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It's going to really depend on the school. I'm betting that a community college will be less impressed with student opinions that some four year colleges. Some schools do the surveys to give the students the illusion of having "input". Others actually use the ratings and will use them as an excuse to dump a professor, withhold tenure, summer teaching slots, etc. My husband ended up leaving one school because he was "counseled" that HIS scores needed to "come up". When my husband was able to identify each poor rating with a student who had an equally poor grade, he was told it didn't matter, and was never observed to see if there was, indeed a teaching deficiency. He was happy to move schools -- and ended up at a school where the inmates aren't running the asylum.
Surveys from students . . . completely and totally worthless. If they are getting a decent grade, the teacher is good. If they are flunking, then of COURSE it's the teacher's fault, can't possibly be their own lack of preparation.
I've seen full-time faculty get fired because students complained to the department chair that the material was too hard. I saw this in two different departments. The students wanted watered-down highschool-level work (at the Junior-year level, no less), and they got what they wanted. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. I can only conclude that these are departments that don't pride themselves on the quality of instruction and the level of student attainment. The department I got my degree from would never have compromised the quality of their program for some whiny students. And they did get complaints about a certain instructor and the difficulty of the course material every year, but the department chairmen over the years knew that that year-long course and the instructor in charge were the backbone of the program, and were in large part responsible for huge enrollments of students from other universities nationwide for the special summer intensive program the department ran.
It's alarming how university standards are changing for the worse in too many cases.
I am a new Adjunct Professor at a local Community College. This will be my second semester teaching Business Classes. Everything seems to be going as well as expected except during student evaluation time. At my college all students are given an opportunity near the end of the term to fill out a very lengthy evaluation on me. It gives them an opportunity to tell the School Administration what they thought of my personality, the course materials, my teaching approach, and my knowledge of the subject matter. I HATE THIS PROCESS because all the questions are subjective (the students personal opinions) and not based on any established performance standards or bench marks established between the administration, the students and myself.
Many students tell me that if a Instructor gets a low rating from the students they will be terminated. The students know this and have told me that if I make the class too hard or keep them the whole three hours they will rate me poorly and they will see that I am fired. Because the evaluation is completely subjective and fill in the boxes, they can do that!
What do you think of the Professor Evaluation system for Adjunct or Part Timer Instructors at your college?
The Students should not have 'power' over an instructor, to me that is destructive. But keep in mind not all the students in your class are evil little sh*ts. You should be concerned with running an informative, engaging and challenging course, and if a student resents you for being a good professor their single bad review will not stand out among your more prevalent accolades.
I vet all potential professors on Ratemyprofessor.com before I sign up for a class, no exceptions.
I don't want the instructor to give me anything, but I also expect an "A" to be attainable in their class. When I do my course evals, and post on RMP.com I always try to be 100% honest.
I rate instructors based on their job performance, plain and simple. I give specific, constructive feedback. If I see no improvement in the next quarter, then the evaluations will get harsher.
How many screen names do you have exactly? Don't you ever get bored coming on this forum?
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