One More Appeal For Surveys!! (5-10 min)

Re-pasting what I had last week here:

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).

Final Reflection Check-in (20-25 min)

Let’s briefly review the prompt for this assignment.

In Learning Module 10 you were asked to outline your Final Reflection/Experiential-Learning Document a bit. I’m going to pair you up with another student(s). I want you to share your outlines/thoughts and talk through what you want to do for your paper.

Then we are going to come together, review the prompt once more, and talk through any questions or issues you might have.

Finally, I want each of you to private message me some initial thoughts you have for your Final Reflection assignment–what are you going to focus on and why? Nothing has to be settled here, yet, just want to see that you are thinking about it.

 

Planning (10-15 min)

I want each of you to privately message me a plan for what you are doing each day to get the writing done that you need to get done. This would be from today (May 17) until everything is due for our class (May 24).

Try to use the Writing Session Plan template each day an also the Writing Schedule Activity. Both are still available on Blackboard in Submit Assignments>Process Writing and Reading Responses.

So, for instance, you might write:

• May 17- finish revising Rhetorical Analysis and post to website, do work for other classes
• May 18- start working on the second half of my Research Project, do work for other classes
• May 19- focus on work for other classes
• May 20- finish up second half of Research Project (e.g., incorporate last two sources, write conclusion, look over previous parts and read over whole paper)
• May 21- finish revising Research Project and submit it to Blackboard, keep working on Final Reflection, do work for other classes
• May 22- focus on work for other classes
• May 23- finish Final Reflection, work for other classes
• May 24- revise Final Reflection and submit it to Blackboard, work for other classes

 

Final Thoughts (5-10 min)

If nothing else, I hope you walk away from class with this:

• What you say and write has value. What you say and write should be heard and read. I know this because I have heard and read all of you! (I mean EVERYONE here, all 24 students here have said and written wonderful things that are valuable and meaningful).
• When you hear, read, view things, I hope you continually ask: why did they say/compose/write it that way? Why not another way? What reasons were there to put it that way?
• I hope you put similar questions to your own writing and composing: why say it this way and not that way? What if I said it this way?
• The above two things means careful reading and listening practices!
• I hope you think about the process of your writing and think about people who can help you. That means thinking about the conditions of your writing and the peers/tutors/teachers that can help you if you have questions.

Whether you like it or not, we are all connected to other people and the larger environment we inhabit. Language and rhetoric are ways to coordinate that activity. The pandemic shows us very clearly how people and objects have been coordinated through rhetoric in both good and bad ways. I hope you can use language and rhetoric and know how others use it so you can participate in something larger and make knowledge that can help you and others.

I will hang out a little bit longer for questions or anything else you need. I’m also available for 1-on-1 meetings this week–email me if you want to schedule something.

 

Next Time

Turn in all work by May 24.