This has been on my mind recently and it’s something teachers don’t talk about but perhaps should. At the end of each semester, students in our universities are given the chance to evaluate their college courses and their professors. These students are perhaps 18-23 years old and have zero experience teaching university level courses. Further, their only experience with education is their time spent as students in our current K-12 system.
Years ago this seemed to be a formality and a way of allowing students to think that they had a voice in their education. At my previous university, the data was collected, offered to professors and then filed away never to be regarded again.
These days, the data collected seems to have made its way into having some sort of actual weight as a means of reviewing and assessing professors. Though student evaluations and comments are completely subjective and 100% determined by how the student feels about the class they were required to take, I’ve had student comments quoted in my own annual reviews as evidence to support that I’m a good teacher. I also know the opposite has happened to my peers.
Students who have bad experiences with professors may have these experiences for many reasons. Some students are forced to miss classes due to a variety of reasons, both valid and invalid and those students may then see the professor’s attendance policy as cruel and heartless, even when it is a department policy completely out of the hands of the professor. Some students are just there to check a box on a degree program and they have terrible attitudes that negatively impact the entire class. These students interpret the positive passion of the professor as irritating. Some students enjoy comfort and have no desire to be uncomfortable, which is required in any effective educational situation.
I’ll offer myself as an example for consideration. I’ve been teaching studio art classes for 23 years at the university level. Unlike many professors, I have a background in education and was trained as a teacher in college. My classes are challenging by design. My projects are problem-based, meaning they seem nearly impossible when introduced, causing the students to systematically problem-solve many different solutions in order to complete the assignment. The curriculum I’ve designed for the sculpture area is a spiral curriculum, designed to give students experiences with various types of sculptural approaches again and again at varying levels of difficulty. This system rewards students who are determined and disciplined and silently provides them with an entire program of best practices in studio behavior.
A student in my class will have no idea any of this is happening and why should they? Their focus needs to be on each assignment in order to succeed. When I introduce a project and refuse to show past examples of student work, students always think I’m being mean. The truth is, I’m forcing them to think creatively by not showing them how another student solved the problem. You show examples in math, not in studio art. And yes, there’s valid educational research to support my approach.
Similarly, when I confess that some of my projects are designed to bring experiences with “failure”, students lose their minds. This is so clearly bad teaching in their inexperienced eyes. They do not have the experience or mental space to understand that by guiding students carefully into a made up “failure” situation, I am providing them the opportunity to experience the inevitable flop of an idea with total support. This then allows the student to build independence and confidence as they work their way out of the “failure” and create a successful project.
Are there easier ways to teach art? Absolutely. But my way is very effective at producing exceptional artists and I’m happy to provide a long list of names to anyone interested. I am not choosing to throw a bunch of information at students and just watch as they sink or swim. I am personally and individually involved in their educational journey in my classes. Each student is different and each one has different needs.
Students can’t be expected to understand my teaching methods fully while they are my students. If they could, they probably wouldn’t need me. I’ve been very lucky in my 23 years and while I’ve endured the occasional grade protest, negative comment and even a couple of grade appeals that have moved all the way up the chain of command, my overall student evaluations have been above average. That doesn’t protect me from the occasional student with an axe to grind or one who feels they can offer me advice on my teaching methods.
Many of my peers have not been so lucky. Some have had negative student comments and ratings used as evidence in their annual reviews. I’ve been on hiring committees when these student evaluations have come up in the decision making process. I’ve sat with very upset MFA students after reading their student comments after their first semester of teaching and had them question whether or not this career was worth the pain. I’m not using sensational language and parables here, I can give you names and real examples.
Students don’t know they don’t know everything. I don’t have a problem understanding this after many years of engaging with their brains. I’ve had many 18 year olds tell me how the world works. The problem here is that educational professionals such as chairs, deans and university administrators also know that students don’t know everything, yet they still provide those students the tool to offer feedback on a topic they actually know very little about. Then, they choose to attempt to use the tool as some sort of valid teacher evaluation system.
Students also forget that their professors are real humans with real lives and real emotions. If they had to read those comments in real time to the professor’s face and watch their reaction, my guess is that student evaluations would go away fast. These professors have the same self-doubt, insecurities and bad days that everyone else has. They read these rude, offensive and often completely untrue comments and cry real tears.
So why am I writing this? Again, this isn’t about me at all and please do not send me notes of encouragement. I’m not down or even feeling beat up about my evaluations for this semester or any prior. My concern is for my fellow professors who can suffer real career damage from these anonymous evaluations provided by unqualified reviewers. If you’re a professor reading this, maybe let your chair and dean know how ridiculous this practice has become. If you’re a student reading this, maybe take the time to really consider the human you’re reviewing at the end of each semester. If you’ve taken my class, you’ve been taught how to provide true statements without being mean.
If you’re the type of student who revels in the slander of your professors at the end of each semester, I hope two things for you:
1. I hope you live long enough to have the life experience you need to understand that you were absolutely unqualified to provide educational feedback and advice to your very experienced and very trained professors.
2. I hope you end up being a teacher so you, too, can experience the true sadness of giving yourself passionately to a low paying, low reward job only to have a child with zero experience in life or teaching tell you that they do not approve of your teaching methods – methods you’ve perfected by teaching longer than the student has been alive. (Actually I don’t hope this for you, but rather, I hope you do live to regret and feel true sorrow for your negative review and I hope that regret leads you to offer your most sincere apologies to the professor(s) you kicked while they were at their most vulnerable.)
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