VI. Analyzing and Improving Your Teaching

Students' Help

As those who are meant to learn from our teaching, students sometimes seem logical evaluators. Nonetheless, just as children do not always choose the healthiest cereal, students do not always judge teaching properly. They cannot judge, for instance, how well you know the subject matter. For some students, teaching evaluation forms seem to be popularity contest ballots; for others, black balls from a club. Yet, although your students should not be the only ones to evaluate your teaching, they are the recipients of your teaching and can offer insights different from those gained through classroom observation and videotape analysis (see McAllister, 1999). In fact, seeing what and how well your students are learning overall can tell you a great deal about your teaching. And there are a variety of methods to gather productive responses from students about your teaching.

Assessing Students' Learning

If you have prepared conscious goals and objectives for your course, you know what your students should know at the end of most classes and certainly at the end of each unit. To a large extent, you can deem your teaching and their studying effective if students have learned, and you don't have to wait until a quiz or exam to assess understanding. Assess your students' learning frequently and informally (ungraded and usually anonymously); here are some favorite techniques from Angelo and Cross (1993):

The One-Minute Paper or the Muddiest Point. Stop class a few minutes early, put a question on the board, and ask students to write an anonymous response on a half-sheet of paper or 3x5 card you distribute. Pose questions about content, in-class activities, assignments, or anything you're curious about. Check on factual understanding: "Which of the compounds described today are the most stable, and why?" Check on understanding and ability to draw inferences: "From what we've seen of French culture, why would you think French people often say that Americans have no friends, only acquaintances?" Or ask students to write what they found to be the muddiest or most confusing part of the lesson (Mosteller, 1989). It is essential that you read and analyze students' responses as a group, and then respond appropriately during the next class. You might review part of your previous lecture, give more information about a topic students understood, or solve more problems as examples.

Background Knowledge Probe. In order to collect more specific and useful information about students' prior learning, distribute short questionnaires at the beginning of the semester or before introducing a new topic, thus previewing what is coming and reviewing what students already know. Ask at least one question that most students should know, and at least one other question that is more difficult. Avoid unfamiliar vocabulary because it may obscure knowledge of fundamental facts or concepts. Emphasize that these are ungraded and are neither tests nor quizzes. Report results at the next meeting so that individual students will be able to gauge their level of preparation relative to that of the class as a whole.

Pro and Con Grid. To assess students' level of analysis and capacity for objectivity, ask them a question that will elicit thoughtful pros and cons in relation to an important issue, dilemma, or judgment in your course. To make their pros and cons more comparable, you can indicate a specific point of view they should adopt; and be sure to tell students whether to write in sentences or phrases. In analyzing students' responses, you can begin with a simple frequency count, looking at how students tend to perceive the issue. Or you can compare their lists with yours, or see how balanced their two sides are. Their responses may well provide you with a perspective to begin the next class.

With any of these assessment techniques, when you read responses soon after class, you will know more about your students. If you find many incorrect answers to factual questions, you know you're not getting your message across. If students can't draw inferences, you need to teach them how. The students' "muddiest points" may be ones you thought were clear; analyze the source of the discrepancy and figure out a better way to explain the point during the next class.

Student questions and facial expressions inform me about what issues to delve into in more depth, what examples to give, and what stories to tell. I attend to faces carefully. I tell a lot of stories.

 —Dennis Proffitt, Psychology

Seeking Students' Comments

Assessing how much students are learning from your teaching does not preclude asking them directly what they think about the course and your teaching. To gain the most benefits from student comments, however, you must seek them early in the semester, preferably no later than a month after the course begins. Necessarily formative evaluations, since you are going to use them to make interesting and useful changes, these offer several advantages. First, you have the time to improve in areas where you and the students agree improvements are warranted. You can seek students' opinions about aspects of the course that most concern you. Students value the chance to give their opinions, and they notice and appreciate ensuing changes, often applauding such improvements on final course evaluations. Finally, devoting a little time to analyzing teaching increases the dialogue between you and your students about the course, motivating some of them to put more into it, too.

Comments forms. Use the One-Minute Paper format ("Do you prefer small-group or whole-class discussions, and why?"), or create a brief form to gather precisely the information you need. It can be as short as three or four questions:

• How well are the assigned readings discussed in class?
• What can the teacher do to improve discussions?
• What can the other students do to improve discussions?
• What can you do to improve discussions?

Use only questions that require students to create an answer, and try to generate as many ideas as you can. Open-ended questions also work well: "I learn the most when we _________ because . . . ."Of course, with such item types, you cannot statistically analyze the data; yet early in the semester you will have information and ideas. For help with questions or format, call the Teaching Resource Center; How Am I Teaching? by Weimer et al. (1988) offers sample forms directed toward various specific needs.
Ask your students to answer the questions anonymously during the last few minutes of class; questionnaires that leave the room rarely return. Announce that you will read comments immediately and summarize the results and your plans for the future. While reading students' remarks, decide how you could incorporate helpful suggestions and why some proposed changes will not work. Via e-mail or during the next class, explain what you can and cannot change and why. Students who learn early on why a desired modification is not possible rarely complain about it later.

Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP). The Teaching Resource Center can also give you a summary of your students' views about their learning in the course by conducting a Teaching Analysis Poll for you. To begin, you first discuss your course with a TRC consultant: format, objectives, students' background and assumed motivation, and your concerns. Then, one day, thirty minutes before the end of class, you introduce the consultant, declaring that you have initiated a student-oriented analysis of the course and that you will talk about results with students during the next class. You leave the room, with an appointment to talk with the consultant soon.

The consultant gives groups of four or five students five minutes to answer three questions:

• What most helps you learn in this class?
• What impeded your learning?
• What suggestions do you have for improvements?

One student in each group writes on the board, in three columns, the answers most group members agree about. The consultant monitors responses to verify that a proposed solution accompanies any problem. With the class as a whole, the consultant reviews comments on the board, clarifying ambiguities and keeping only those observations that a majority of the students approve. The consultant thanks the students and reiterates that the instructor will receive the summary of reactions remaining on the board.
During the follow-up meeting, the consultant conveys the students' information, adding details from the conversation and discussing possible refinements and modifications. The consultant can help you decide what modifications to make, if any.
The TAP gives you more details than do individual written evaluations because students have time to discuss the course in a safe atmosphere and because the consultant prohibits vagueness. Furthermore, you know that the majority of students concur with the recommendations. Gone is the one negative remark that grates for days; gone are the ambiguities of written remarks contrary to fact: how does one explain the statement, "We didn't have any small-group work," when students worked in small groups at least once a week? The TAP is completely confidential, the consultant keeps no written notes, and a TAP can be requested only by the instructor involved.

Final evaluations. Use your departmental or schoolwide standardized final evaluation form; you may include other questions as well. Of course, do not look at these student evaluations until after you have submitted final grades. Even if you don't recognize individual evaluations, negative responses (including those with little foundation) can make it difficult to grade final papers objectively.
Do read your evaluations soon after submitting your grades. Make notes or highlight positive comments; list negative comments with the number of times each appears. If you have at least a dozen responses, you can probably ignore a negative comment that occurs only once unless the author offers a useful suggestion. Evaluate the positive comments alongside the negative ones; you will see contradictions, indicating that students are individuals-and human. Most importantly, assimilate the useful suggestions and analyze the source of any repeated negative comments: maybe you do talk too much during class discussions. Decide how you will improve next time, and note your ideas. If your evaluations frustrate or confuse you, discuss them with a supervisor, colleague, or TRC consultant. It can be enlightening to see them through the eyes of an objective observer. Evaluations should be helpful; they may be important to your career; you need to determine what they mean. Finally, if your department allows you to keep copies of your students' evaluations, do so; you may need them when you're nominated for a teaching award or write your teaching portfolio.