Handbook Table of Contents > Preparing to Teach > Interpreting Teaching Evaluations
Indiana University Teaching Handbook
Interpreting Teaching Evaluations
- Introduction
- Summative and Formative Evaluations
- Teacher–Course Evaluations by Students
- Other Sources of Instructional Feedback
Introduction
There are several reasons to evaluate your teaching performance. You might want to know how well you delivered a lecture or managed a classroom activity, how students are feeling about a special technique you are using, whether you are providing enough or too much content, if students think your tests are fair, how useful the textbook and/or readings are, how much material is learned, or any of several other questions about the teaching/learning process and its results.
Campus Instructional Consulting often works with faculty and instructors to interpret end-of-the-semester student evaluations and to determine what changes might help their students learn.
Summative and Formative Evaluations
In conversations about the evaluation of teaching, one often hears several terms bandied about, describing different types of assessment. It is useful to clarify these terms and the purposes of these different techniques:
FORMATIVE EVALUATION is aimed at personal teaching improvement; it is designed to provide an instructor with information he/she can use in current and future classes. Our “Student Evaluation of Teaching” (SET) (and the accompanying consultation with TRC staff) is a kind of formative evaluation. One takes advantage of another kind of formative evaluation when inviting a TRC staff member to the classroom to observe what happens there and discuss it. Formative evaluation is best done before the semester ends, so that one has a chance to make changes that will directly impact the learning going on in the classroom. Such evaluation is confidential and not used for purposes of tenure or promotion decisions. It is conducted as a conversation with peers who are interested in helping you reach your teaching goals.
An instructor can do his/her own formative assessment by having students respond to a mid-term questionnaire about what is facilitating their learning and what they would like to see changed. Also look under Classroom Assessment Techniques for ways to get immediate feedback in order to make mid-course corrections.
SUMMATIVE EVALUATION is an after-the-fact assessment of a course. End of semester evaluations like BEST’s MultiOp, or departmental surveys which are used primarily for performance review, are summative. Summative forms should always include these two items: “This is one of the best courses” and “This is one of the best instructors” or some variation of these two items.
Teacher–Course Evaluations by Students
Instructors have several options available to collect feedback from their students.
- Multi-Op from the IUB
Evaluation Services and Testing (BEST) is the most commonly used
evaluation at IU-Bloomington. BEST maintains a bank of questions from
which instructors and departments may select to design their own evaluations.
Or you can use their standard “Form C.” On request, Campus Instructional Consulting
staff will meet with you to help interpret
the feedback. Multi-Op
system can be administered on paper scan sheets or via the campus
computer network. Contact BEST, Franklin M002, 855-1595 for further information.
We strongly urge departments to use the Multi-Op system because:
- The Multi-Op has been used for over 20 years and during that time it has been tested and refined to make it more understandable by the students and to make sure the questions test for the concerns they were intended to address.
- It compares instructors with norms composed of other instructors at both the campus and group levels (Journalism, Phys Sci/Math, Humanities, Soc. Sci., Natural Sci., Music, SPEA, Business, Educ., HPER, Med/Nursing, Law, & Optometry).
- It includes questions that address global concerns as well as instructor characteristics, course elements, student development, special class organizations, and items that are curriculum specific, instructor written, and open-ended.
- It includes instructions on how to administer the evaluation in a consistent manner.
- The computerized summaries make the documentation of results easier when developing student evaluation summaries for teaching portfolios and tenure dossiers.
- Departmental forms. Some departments have developed their own questionnaire and ask their instructors to use this form in order to facilitate comparisons. Check with your department to see if there is one.
- Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is available through Campus Instructional Consulting. It is a formative teaching diagnostic, designed to provide instructors with ideas for changes they might make in their teaching. The questionnaire is administered by Campus Instructional Consulting staff and takes about 15 minutes of class time. After the quantitative data is tabulated and the written comments are typed, a consultant will meet with you to present and interpret the feedback. Call their office at 855-9023 for further information.
Other Sources of Instructional Feedback
Classroom Assessment
Good teachers will often also want to do less formal evaluations. In fact, a set of techniques, called Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), developed by Angelo and Cross (1993) have been developed to allow ongoing, immediate feedback. These techniques are quick to use, easy to interpret, and provide a wealth of information about students’ thinking.
CATs are feedback devices to help us determine how much, how well, and simply how our students learn. Campus Instructional Consulting staff can help you identify the question you would like to ask about your students’ learning and adapt a CAT to your topic. Many instructors on the Bloomington campus are beginning to use them regularly.
Teaching Consultation
Teaching Consultation is available to all instructors at Indiana University. This process is designed to provide you with a comprehensive and in-depth look at your instruction, both in its design and in the classroom presentation. Through the voluntary, individualized, and confidential service, you work with a teaching consultant to collect a variety of information on your classroom performance. Review and discussion of this information provides you with the kinds of insights into your teaching, which can assist in improvements. For more information, contact an IU instructional consultant. Check the list in the inside cover of this handbook for information specific to your school or discipline.
Links
The following links will take you to additional readings associated with this general section.
