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The recent article R. Jenkins, “Meets Expectations”, Chronicle of Higher Education, Tuesday, April 25, 2006 (PDF) included the following on how to get good teaching reviews:
“The ‘secret’ to getting good ratings from students isn't really a secret at all, or even much of a mystery -- and it doesn't involve giving everyone an A.
“As an instructor, you can be as demanding as you want, within reason, so long as you are respectful to students (no verbal abuse, please, and limit your sarcasm) and consistent in your dealings with them. Treat your students the way you would have liked your professors to treat you.
“Beyond merely behaving like a decent human being, one of the best and easiest things you can do to improve your student ratings is to obtain a copy of the evaluation instrument at the beginning of the term and read through it to see what questions it asks.
“If students are going to evaluate you based on how promptly you return graded assignments, for example, then put a little extra effort into returning assignments promptly. And make sure they understand what "prompt" means (getting their English essays back the next day is usually an unrealistic expectation).
“If the evaluation form asks students about the relevance of your tests, then take special care to make sure your tests relate directly to the subject matter you have covered, and be sure to point out frequently during lectures and class discussions what sorts of questions you might ask on the tests.
“By following those few guidelines, you stand a good chance of being rated highly in the "teaching effectiveness" portion of your annual performance review.” R. Jenkins, “Meets Expectations”, Chronicle of Higher Education, Tuesday, April 25, 2006 (PDF)
An even better follow-up article on evaluations and teaching is highly recommended:
R. Jenkins, “Evaluate This,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 15, 2006 (PDF). It includes these quotes:
- “Anyone who believes that only ‘hard’ teachers get bad evaluations is probably getting bad evaluations.”
- “The corollary here is that by improving your student evaluations, you can also improve your teaching. And my contention is that you can improve your evaluations, by following a few simple guidelines.”
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