Students, faculty discuss expectations of each other

Students critiqued the faculty and staff evaluation system.

By Armeen Mistry

Published March 5, 2009

As part of a program called Mutual Expectations, students and faculty discussed improvements they could make for one another.

They met Thursday to discuss improvements for evaluating courses and the expectations involved in evaluating student knowledge and student evaluations of their professors at the end of the semester.

"Lecturing might not be the best way for a lot of students to learn," freshman Daniel Brick said at the discussion. "I have teachers who make notes available online, or reading in the book, just presenting the material in any possible way correctly is what's important."

The discussion focused on comparing faculty and student perspectives on various issues, including testing methods, end-of-year faculty evaluations and the importance of these evaluations.

Faculty and staff use the evaluations to review their own teaching methods and to rank for potential merit raises. They want to see if the student was engaged and gained information that was valuable beyond the classroom.

Until recently, these evaluations were not available to students. Under a 2007 umbrella higher education bill, universities are required to display some results to students who may take the class in the future.

The bill also requires that professors publicize their highest degree earned, available under MU's Faculty Accomplishment System. The information will be available on myZou during the fall semester registration dates.

Starting next semester, students can see if the course content was clear, if the instructor was invested in student learning and if the instructor was an effective teacher.

The impersonal nature of the evaluations can lead to student apathy about answering the questions. Many students admitted to simply bubbling in "agree" the entire sheet.

"I think a personal survey would be a way more effective evaluation," Brick said. "Questions like 'was this class valuable to you,' and 'if you didn't like this class, who would like this class?'"

McDavid residence hall coordinator Scott Bosley suggested a confidential student panel to better grade professors. If a neutral person conducts a class discussion about the teacher where students can freely comment on the grading scale, student engagement and the material presented.

"Professors actually do care about their evaluations," sophomore Taylor Burkett said. "But I feel like you're only graded on your tests and quizzes and that's it whereas in other classes you have participation points, you can say your opinion and you get credit for it."

The size of the class affects the outcome of the faculty evaluations. According to Forbes' "America's Best Colleges," MU has a student-to-faculty ratio of 18-to-1. Class participation can only be used for grading realistically in a class of 10-15 students.

Class size, testing methods and group work were important to students who complained about "picking up the slack" for other group members. Although teachers encourage peer evaluation sheets, there is often pressure to simply write down a good grade.

"Everyone's not good at every subject," Brick said. "Peer things sometimes help because you're with someone who knows what they're talking about. You can still learn from that, especially if you're doing poorly in the class."