In my teaching philosophy, I express the importance of continued improvement on my teaching style. The evaluative feedback is beneficial because the instructor is provided with criticism from the other points of view in the classroom. While at Simon's Rock, I have gathered 7 midterm surveys and 2 end of term surveys. However, I will only discuss 2 midterm surveys. In addition, I've been observed by five colleagues. However, I will only discuss one evaluation.
1. Student Feedback: The student feedback is beneficial when the students are constructive. This allows me to better determine where my flaws are and provides suggestions on how I might change these characteristics of my teaching to suit their needs.
There are 2 mid-term evaluation. I choose one from Introduction to Statistics Fall 2015 (note, there are 100+ pages) and Introduction to Statistics Fall 2016. For each evaluation, I designed it myself. There are no more than 4 pages on the first survey and the second survey is no more than 17 questions.
In both surveys, there are many generic questions asking students how they feel about the course and the instruction. The goal is to see how the students view my instruction and classroom environment so that I can understand where improvements need to be made. For example, in Fall 2016, one student stated that sometimes I mumble. As a result, I now speak toward the students and never turn my back while I speak. Also in this survey, a student suggested I use black white board markers so that the notes are always visible to students. I now only use dark colored white board markers.
For the first survey, I used paper. This has the benefit that students will immediately fill out the survey. However, several issues arise. First, I often recognize handwriting. This will create biased answers because students know I know their handwriting and wouldn't want to be singled out. Second, I might not be able to read someone's writing. Therefore, the response is not applicable for analysis. Third, I need to go through each survey and compile a summary myself.
Because of these issues, I created an electronic survey on the system known as Moodle. This removed the handwriting bias on both counts. In addition, Moodle summarizes the responses into a nice percentage. The only issues I faced were 1) creating the survey takes a lot of time and patience, and 2) the final format in excel is not easy to read so the version you see is the cleaned version.
Other than the pros and cons of the distribution system for each survey, what they aim to understand is different too. In general, I have more specific questions for this particular course. This is a course for which I have created skeletal notes. Therefore, I want to determine how many students use the skeletal notes and what they feel can be improved so that I may do so. Another section specific to this course is on R Programming. In Fall 2015, it was the first time I had taught a programming unit. Therefore, the purpose in the survey is to determine whether my lessons have increased student knowledge on R as well as increased their confidence as many students have never programmed prior to this course.
The skeletal notes are not required, so not many students use the skeletal notes. Those that do use them appreciate them very much. You can see this in both surveys. Despite the lack of criticism, I have modified skeletal notes as my lectures have changed. I chose not to ask about the skeletal notes directly in the second survey, though, because the Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 surveys remained unchanged in this response.
I have found R programming to be the most disliked portion of this course. Although I frequently remind students the purpose of learning R, they would prefer if it were a nonexistent unit as expressed in the survey for Fall 2016. The questions you see in Fall 2015 survey aimed to find a better way to teach students R. I did gather some useful information. For example, students appreciate having a list of references available, even if they don't use them. So, I've created this list as well as R programming homework that walk students through the basics they will need for labs. In addition, many students seem to enjoy being left alone to discover how R works while others would prefer to have more guidance. There needs to be a balance between allowing students to figure out the "puzzle" and guiding them through the solution. Finding this balance is what I currently strive to do. I did not ask about R directly in Fall 2016 because I did not find a significant difference in student responses between Fall 2015 and Fall 2016.
Student feedback can be useful. It has helped me discover where I need to improve and what I need to continue doing. Furthermore, my imposter syndrome is temporarily relieved because I see that many students enjoy my class while learning statistics.
The obvious difference between surveys (Fall 2015 more specific than Fall 2016) is the result of open communication between students and myself. Many students will tell me what I'm doing well, not unlike the surveys you see above. The students also tell me what I'm doing well through discussions on what they are struggling with the most. Because of this, I use the survey only for students who are less comfortable with a face-to-face evaluation of my teaching.
2. Colleague Feedback: The colleague feedback occurred during Fall 2015 by Dr. Nance Yanoshak, who was assigned to be my new faculty mentor.
Dr. Yanoshak had many years of experience teaching a Simon's Rock at the time of her visit. She was a well-regarded faculty member. However, Dr. Yanoshak had no experience in the Academy program. The class she visited was first semester of 9th grade Algebra. Dr. Yanoshak visited my class twice: once during midterm and again at the end of the term. The evaluation she filled out was brief and regarded the second visit. Fortunately, Dr. Yanoshak was willing to write me a letter of recommendation which described her experience within my classroom, and compared the two visits. In addition, we met afterward where Dr. Yanoshak provided me with advice for my concerns. At the time, I was particularly concerned with classroom management. Dr. Yanoshak believed my management was fine, as her letter indicates. I learned that my perception of my classroom is not the same as those who sit in the seats.