Teacher Evaluations

Teacher Evaluations

Course and teacher evaluations by students have their limitations.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/deep-in-the-heart-of-texas/

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/student-evaluations-part-two/

As one poster opined,

Phil

Los Angeles

June 29th, 2010

7:13 pm

Students can’t tell what ought to be in a course. Asking them to comment on content is wrong. Students do have something (not everything) to say about whether the professor is getting the material across. They should be asked about this, and professors ought to consider that criticisms that are repeatedly levelled on this score may well have some validity.
But ultimately the critics of student evaluation have some important examples on their side. Perhaps Texans will be impressed with the example of Jesus of Nazareth, who was sold out by one of his twelve chosen disciples, and whose teachings resulted in a large crowd calling for his execution. Another example is Socrates, condemned to death by the citizens of Athens for questioning the conventional wisdom of their society. As Plato records, Socrates described his situation as a doctor being prosecuted by a pastry-cook in front of a jury of children.

And another with whom we concur -