John Walkup,
Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Texas Tech University

[Jan. 16, 2011] —

Student evaluations — a fact of academic life that was not always so!

I recall from my early years as a professor my chairman’s vehement opposition to the very idea of students evaluating their professors while still at the university. His theory was that only when they had been out of college for several years could students objectively evaluate the quality of their education.

His objections and those of others were overruled in the academic universe. Today administrators insist that students complete course and instructor evaluations. These evaluations now carry significant weight in both tenure and promotion decisions.

I recall the suspense of preparing to read my own student evaluations at the end of each semester. Usually I waited a day or two after turning in my grades and as much as possible tried to be in a positive mood.

While numerical ratings of my course, the textbook, and my teaching skills were always of concern, I was particularly interested in comments on open-ended questions. I hoped for a sense of how the course had affected their understanding of electrical engineering and perhaps also how I had impacted them personally.

It was always good to see comments that students appreciated what I had tried to teach them. Invariably, however, some students seemed to think that I was either a poor instructor (e.g. “Why is he still allowed in the classroom?”), were bothered by the fact that I identified myself as a Christ-follower (actually fairly rare as a comment), or that I had somehow failed to insure that they performed well in the course.

Negative comments were always painful, and I wondered how I had fallen short with those individuals. Had they ever come to my office or stayed after class to ask questions? No matter how many good teaching awards one receives, negative student evaluations are always difficult to handle.

Over the course of my career I noted a trend away from students’ understanding that the primary responsibility for mastering the course material was theirs. Rather, they frequently concluded that if they had performed poorly, it was my fault as their instructor. That was what I was paid to do, wasn’t it? Perhaps as a member of an earlier generation, I was reluctant to accept criticisms that appeared to come from that “it’s your fault I didn’t do well in this stupid course” perspective.

I believe that teacher evaluations can provide useful feedback to an instructor. Today I would counsel Christian faculty, and in particular ones just starting their careers, to maintain a “balanced view” of students’ evaluations as they continue to trust Christ to help them be sensitive to the changing needs of each successive student generation.

We must be cautious in allowing positive evaluations to feed our pride. However, God hasn’t called us to allow the negative ones to drive us to despair or resentment. Our knowledge that He will continue to mature us as teachers, researchers, and mentors should be our guide as we regularly deal with those “moments of truth”- grading their exams and reading our students’ teacher evaluations of us.

© 2011 John Walkup