Instructor Evaluation Survey (10-15 min)

Okay, one last survey for us this semester.

You get these for all of your classes, usually in an email. You can also access it here: Student Course and Faculty Evaluations – Enrollment Management (cuny.edu) (click on “Log in” in middle of page and use your Baruch username and password).

What do these actually do? How are they most valuable?

Let’s start with a wider contextual information that helps see flaws in this system of evaluation.

Here are some sources:

Bias against female instructors is large and statistically significant. Difficult to adjust for this bias.

In addition to female instructors, there is a large bias in these methods of evaluation for people of color.

Here is a great bibliography of all research on bias in student evaluation surveys: Overview of bias in student evaluations – Google Docs

And here is a popular source that sums up much of this research, especially one study that attempted to create ideal conditions in which these measures still end up being flawed: Study: Student evaluations of teaching are deeply flawed (insidehighered.com)

So, what value can these things add?

Well, imperfect as they are, they are still used to evaluate instructors by administrators (i.e., management, bosses).

Imperfect as they are, they still communicate something and can be used by job seekers (or asked to be provided by employers) when applying for jobs or promotion.

Imperfect as they are, they can still give instructors some valuable information that might confirm or complicate intuitions instructors have about how the class was going (and how to adjust for next time).

So, I would say to do the following when filling out these surveys:

• Do not rush through them. If you want to give a lower score, for instance, be sure you have thought it through and genuinely feel that way. Since these can have an effect on evaluation decisions (e.g., tenure, promotion, hiring/firing/laying off), be sure you are assigning scores you believe in and are filling it in thoughtfully.
• In open-ended portion, offer constructive criticism. If you did like something, explain what you liked. If you did not like something, explain why and do so in a way that is helpful toward revision of the course. Finally, if you do have something to offer that you did not like, try to think of something you did like, too. (this helps! it can confirm some things that are working which is just as valuable as saying something about what is not working).

 

Example Research Paper (30 min)

Let’s look at an example research project. Go to Blackboard>Course Documents. Download the file that starts with “5-10 Class”.

In this project, read it over and think about the following:

• how does it communicate effectively about research it finds?
• how is it relevant to the main argument?
• how does it connect to ideas already there?
• Can it be improved in the ways it is doing things in the above questions?
• Anything else noteworthy?

 

 

Read In-Progress Writing (30 min)

Today you will share some in-progress writing or finished writing that you would like to revise. I’ll pair you off and you will review it.

Today you will share some in-progress writing or finished writing that you would like to revise. I’ll pair you off and you will review it.

If you are a pair, follow these steps:

• Communicate what you are trying to do in your draft and what you want feedback on (e.g., is there one element that you aren’t sure of and want to know what they think about it?)
• Find a way to exchange in-progress drafts (email, Discord message)
• Read each other’s drafts
• Check in with each other to see when you are done
• Exchange verbal or written feedback about:
  • Say back to other person what you think the draft is trying to do, its main goals and how it goes about it (i.e., to see if it is doing what original author is trying to do)
  • Say at least one thing about what is working really well
  • Say one thing that they might want to think about revising/adding/deleting.

If you are a trio, follow these steps:

• Do all of the above, but make sure you are doing a rotation. For instance, let’s say Sofy, Griffin, and Tia are a trio. Sofy would read Griffin’s, Griffin would read Tia’s, and Tia would read Sofy’s.

 

 

 

Reflecting and Learning Module 10 (10-15 min)

In Learning Module 10, the focus was on connecting goals and values of writing to what you have done so far in your own writing. Let’s talk more about that.

If you are behind on major projects and won’t be done them by May 17, I would recommend not doing the extra credit version on this. You’ll want to focus energy on those, if that’s case. In that case, I would say do the non-extra-credit version of the Final Reflection.

However, if you are caught up on major projects and just want extra credit, or want to do extra credit to help with previous homework you missed (e.g., Reading Responses, Learning Modules, Process Writing), or maybe even because you love learning and you are really cool like that…go for it! Do the extra credit version of the Final Reflection.

Let’s look again at the Final Reflection prompt. Go to Blackboard>Submit Assignments>Major Writing Projects>Final Reflection.

 

Next Time (2-5 min)

-Submit major writing assignments. Mostly, that would be Rhetorical Analysis Draft 1, Rhetorical Analysis Draft 2, Research Project Draft 1.

-Work on Final Reflection

-Work on any other make up work