services/elc/tahand.pdf
Why would
you want to
develop one?
THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO
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 http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/philosophy/index.html
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 www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/teaching_resources/reflecting/philosophy.htm
Questions to Help You Get Started
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?
Great sample teaching philosophy statements available at
http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/teaching/forms/Sample%20Teach
ing%20Statements%20(ALL).pdf
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 24th, 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