In a Faculty Focus article, Dr. Linda Shadiow and Dr. Maryellen Weimer suggested using end-of-semester evaluations to get information from your students that can help you develop your teaching persona (the slice of your identity that constitutes the “public teaching self.”)
Your teaching persona should be created from a series of choices made with the aim of enhancing student learning. In the article Drs. Shadiow and Weimer write,
By the end of a semester, we have a sense of how a course went and what activities and actions supported student learning. But through some painful experiences we’ve learned that sometimes what we thought happened was contradicted by what students experienced.
Getting a “learner-sighted” view of the course-experience can add to your understanding of the learning environment, including aspects of your teaching persona that have framed it.
The authors suggest you begin by telling students that you’re asking questions only they can answer. Explain that this is feedback that can help you become a teacher who helps students learn more effectively. Here is their sample note that introduces students to the concept of evaluating the course experience and some examples of sentence stems that can yield useful information:
Your insights into your learning in this course can help me see our course from your side of the desk. Please respond to any three of the statements below (more if you’d like). Submit these anonymously; I will use them as I plan for my courses next semester.
In this course …
- it most helped my learning of the content when…because…
- it would have helped my learning of the content if…because…
- the assignment that contributed the most to my learning was… because…
- the reading that contributed the most to my learning was… because…
- the kinds of homework problems that contributed most to my learning were…because…
- the approach I took to my own learning that contributed the most for me was…because…
- the biggest obstacle for me in my learning the material was… because…
- a resource I know about that you might consider using is…because…
- I was most willing to take risks with learning new material when… because…
- during the first day, I remember thinking…because…
- what I think I will remember five years from now is…because…
What are good ways to gain insights from student feedback? Put some distance between the course and the feedback. It’s particularly beneficial to review the feedback when selecting course materials, developing assignments, and constructing the syllabus for the next semester. Another option is to have a colleague compile the results and return them to you prior to planning for the next semester.
For more information read the Faculty Focus article, A New Twist on End-of-Semester Evaluations.
Additionally, Brightspace has a survey tool that allows you to get anonymous feedback from your students. You can get more information about using Brightspace surveys in my Get Feedback from your Students tip.
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