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From: skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Patricia Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Teacher Competence
Message-ID: <6290@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Date: 27 Jan 89 22:54:19 GMT
References: <1461@trantor.harris-atd.com> <5908@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu.UUCP (Patricia Roberts)
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Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
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In article <5908@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> bls@cs.purdue.edu (Brian L. Stuart) writes:
>This is really a part of the question about whether or not
>teachers are given sufficient education to teach well. My
>experience leads me to think not.

Right now I'm teaching a class to people who will be teaching high, junior
high, and elementary school.  They are not prepared.

They'll be okay English teachers.  I shudder to think about those elementary
school teachers teaching math or science, however.

>This may seem like hearesy to some, but how about using
>the students' evaluation of teachers are part of the process.  After
>all, it is the students who are the "consumers" of the teaching "product."

(I assume you mean heresy and not hearsay?  Both would apply in this
instance.)

I was involved in the decision whether or not to retain a Stat prof.  His
evaluations were _incredible_.  Two of us wanted to retain him.  The other
person didn't want to.  That third person had no trouble completely
ignoring the fact that this prof had received unheard-of evaluations.

Student evaluations can be very deceptive.  There's always a bad one.
There's always a good one.  (No matter how good or bad the teacher.)
From that point on, you can get a lot of bad ones because it was a bad
group of students, or a lot of good ones because the teacher was an
easy grader.  

Places that I have seen that put a lot of emphasis on student evaluations
tended not to have any demanding teachers.  "Demanding" just isnt' a
positive adjective for most students--until years afterwards.

In other words, I'm all over the place when it comes to the benefits of
student evaluations.  They can be very useful or totally useless.  And
that can mean that they will be interpreted however is politically
convenient.  


-- 
-Trish	 		 		"...cleansed
(919)230-0809			of oratory, formulas, choruses, laments, static
skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu 	crowding the wires..."             -A. Rich