Professors should welcome constructive criticism with evaluations

We know the teacher evaluation drill at UH. Near the end of every semester, Scantrons are passed out, the professor departs the room and a student volunteers to deliver the finished Scrantons to the college’s front office or to the Ezekiel W. Cullen building.

For some courses, there’s an email requesting students to complete an online evaluation through Access UH. Once grades are finalized, the professors are permitted to read their evaluations.

These evaluations serve as a quantitative and qualitative measure of teaching effectiveness. There is a rating scale and space for a written opinion regarding their teaching performance. They have purpose.

According to the UH Promotion and Tenure Guidelines, they allow the University to decide who deserves tenure or a promotion while keeping their performance in check. However, there are imperfections to this process.

Department of Education professor Laura Turchi touched on these flaws in the course evaluations.

“Who’s responsible for somebody’s learning? Is it the teacher or student’s responsibility?” Turchi said. “You might not always want your student to be happy because you want them to work hard.”

There is also the bias of preferences, as a professor might teach a subject that a student is disinterested in. For example, a good Calculus professor might not interest a Calculus-despising student. They might have something against the subject, not the professor; however, this imbalance of interest in the professor’s subject might affect the evaluation.

Student criticism against professors is not known for being open and direct.

Vice President of Student Government Association Erica Tat said that “(some professors) may not take constructive criticism well. So students are afraid their grades will get affected if they say something.”

An occupational hierarchy of professors imposes reservations upon students. The professor is the main authority of the grades, which will determine their academic prospects, thus impacting their career prospects.

Evaluations provide the security of anonymity. Those with reservations about talking face-to-face with teachers benefit from the privilege of anonymity.

Although some evaluations are online, making some students less motivated to complete them. Some students might abuse anonymity to voice contempt rather than critique. But overall, if applied well, it can curb fears about biases imposed upon them while critiquing the professor.

However, the end-of-semester procedure hinders progress. An earlier evaluation process would benefit both professor and student. Earlier evaluation will allow student concerns to be, as Tat puts it, “fresh in the students’ heads” when they are not stressed by oncoming finals.

Due to the late timing of evaluation, Turchi said that if she “teaches a terrible class and my students are unhappy, I won’t know about it too late until I fix it.”

Professors would have more time to adjust and address their alleged shortcomings in the middle of the semester, rather than for the next batch of students next semester. While there are drawbacks to this proposal, as mid-semester adjustments cannot be too drastic — especially when syllabuses are finalized.

Tat further suggests that a “pilot” test could be implemented to test this idea out.

There are few forums for students to publicly critique teaching performance. One example is the student-designed RateMyProfessors.com, which is a site used “to figure out who’s a great professor and who’s one you might want to avoid,” according to its About page.

With less formalities than the evaluation system, it offers space for anonymous students to post public critiques and ratings of professors. This is not with the intention of having the professors learn from them, but rather warning students who not to sign up for or offer tips to survive these professors’ teaching methods. The site prepares students for course enrollment, but it also reflects the communication gap between students and professors.

Effective evaluations require an exchange of input between professor and student. Evaluations should continue to measure performance, and they need to evolve to improve performance.

Professors should be open about their need for constructive criticism. In turn, students will be less anxious of voicing concerns. While there are some professors who may be unwilling to change, most professors would probably be willing to put effort on improving. These professors would appreciate our voices, especially if students are encouraged to express themselves.

“If you are a thoughtful instructor, you can learn from (your students),” Turchi said.

Opinion columnist Caroline Cao is a media production and creative writing senior and may be reached at [email protected].