how would you rate me as a person?

I've had students ask me if profs really read their teaching evaluations. The truth is, it depends, but yes, some profs don't read their teaching evaluations. As my friend Dr. Don Boyes puts it,

"I can only speculate as to why someone would not want to read them: either they are so confident in their teaching abilities that they think feedback is unnecessary, or they are worried about what they will read because they are not at all confident in their abilities."

For the instructors who are not at all confident in their abilities, I think at least half of that has to do with how cruel a small proportion of students can be. When I was at STLHE recently, I had a conversation with several educators who all commiserated in how hard it is to read student comments, "I wait a few weeks to brace myself", "I wait until I've had a really great day, and then open a bottle of wine", "I still haven't done it". It's understandable.

I get a lot of truly great comments from students. They can be really positive. Some are critical. The vast majority of comments are written with consideration and kindness, whether they're suggesting improvements or expressing approval. But there are always a few comments that really sting. These comments aren't about my teaching or how to improve the course, but are a personal critique like "She's not a good role model for women" or "She's ruining the university's reputation" (seriously, I've had both of those). They are always like a punch in the gut.

But teaching evaluations are important, and I do read them – every frequency distribution, every mean and mode, and every comment. They help me identify what students need more of, and they can give me a really clear idea of how to delivery on those needs. They also help me figure out what to keep doing. Sometimes I try something like worksheets, and it's hard to tell if students think they're helpful or if they think they're silly, but I will definitely figure that out once I get the teaching evaluations back.

So I read every comment – the good, the bad and the ugly. I try very hard to keep the personal attacks for taking up too much of my time or attention because it's the comments from students that make an effort to tell me something sincere and useful that really deserve my attention. I want to pay tribute to those students who have taken time out of their "spare time" during the last weeks of a semester to help me improve myself... what a kind and generous gift.

This is all a preamble to my next blog post in which I will reflect on my teaching evaluations from the 2013/2014 academic year in anticipation of the new semester. I'm really looking forward to sharing my insights from those evals, and putting those insights into action in September!