Using the Results of Teaching Evaluations to Improve Teaching: A Case Study of a New Systematic Process

Abstract

This article describes a new 14-step process for using student evaluations of teaching to improve teaching. The new process includes examination of student evaluations in the context of instructor goals, student evaluations of the same course completed in prior terms, and evaluations of similar courses taught by other instructors. The process has steps to help maximize instructor motivation as well as to help identify good targets for improvement. The article describes as an initial case study the experiences of academics in three disparate fields in using the new process. This initial use of the process led to deeper reflection than usual for the instructors and to ideas for ways to improve their teaching. The results indicate that the new process holds potential as a systematic way of using student numerical ratings and comments to produce plans for improvements in teaching.Instructors at many universities routinely receive student evaluations of their teaching. Some instructors read the comments, look at the numerical ratings, and then put the evaluations away. We wanted to use a systematic method of taking information in the evaluations and applying it to improve our teaching.We started by searching for expert-recommended methods of using teaching evaluations to improve teaching. We found several valuable suggestions. These ideas include looking for rating patterns over time and comparing ratings with those for similar courses ("Using Your Student Ratings" 2006), identifying aspects of teaching that received significantly less positive ratings than other aspects (Theall and Franklin 1991), looking for signs of teaching strengths (Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning 1997), and looking for comments made by a substantial number of students (Lehigh University 2006). One suggested method has meta-analytic support for its value: reviewing the evaluations with a consultant (Penny and Coe 2004). However, we did not find a comprehensive set of guidelines.Failing to find a comprehensive set of steps for using teaching evaluations to improve teaching, we set out to develop our own set of steps, test them, and provide examples of their use. We incorporated in the process the ideas of the experts mentioned above, as well as ideas, such as the importance of setting goals, of psychological theorist Alber Bandura (1985) and ideas, such as importance of reflecting on teaching experiences, of John Dewey (1933). Through several iterations of discussion and revision, we settled on a 14-step process, which we then used with regard to our most recent student evaluations. This article describes as an initial case study the 14-step process and our experiences in using the process in an effort to improve our teaching in three disparate fields: environmental engineering, statistics, and psychology.The environmental engineering course, taught by a lecturer with 11 years of teaching experience, had 148 oncampus students and 61 distant students. The statistics course, taught by an instructor with 20 years of teaching exp...

Using student evaluations to improve teaching: Evidence-based recommendations.

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Embedding an institution-wide capacity building opportunity around transition pedagogy: First Year Teaching and Learning Network Coordinators

“…Coordinators from different schools collaborated on a number of projects, resulting in refereed journal and conference publications (e.g. Clark et al, 2013;Malouff, Reid, Wilkes & Emmerton, 2015;Reid & Wilkes, 2013) and a successful national Office of Learning and Teaching Extension Grant application. In one inter-disciplinary project, academics from fifteen disciplines across two schools participated in a forum to discuss the development of quantitative skills in the first year science curriculum.…”

Assessing Teaching to Empower Learning

“…It also takes time to produce and assess our teaching dossiers to determine the depth of reflection we have attained in considering our understanding of teaching and learning, how that understanding is manifest in the teaching strategies we implement in our classrooms, and whether those strategies are grounded in theory and evidence (Kenny & Evers, 2011). There are, however, many tools and approaches available for moving beyond the numerical ratings of SETs, which involve assessing student engagement with active learning (Eddy, Converse, & Wenderoth, 2015;Lund et al, 2015;Smith, Jones, Gilbert, & Wieman, 2013), critical reflection on SETs (Malouff, Reid, Wilkes, & Emmerton, 2015), cross-disciplinary class visits (Haave, 2014), and the assessment of self-reported teaching practices (Wieman & Gilbert, 2014). Can we develop a culture where it is accepted that the assessment of our peers' teaching is required to be a member of academia, similar to how we have established and accepted that evaluating our peer's research quality and productivity is necessary for the academic enterprise to continue?…”