You’ve just been notified that an end of course student evaluation summary has been completed and is available for your review. Do you take time to look at the report and consider what students have written? Often newer instructors will take the time to review the reports to help guide development of their facilitation skills; whereas, more experienced instructors may feel comfortable enough with their facilitation practice that they do not believe there is a need to examine the reports. Regardless of your present skill set level or length of experience as an instructor the end of course evaluation offers information that can inform your instructional strategies and have an impact on your approach to classroom teaching.

The Students’ Perspective

When students are provided with an end of course evaluation they may perceive this as an opportunity to voice their final opinions or comments about the course and the instructor, or they may be afraid to complete the form believing that the instructor will see the results prior to final grades being submitted. What is common for student responses is that they will be motivated to complete the evaluation because of a very positive experience in the classroom or a negative experience with the school, classroom, or their instructor, especially if they have no other avenue to express their thoughts and feelings.

Critical Self Reflection

An effective method for reviewing student evaluations is to include it as part of your critical self reflection about your classroom facilitation practice. It is helpful to reflect upon your class and its overall performance on a periodic basis so you can determine what is working well and what isn’t. If you have developed a strong sense of your strengths and facilitation skills you will be able to quickly ascertain if the results of these evaluations are an accurate reflection of the students’ experience in the classroom, as well as their interactions with you. What may offer you the most insight about your class and the students’ perspective of the class are the comments that students provide for open-ended questions. For students that are not satisfied for some reason these written comments may indicate why their expectations were not met. Read the rest of this entry »