"Throughout the year, we all have particular events that mark the passage of time. Birthdays, holidays, special events. As professors, we have a few unique days too: some fun, some not. There's the first day of classes, where we still (20+ years in) get the jitters. The last day of classes, when we are often just as, if not more excited, than the students. And then there is the day our course evaluations arrive."
"Typical of many universities, the courses we teach have an anonymous evaluation at the end. These are usually a combination of multiple-choice questions that ask students to rate components of the class on a scale and open-ended questions that allow for additional feedback. In theory, the purpose of these evaluations is to provide useful feedback to the professor. In reality, they do not do that at all."
Course evaluations at many universities are anonymous and combine scaled multiple-choice items with open-ended prompts intended to provide instructional feedback. In practice, anonymity often turns evaluations into an outlet for comments withheld during the term, producing a mix from kind to cruel. Human negativity bias causes educators to focus on a few negative remarks despite abundant positive feedback. Neuroscience suggests focusing on negatives evolved to avoid harm, making such fixation hard to avoid. Anonymous online spaces amplify the tendency toward harsh criticism. Feedback becomes more useful when it is specific, delivered by identifiable humans, and aimed at improvement.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]