This is a research school and that's the top priority, but my teaching evals have to improve too. They did improve from my first to second year, but it's clear that they need to improve more to be with the "masses." Like Mathematical Hologram, I've had social issues since I was a kid. I've worked hard on improving myself, making eye contact, etc. but it's an uphill climb. I bring in 1-2 observers from the teaching center every year. (Yes, I've asked several doctors about Asperger's, and all say I don't have it.)
I teach a relatively dry methods class, which has two sections: The morning section's students participate less, rarely laugh at my jokes or even at funny videos, and just generally like me less than the afternoon kids. The afternoon section are less smart and hard working, but they participate more, and from what they wrote on the anonymous midterm evaluations, they like me a great deal.When I asked about the best parts of the class, the afternoon section wrote stuff like:
- "Thank you for your passion and enthusiasm on the topic. The material is uninteresting to me, but your positive attitude and jokes keep me interested and make me want to try."
- "Like the teaching style & enthusiasm."
- "Like your energy."
- "Examples we can relate to."
- "Dr. Penny and her personality."
- "Teacher is concise and in control, a quality that (sadly) few teachers have." (I'd consider this my weakest point, so maybe this is anonymous flattery.)
- "It's obvious you enjoy teaching."
I mention this because these are the best midterm evals I've had so far. (This is my third year of teaching.) On the other hand, the morning section's evals were decent but not effusive. Both sections had complaints: My slides are unattractive and too wordy, some of the examples weren't relevant to them and we should have more activities and videos/less lecture. (They're used to videos from other classes.)
In an attempt to address their feedback, I decided to review a difficult topic using a well known game show suggested in Tools for Teaching. I spent hours preparing this that I probably should have spent on research. I divided the class up into groups, and each got to choose an easier or harder question (worth more or less money) in a category. I gave them a handout with the major terms defined, and they could consult that. The winning groups received candy bars, but nothing they said was being graded. The morning section that's usually so cold and quiet did well and loved it. The afternoon section kept choosing hard questions, getting them wrong and complaining that the $400 questions in some categories were easier than others. (That's true for the real game show too!) Or they complained that my hint to one group was "better" than the one for others and they should get the points back. They're usually cheerful and say goodbye to me as they leave for the weekend, but they didn't do it that day. If I were smarter socially, I would have anticipated that seeing negative dollar values next to their group numbers would upset them.
Yes, I know the story about flakes and this generation being special.I'm sure I'll be called a snowflake enabler, but I can't afford to lose the good ratings from the afternoon section because of this game show issue, especially when we're about to get into more difficult material.
Q: Does anyone have any advice on what to do to make the afternoon section feel better about themselves?
We all know they'll blame my teaching for not doing well at the game show. FYI: I am very strict on excused absences (documentation required) and on assignment deadlines. So I wouldn't call myself lenient. However, classes in my subject tend to be "fluffy," so I have to provide some videos and activities to avoid suffering by comparison.
I've actually had a lot of success with these switch-up games. No one wants an identical learning experience every time. I try to create a five-pronged approach that rotates: lecture / discussion / writing / group work / class game.
ReplyDeleteAnd the games are always so different that it never feels like we're doing the same thing: ie, a jeopardy game for review, a debate, a peer review project, a newspaper editorial.... etc
You could frame it as an experiment in teaching meant to benefit you rather than evaluate them.
ReplyDeleteSay something like "Thank you for your participation in the little game show last week! I had hoped to gain some insight into your understanding by presenting the questions in a different format. Hearing your responses helped me understand where you are as a class. I know getting an answer wrong is frustrating, but hopefully we can work together to improve before the exam. Now were there any particular questions from the game that you wanted to go over?"
They likely won't remember any questions, but if there are any people that are seriously pissed then they can get clarification.
Isis, thanks. I've already posted all the questions and answers, so I can probably ask if they've looked
ReplyDeleteAcademic Monkey, unfortunately, I have a lot of research to do this semester so I have little time to come up with lots of activities. They seem to like worksheets with questions to answer, so this was a novelty. I'll be more careful about using it with the afternoon class in the future.
I'd definitely be interested in hearing more comments if anyone reads this over the weekend.
ReplyDeleteDo something simple like moving a homework deadline from friday to monday and call it a consolation prize when you announce it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you shouldn't have made the prize something tangible like candy bars and allowing negative scores was similarly a bad move. $0 isn't good but it isn't as negative as -$400.
DeleteI completely agree about the negative scores--terrible idea. I was trying to do an activity that would be fun for them, and unfortunately didn't have time to think about how every detail would be interpreted.
ReplyDeleteGiven that all classes are curved, moving homework back for one group would be a bad idea. And there's no room in the schedule at this stage to push any assignments back for the whole class.
I'm curious: Why is a tangible prize problematic? Again, given the curve, no prize can be remotely connected with one's grade.
When I do a similar activity, I give candy to everyone who tries an answer (like one starburst or other wrapped candy). That way, the candy is for effort, and there's no chance it will be seen as "prof giving candy to her favourites". I also give mini candy to students after their presentations, for the same reason - everyone gets the reward.
DeleteYou keep talking about the curve. Why is it so rigid? It might be one reason students are unhappy; if they feel like their efforts are not being rewarded because of some mathematical handicap.
Giving candy is a tangible reward...it's something that you can instantly recognize whether you have it or you don't. You might have a credit card with a $25000 credit limit but that doesn't excite you nearly as much as getting a loan for $25000 and having it put down in front of you in $100 bills.
DeleteThe candy bars you handed out served as physical items that demonstrate who the losers are. When it's abstract it doesn't have the same impact. Going back to the credit card...when you put $25000 on it you don't think "crap I'm $25k in debt".
Frankly, this is pretty discouraging. So many students said, "Too much lecture! We want more activities." I spent 10 hours trying to come up with an activity they'd enjoy and that helps them learn--and learn they did. Now, I'm afraid I've ruined everything with that section because of a few negative numbers.
ReplyDeleteI tried to think about every detail I could, but there's only so much I can anticipate. If I were a genius at predicting and manipulating people's reactions, I'd probably be in sales.
Maybe I should just stick to videos and worksheets. I thought they'd enjoy friendly competition when the results don't matter, but I guess they don't.
Sounds like you need to work on the relationships between students in the class as well as their relationships with you. If they feel comfortable with each other, they are more likely to see competition as fun rather than threatening.
Delete"Why is it so rigid? It might be one reason students are unhappy; if they feel like their efforts are not being rewarded because of some mathematical handicap."
DeleteYou're absolutely right. I can't give too many details without identifying the school, but the curve is mandatory. It was created to curb grade inflation, but it creates a nasty zero-sum culture between students. I'd get rid of it in a second if I could.
I've already done the "candy for all who answer" routine in the course of Q&A during several lectures. I figured that I'd try a game show to do something a little different because throwing out candy was getting old.
I usually bring in pizza once a semester. I could bring it in for everyone after we do this kind of competitive activity. Does that sound like a good idea?
I dunno, it smells a bit desperate. Have you tried the old trick of genuinely caring about them and enjoying their company?
DeleteDid you read the original post?
DeleteI just want to say that it's good you tried. this. It's good you're thinking along these lines. And it will get easier over time. When I started teaching, it would take me hours and hours to come up with even the most basic lessons. I couldn't gauge how long any given activity would take. I'd finish lectures way too early, or have way too much material. Now, I can come up with a two-hour lesson on the way to campus and have it work (okay, not every day, but the time spent preparing for class has been drastically reduced). You'll figure it out. But it's important to try to spend less time preparing lessons if you need to get research done. It's also important not to expend all your energy beating yourself up or worrying about the class. You had a good and creative day and learned what not to do next time. I doubt the students will hold one day against you, especially over something that wasn't graded. Now be confident, remind them of your office hours, and go finish your book.
ReplyDeleteIt's papers in my field, but thanks for the reminder. This is definitely what I need to hear right now and where I need to put my energy.
DeletePenny, you can only be yourself. People--including students--can almost always spot a lack of genuine-ness. Doing whatever it takes to make students like you is a recipe for disaster. Passing out candy or pizza in class is, IMO, evidence of "snowflake enabling."
ReplyDeleteIt's unclear why and others think I'm not being genuine simply because I give out candy. (The snowflake enabler bit is a separate topic, which I addressed in another part of my post.) I am passionate about my subject and I put my rather quirky personality into my teaching. I have a great crop of students this year, especially my afternoon ones, many of whom seem to enjoy being there.
DeleteI'm always open to criticism, which is why I invite observers into my classroom. But while I've gotten a few useful bits of constructive criticism/advice here, it's mixed in with a lot of non-constructive criticism. It's unclear how anyone benefits from being told, "You're a fake, and everyone can see through you!" More generally, it's disappointing to see that a "pounce on the newbie" vibe has developed over the past few years.
The point about being myself is well taken, but as several very successful profs in my field have told me, part of our jobs is to be actors.
DeleteI think using the pounce on the newbie defense is silly. Are you not familiar with the page?
DeleteAnd, your replies suggest to me that nobody's ideas or views on this issue are what you were hoping for, and so we're all lacking because of that. That's the vibe I'm getting.
But welcome anyway. I've read this page from the beginning and don't recall ever seeing your name before. There is an adjustment phase, Penny, and not everyone makes it. But with very few exceptions, nobody is here to just pounce.
Darla
Very much with Philip. I have a analog-ish problem -- I have ingrained habits of aloofness due to coming from a different school system. This is going to sound abstract, but rather than playing against your weaknesses play your strengths. I created a teaching persona (Mr. Arrogant European Professor) that exaggerates the aloofness to a comical point -- while, at the same time, making clear that I care immensely about their progress.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to show research, but my teaching evals were an issue early on. One of the best pieces of advice I got was to make the class content the monster; you and the students are on the same side. It sounds like your p.m. class already senses that.
ReplyDeletePractical tips:
1. Find out how much improvement will be enough to keep you employed for one more year. Do midterm evals for yourself. If you have achieved that much improvement, focus your time on your research rather than trying to come up with new activities.
2. Try Jeopardy when you do have time. There are lots of PowerPoint versions out there on the .edu webs, so you don't need to do any programming. All you have to do is substitute questions and answers for your topic. There are negative points, but make a joke that the students owe you a dollar for every negative point, and then say, "Of course, the negative points don't matter." Rather than candy (problematic for students with diabetes or allergies or trying to lose weight or fasting for Ramadan -- all issues that have come up in my classes!), try cheap prizes like # 2 pencils printed with $100 bills (Staples) or buttons with bad puns about your content (Cafe Press). Sure, it's perhaps an unnecessary work-related expense, but it costs less for 4 semesters than another pair of shoes.
3. What Darla said.
Well, you're already doing considerably more than I could stomach, or pull off (some of my colleagues, including some I very much respect and believe to be good teachers do the hand-out-candy thing; having never encountered it in even in elementary or high school, I just can't imagine doing it; I wouldn't know where to begin). And I certainly can't imagine making up game shows (and as a student, I would have been insulted to encounter any such activity past about 5th grade, and skeptical before that. I realize that not all students are like me, but my own attitude does have something to do with the ability-to-pull-it-off thing). Mind you, my teaching evals aren't stellar, either (though they're good enough to keep me in a job where teaching is the only thing being evaluated -- fortunately not just by the students, however). But I guess I'm sort of leaning in the same direction as French Professeur -- maybe some of these tactics just don't fit your personality, and that's one reason they aren't going over as well as a more straightforward, focused-on-the-subject approach would? Or, to put it another way, would that approach, which wouldn't have you spending a lot of time on something that doesn't really have anything to do with your subject or your students' learning, go over any worse? I not, then I wouldn't spend precious research time on something that won't make a difference.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you do, definitely spend more time and energy on your publishing than on coming up with more and more complicated ways of presenting material in class. If your school cares about publication at all, the more you've published, the harder it will be not to retain/tenure you. And if you continue to have trouble bringing your teaching evaluations up to the level they desire, more publications will put you in a better position to apply for a job where teaching evals matter less.
Mind you, I believe teaching is important. I'm just not sure that teaching with one eye on the teaching evals makes teaching better. It can, however, make you crazy, and maybe even be counterproductive, since you can end up undermining your own authority, and looking a bit desperate. Honestly, it sounds to me like you were getting pretty good evals *before* you tried this special activity. As someone here (F&T?) often says, the midterm evals are a good idea, and it's a good idea to do something that looks like a response to them. But maybe it would have been better to edit the slides a bit, or show a video or two? It sounds like the game show episode might best be read as evidence that you are trying *too* hard, quite possibly in a way that doesn't fit your personality, and that it's time to dial back your efforts to fit the departmental/institutional culture (including, perhaps, the repeated observations -- that's a lot of observations), at least a bit, play to your strengths, and put yourself in a position, via research/writing, to find a job at a place that's a better fit if necessary.
FrenchProf, I'm not really aloof though. My persona is more quirky, whimsical and sometimes self deprecating. That's why people in the the afternoon section wrote "I like that we laugh a lot in here."
ReplyDeleteCassandra, thanks for the constructive response. I understand what you're saying, Cassandra. The problem is that my class is being compared to others in the subject, which are full of videos and so forth. I had a few of them, but I spent the first half of the semester "focused on the subject matter," and the students look bored and, indeed, said on their midterm evals, "We want more activities and videos!" It's much tougher to find videos for my class, so I came up with the game show.
I actually enjoy doing stuff like that. The problem is that they only enjoy them if they're doing well, which the first section did. A simple change like not writing down any score (instead of a zero or negative) for a wrong answer could have rendered the activity better.
They consider worksheets to be activities, so I may use those instead. They're certainly easier to put together, and it's not possible to "fail."
That makes sense to me. I'm still a bit concerned that all this assessing how things are going is giving them the message that they, not you, are in the drivers' seat. That can put you in the position of trying to please all of the people all of the time, which is proverbially impossible. If you have time, you might want to experiment with *not* giving midterm evals one time, and see if, in your particular situation, they're helping or hurting the final scores.
DeleteIt sounds like the category of "activities" is pretty broad in their minds, and includes various kinds of what are probably called "active" or "inquiry-based" learning. That's actually a more effective approach than videos, to my mind (after all, a video is just a non-live lecture, right? Or are videos in your field full of special effects -- maybe even ones that demonstrate something that's hard to demonstrate in a classroom? If so, I could see the point. But it sounds like that's beyond the point for your subfield annyway). And you say you're pretty comfortable with putting together worksheets/activities. So maybe that's a sweet spot -- works for you, works for them, actually supports learning?
In any case, I have a bigger problem now: My TA lost an exam. I looked through his exam in my office afterwards, so I know it was there.
ReplyDeleteI always have my TAs make copies of the completed exams to safeguard against this. My TA has gone home for the weekend and will look for it tomorrow when she gets back, but I'm guessing it's gone.
Luckily, the multiple choice section, worth 2/3 of the points, already went to the Scantron folks. But it's still a disaster.
Oy! How does that happen? Well, in any case, though it's your problem, it's clearly not your fault. And if the evals suffer (I assume you're being evaluated by your TA's students as well), you'll have a strong case for throwing that batch out.
DeleteIt sounds like you can't do anything about it today, in any case. So go write something ;)
DeleteAnd Proffie, thanks for the practical tips. Those were exactly what I was looking for. Jeopardy was the game I used, which is why I ended up with the negative dollar values. I found a set of instructions for creating a Jeopardy board, but must have missed the templates. In any case, most of the work was in creating multiple examples in a category.
ReplyDeleteYou know what worked best for me? Not caring what the snowflakes thought. I spent the first few years trying my best to come up with edutainment, because that's what they claimed they wanted. But what students WANT (to be entertained) and what they NEED (to learn) are different things. Occasionally, we can combine the two, but not always. The students don't know how to best learn, and if you spend your life catering to what they claim they want, simply to get good evals, you won't be happy and they won't be happy. Asking them on a separate day to do midterm evals would yield different results, because they are fickle. If you spend the energy on things that prove to them that they are learning, that will help with evals more than anything (showing them how something they did earlier in the semester built up to where they are now, and how they've learned that through your guidance). They will remember the game as something fun, or something not fun, rather than seeing it as a learning tool (and that's not what you had wanted, either).
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're doing what you can to instill enthusiasm in them for the subject matter in your own way. Keep doing that and stop caring so much what they think of you (because as soon as you start to worry about what they think, you aren't concentrating on how best to convey info). Yes, evals matter to some degree, but your earnestness and your command of the subject will go far, too.
Good luck.
Penny, here are my thoughts based on what I've read from your post and comments.
ReplyDeleteTell the students that you just wanted to do something new and different. Jeopardy was easier for you to prepare than building a big wheel to spin but it's a work in progress. Don't get down on your knees and grovel, just mention in passing that you realize that the game didn't work out as smoothly as you hoped.
I'd say professors are performers, not actors. Performers can be themselves but communicate the information well.
Don't worry about these comments. If you don't think they apply to your situation, chalk it up to a lack of communication in an online forum among strangers. Don't get hung up on why CM commenters don't like you when you are worried about why students don't like you.
It's not that people--well, I'll speak for myself--it's not that I dislike Penny, it's that trying to make students like us is not only difficult, but pointless, as well. Look at what happened in her afternoon class: They played the same game as morning students, but they chose the hard questions, got them wrong, and then complained. Then they complained that Penny wasn't fair because her hints to one group were better than her hints to another. Then they wanted their lost points back. If she'd have given them what they wanted, they might have been happier and liked her better, but the other group would have been unhappy and disliked her.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's possible to make every student or every class happy, and if that's true, then unhappy students probably won't like their teacher. And so what? If I want "likes," I'll start up a Facebook page.
Penny's concern is improving her student evaluations, and THAT'S the problem. If ratings from students are at the center of a tenure/no tenure decision, then teachers who are unpopular--no matter what or how relevant the reason--will have a long, hard row to hoe.
Cheap and easy advice: Give every student one grade higher than they deserve and see what happens.