As colleges continue, in conformance with HB 2504, to formulate their plans to post student evaluations of faculty online, we can likely expect more stories like the one recently published in the Des Moines Register. The article concerns a survey conducted by University of Northern Iowa professor Dennis Clayson and Debra Haley, a Southeastern Oklahoma State University marketing professor.
For background on HB 2504, see this post from 2009. Here's the text of the bill.
The survey asked students a number of interesting questions about their honesty when giving anonymous responses on faculty evaluation forms.
Here's a sample, including the response results from students:
Do you personally know of a student who wrote something untrue on the written comments because:
(a) they wanted to protect a teacher? Yes: 5.4 percent
(b) they liked a teacher? Yes: 17.8 percent
Do you personally know of a student who wrote something untrue on the written comments because:
(a) they wanted to hurt a teacher? Yes: 16.5 percent
(b) they disliked a teacher? Yes: 36.5 percent
Have you written something untrue on the written comments because:
(a) you wanted to protect a teacher? Yes: 3.9 percent
(b) you liked a teacher? Yes: 11.2 percent
Have you written something untrue on the written comments because:
(a) you wanted to hurt a teacher? Yes: 2.6 percent
(b) you disliked a teacher? Yes: 12.9 percent
Do you think that giving an evaluation higher or lower than what a teacher deserves is a form of cheating? Yes: 43.2 percent
Do you think that writing something untrue on an evaluation about a teacher is a form of cheating? Yes: 60.2 percent
By all means, please read the entire article. The piece gets into the issue of faculty members relaxing standards due to concerns over poor evaluations. It also refers to research at Duke University indicating that students who receive higher grades give more favorable evaluations.
An interesting passage (rated PG-13):
The findings are sure to stoke an age-old debate over the fairness of teacher evaluations, which factor into pay raises and promotion and tenure decisions. The paper forms are as much of a classroom tradition at semester's end as final exams, which take place this week at Iowa's state-run universities.
Clayson has spent years evaluating teacher evaluations, which direct students to assign a number grade - 1 to 5, for example - on topics ranging from how much they learned in class to how accessible a professor was. Evaluations also generally set aside room for written comments. Among the worst comments Clayson has seen: "Die, you son of a bitch."
The stakes are even higher in classes where instructors dumb down their classes or inflate grades to boost the odds that students will like them. The practice is widely acknowledged by professors and has been studied by researchers, including Duke University statisticians who found professors who give better grades get higher marks on evaluations.
Paul Trout, a retired Montana State University professor, said he became a vocal critic of teacher evaluations when he noticed he was teaching fewer and shorter books in his English classes.
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