Re: Student Evaluations of Teaching

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

> I grant that not all are as lucky as I and that I have a good situation but,
> it can be done effectively. I would imagine that if someone watched your
> classes, labs, and saw how questions were answered, etc. they could tell
> where improvement was needed. They could also tell if a person was
> incompetent. I think that people are afraid of having other people involved
> because they fear judgment. If people shared more and invited people into
> their classes before the dean, etc. had to get involved, if things were more
> collaborative, struggling people could get help rather than they continue to
> get poor student evaluations, nothing happens, and they are not effective.

Steve, I don't share your assumptions:  In a previous incarnation during a
rather stirring faculty meeting, the "senior" (ie tenured) faculty offered
to act individually as a mentor to each of the "junior" faculty within a
given department -- to sit occasionally in their classes and point out
helpful teaching ideas and to guide their individual research.

After the meeting, in a quiet moment, I went to the office of the faculty
senate president and asked him to propose a few parings -- just for
instance.  He could not.  In every case contemplated the junior faculty
member was a better teacher and was doing much better research than any
proposed senior faculty mentor.

The matter was dropped.

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen