It’s the most wonderful time of the year: fresh snow, hot chocolate, Christmas break, term papers, tests, finals, presentations and yes—course evaluations!
Every semester, teachers, professors and TAs are required by their departments and colleges to give out course evaluations that ask the students multiple questions about the course, specifically the efficacy of the teacher and what they did (or didn’t do) to engage and disseminate the information. For weeks leading up to the evaluations, many students can be eagerly heard stating, “When that evaluation comes up…,” usually followed by a rude look and hand gesture. Certainly, the evaluations are wonderful for students to vent anger at teachers who don’t answer emails, read out of textbooks, are disrespectful to students, don’t know their materials or simply have policies that are not appropriate for the classroom. It also allows students time to give their professors feedback to improve and even what they enjoy about them and their class. On paper, teacher evaluations make perfect sense, but the research proves this to not be the case.
First of all, multiple professors have written on the fact that evaluations play on what students prefer: typically, easy and fun classes. One professor stated that studies show that good evaluations go to teachers who are entertaining and who teach to the test. Teaching to the test is subjective and not a good measurement of learning something, and it can be hard to make the drier subjects more interesting and fun. Another professor discussed that some negative student evaluations may be the result of a tough class, a class with a poor temperament or a class with a lot of work and hard tests.
Even worse is when students write comments or give feedback that is biased against women and people of color. This can often happen subconsciously or even consciously.
Inside Higher Ed discussed that “that teaching evaluations are better measures of student stereotypes than teaching effectiveness.” Rebecca Schuman, a professor writing for Slate asked her fellow professors for evaluations that showed the sexism, racism and ableism that often comes along with course evaluation season. Here are a few:
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“Thinks she’s pretty smart for a girl.”
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“His [physical handicap] makes him bitter and a bad teacher.”
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“She wasn’t an angry black woman (surprise!), but she’s wayyyy too liberal”
This isn’t just anecdotal either; this is backed up with hard evidence. Institutions and organizations have often been designed to uphold the majority and to keep out the minority. Slate discussed how being a professor is often seen as a man’s job, so female and nonbinary professors are often as seen as incompetent “interlopers,” and these evaluations effectively punish faculty that doesn’t fit into a very tiny box.
Kristina Mitchell, author of a recent study about gender bias in student evaluations, wrote for Slate about her findings saying that she noticed male professors were referred to as professor while female professors were called teachers and the comments about the men were about qualifications while the comments about the women were about personality and beauty. She also discussed how evaluation scores are often biased in favor of “white, cisgender, American-born men.” This happens in classes that are exactly the same as well. Inside Higher Ed discussed a recent study where identical classes were rated lower if the professor had a feminine name.
These evaluations aren’t just glanced over and tossed whenever the semester is over either; these evaluations play a big role in the careers of adjuncts (those with semester contracts), promotions of other professors or even whether a college decides to continue to hire a professor. Kevin Gannon, a professor and a prior faculty evaluator, says it best: “At best, student evaluations of teaching are a flawed instrument; at worst, they’re a cudgel used against faculty members, many of whom already occupy precarious positions.”
So, when filling out your faculty evaluation this winter don’t be afraid to compliment and constructively criticize your professors, but remember these helpful tips to be aware of any subconscious biases:
1. Appearance
- Don’t write your evaluation on the professor’s attire unless they’re in their lingerie, bathing suit (outside of a swimming class) or they’re in their pajamas.
2. Flip the Script
- If your teacher was a different sex, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity or ability would the comment still apply? If not, it’s probably not constructive.
3. Changeability
- Is this something your professor can work on? For example, don’t comment on your professor’s accent. While it can be challenging to understand some professors depending on their accent, this does not speak to their competency and is unfair to them.
4. Entertainment
- Classes should be interesting, and if you think that a different professor could have made the material more engaging then please mention it; professors shouldn’t just be reading from the book, but a professor not doing the macarena up there doesn’t mean they’re a bad teacher.
5. Difficulty
- If you had to study hard to do well on the tests or read more than you would’ve liked, that doesn’t mean the professor is a bad teacher. If you don’t think the professor would have passed the test or if you had to read a novel a night than maybe that’s an issue worth mentioning.