The provost, Dr. Aflake, wants faculty input. Should we have a quota system? Should we publish each proffie's grade distribution so students who want to learn more can take harder proffies? Should we deny cost of living raises to proffies who give too many high marks.
Dr. Amelia, she of non-existent tenure, has an idea. Declare a secret (to the flakes) amnesty for the faculty for the next three years. The scores on student evaluations will not be considered in faculty evaluations until the current crop is flushed from the system. This can be concurrent with faculty discussion/experimentation on higher standards and tougher grading, which faculty can participate in without fear of repercussions for being tough or the only one who is tough. In other words, agree that the administration won't use evaluation scores as a sole or even major criteria for evaluation of classroom expertise. We can start over with the freshies in 4 years.
After all, research shows that expected grades and evaluations are, in fact positively correlated AND that faculty have the strong opinion that this is the case.
Q: So being of the non-existent tenure, Dr. Amelia should keep her mouth shut and continue to bring chocolate on evaluation days, correct?
Correct. When I was an untenured, accursed Visiting Assistant Professor, I used to hate myself for being such a creampuff. Your incredibly poor management appears unable to make the logical connection of what they are imposing on you, though, so you may not have much choice but to keep handing out candy. I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a shiny new, accursed Visiting Assistant Professor, I was flabbergasted at how university administrators could take student evaluations at face value. I used to want to shake them and scream, "What the hell is wrong with you? Didn't you ever have kids? Weren't you ever an undergraduate yourself? Don't you know they lie disturbingly often, and when they don't they often make mistakes?!?" I then managed to get a tenure-track job, so I wish you the best of luck in finding one, too!
Something else that helped was that we used to have a silly instructor who got wonderful student evaluations, precisely because he was so undemanding. I think they spent half the time watching films. We still have another, really good instructor, who gets low student evaluations, because he is so demanding. When I served as department chair, I had the great pleasure of getting to can the silly one. I also had the great pleasure of pointing out to the other faculty that when the good one's students show up in our subsequent courses, they know their stuff, and the idea so far has still stuck. Savor the small victories, since they sure are rare enough.
I LOVE the evaluation amnesty idea!
ReplyDeleteProbably. But I, too, love the amnesty idea. My only suggestion is to extend the period to six years or so. It takes a long time to flush the system these days. If your school is anything like mine, you also have to deal with the issue of students drifting in and out from other institutions. Ideally, this needs to be a nationwide movement; at the very least, I'd suggest trying to get the local cc (unless the House of Learnin and Pancakes -- love the name -- is a cc; I can never remember who teaches where) on board. Actually, this is one of those cases where if you are the local cc, you may be in a stronger position to effect real change.
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea and if you would suggest it then you are proposing a solution, not just whining. They probably won't do it, but that is another issue. The additional challenge that you, and we all, will face is that many of our colleagues THINK they are demanding, when, in fact, they are creampuffs. Other profs don't want to be demanding and it has nothing to do with evals, it has to do with snowflake whining, anger, crying, and sometimes aggression. Some profs don't want the hassles that often come with being tough (esp. if one has two X chromosomes). To have more demanding profs also requires that the admins and grade appeal committees above us will hold the students to higher standards and not give in to the customer.
ReplyDeleteIn the archives of "Doonesbury":
Deletehttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury
there were a number of strips on that very issue, starting, I think, in January 1994 and running over several weeks. A prof at Walden College gave a frat member a grade he felt he didn't deserve. The prof was subsequently sued because of the loss of reputation and self-esteem.
There's also the issue of grades themselves. I know it's probably not a popular idea here, but I'm not convinced the grades actually matter in any real sense. They certainly don't reflect learning, and I suspect they may actually inhibit it. In that light, gradet inflation is the wrong problem to address.
ReplyDeleteThis is a blog about higher education. Take your discussion of "learning" somewhere else.
DeleteYes, bring the chocolates. Also, have a quick refresher on what they covered so they remember they learned something, and possibly return a graded assignment with good marks for everyone.
ReplyDeleteBut, to better improve the grade distribution, change the metrics. Look at the recent study about lecturers being better instructors than tenured faculty that graced our page, not because of the outcomes, but because of the metrics used. They looked at student performance in later classes, and number of students who chose to take more classes in the subject. This accurately measures how well a class teaches the material, and how interesting the instructor makes the subject.
Using the correct metric will remove the external pressures we've created that cause grade inflation.
Another view on grade inflation:
ReplyDeletehttp://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1675
No advice here. Just an observation that at least your administration actually recognizes that too many A's are being given. My institution's average grade is now hovering at a high B+, but the administration is saying that this is normal--even wonderful. It shows that our higher admissions standards are paying off. The students are so much smarter now.
ReplyDelete(Never mind the fact that half the students who come to our school are transfers who did not have to meet the rigorous admissions criteria. Or the fact that only 30% of all undergraduate course hours are currently taught by TT faculty.)
"In other words, agree that the administration won't use evaluation scores as a sole or even major criteria for evaluation of classroom expertise." Fat chance.
ReplyDeleteIn my T & P statement, I said that while I try to glean what constructive criticism I can from evals, anonymous data sampled from a population that is a priori non-expert in the subject matter must be taken with the appropriate grain of salt. I don't know if that went in my favor, but I do know that it didn't tip the scale too far against me.
ReplyDelete