Is anyone else bothered that our primary feedback on our work comes from children? I'm talking, of course, about course evaluations. But if you think about it for a minute, it's true: most jobs, you complete a project, someone tells you good job (or should). Moreover, the people who observe and evaluate your work are peers and superiors. In academia, the people who observe and evaluate you on a day-to-day basis are distracted 18-year olds who don't understand what your job actually is.But they say the most interesting things.
"She expects us to be too mature"The post has hit a nerve with the professor's readers, there are lots of comments. That last one is priceless (as if a student lacks the life management skills to include reading ahead of time among other obligations but mirabile dictu finds the time to read afterwards!)
"She expects us to actually be interested in the course material on our own" (this was listed as a "weakness" of mine)
"Professor ... doesn't know how to lecture"
"Too much work on WebCT! I signed up for a lecture course, not a distance learning course"
"I do not pay to hear what other students think. I pay to hear what the instructor thinks"
"Her regionalisms [from a different part of the country] bother me"
"By requiring us to post on WebCT before class, she forced us to do the reading ahead of time, which is very difficult and unfair for students with other obligations."
Among the comments is this gem:
"She favors smart students over the regular students which is bias."Hee hee. Life after college is the revenge of the nerds. Deal. Then there's this:
"She's too smart to be my teacher."You can't make up stuff like this. And, unfortunately, identity politics has appeared to have poisoned the well.
"This was supposed to be a class on great Victorian literature, but half the writers were women."Let me guess: George Eliot, assorted Brontes, Jane Austen?
I had some fun with course evaluation comments last summer. The sequel will be this June.
No comments:
Post a Comment