Teaching Evaluations & Reflections on Teaching
Below, I reflect on my teaching experiences and the strategies that I use to improve students' learning experiences. The best evidence of the extent to which I am meeting these goals is my students' own experiences, so I interweave comments from students along with my reflections. I selected student comments from two sources.
First, at the end of every course, Penn State students complete end-of-the-semester comment sheets and Student Ratings on Teacher Effectiveness". The comment sheets include 3 open-ended questions: What did you like best about this course?, What did you like least about this course?, and What suggestions do you have for improving the course?
Second, I solicit mid-semester feedback from my students each semester. I emphasize to the students that this feedback lets them affect their learning experiences (rather than end-of-the-semester feedback, which only benefits future students). Last spring, the questions that I asked were:
First, at the end of every course, Penn State students complete end-of-the-semester comment sheets and Student Ratings on Teacher Effectiveness". The comment sheets include 3 open-ended questions: What did you like best about this course?, What did you like least about this course?, and What suggestions do you have for improving the course?
Second, I solicit mid-semester feedback from my students each semester. I emphasize to the students that this feedback lets them affect their learning experiences (rather than end-of-the-semester feedback, which only benefits future students). Last spring, the questions that I asked were:
- The pace of this course is (check one) too slow, too fast, about right. If you checked either "too fast" or "too slow", what would you like to see changed?
- Do you generally feel encouraged to ask questions / contribute comments in class? If so, what has encouraged you the most? If not, what could I do to make it easier for you to participate in class?
- Overall, what helps you learn in this course? Please explain or give an example for each.
- What changes would make the course more helpful? Please suggest specific ways the changes could be made.
Connecting with students
I place a high priority on connecting with my students, because this establishes an environment that supports learning. As a teaching assistant, I could interact with most students individually, but this is more challenging in larger courses. When I taught intervention science as a large lecture course, I asked students to write down their career goals, expectations for the course, and outside obligations on the first day of class. I used this information to connect lecture topics and examples to their interests and goals. I also contacted students who were struggling and invited them to meet with me individually so we could discuss challenges they were facing and brainstorm strategies to improve their learning experiences.
When I taught intervention science as a smaller course (under 40 students), I was able to get to know my students much better. Early on, I reviewed the information the students had given me on the first day of class so that I could start conversations with individual students during breaks: "I noticed that you said you wanted to move to Australia after you graduate. Have you been there before? What's drawing you there?" This strategy was a great way to get to know the students and to learn what drove them and what was going on in their lives. I plan to use this strategy when I teach a larger lecture course again.
This semester, I am teaching a class entirely online - most of my students don't live here in town, and several even live out of state! I was worried that with this format, students would feel particularly isolated, so I have tried to promote connections among students. For example, the first assignment asked them to post information about themselves on a discussion board and to welcome at least one of their classmates to the course. Most recently, I added a course "Twitter" discussion board, and encouraged the students to post updates on how their lives were going outside of class. I really like this format, as it gives me an opportunity to learn more about my students and for the students to interact more with each other.
When I taught intervention science as a smaller course (under 40 students), I was able to get to know my students much better. Early on, I reviewed the information the students had given me on the first day of class so that I could start conversations with individual students during breaks: "I noticed that you said you wanted to move to Australia after you graduate. Have you been there before? What's drawing you there?" This strategy was a great way to get to know the students and to learn what drove them and what was going on in their lives. I plan to use this strategy when I teach a larger lecture course again.
This semester, I am teaching a class entirely online - most of my students don't live here in town, and several even live out of state! I was worried that with this format, students would feel particularly isolated, so I have tried to promote connections among students. For example, the first assignment asked them to post information about themselves on a discussion board and to welcome at least one of their classmates to the course. Most recently, I added a course "Twitter" discussion board, and encouraged the students to post updates on how their lives were going outside of class. I really like this format, as it gives me an opportunity to learn more about my students and for the students to interact more with each other.
Comments from Students:
- "She kept a positive attitude and it seemed like she really cared about whether or not I understood the concepts.*
- "Very caring teacher, she really wanted students to understand the material and succeed."
- "The instructor is very helpful and seems to really care whether we do well in her class."
- "[I liked] the teacher’s willingness to help the students and the teacher’s supportive attitude."
- "The professor is always willing to listen, seems genuinely interested in what we are saying, gives feedback, and greets us when we arrive."
- "Kelly is AWESOME! No one can top her. Sometimes I truly would have been lost without her help and guidance. She is so dedicated to the class and students. She is always available, always has the answers, and she manages to get her work done."*
"Guide on the Side" vs. "Sage on the Stage"
I believe that as much as possible, my role as an instructor is to be a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage." Students learn better when they are active participants in the learning process and through interactions with each other. A teaching mentor once told me: "If you ask students to describe their most memorable learning experience in college, they rarely, if ever, will say that it is something they learned from the instructor. It is almost always something that they learned through discussions with each other or through activities that they completed."
In reality, I find this to be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching a large lecture course. Because students have had different prior experiences with the material, they often need different levels of scaffolding from me before they are fully prepared to tackle challenging problems on their own. In a class with many students, such individualized tailoring is extremely difficult. However, one strategy that I have found that can work is to break the students into smaller groups and to walk around among the groups so that I can check in with each one. In some cases, other group members are able to jump in and explain a concept differently and provide that additional support.
Two instructors who led my undergraduate honors seminar demonstrated the ideal that I strive for, but have not yet met. In this ideal, students discuss the course material with each other, without the conversation going through me (i.e., student -> student -> student rather than student -> me -> student -> me). My role would be to add occasional comments to summarize key points or to pose new questions to the group. To work toward this goal, I will continue trying to develop engaging and challenging problems for the students to discuss, particularly problems that don't have simple "right / wrong" answers. I will also use phrases such as "Jessica, what do you think about what Mary just said?" to encourage students to respond to each other, rather than to wait for me to comment each time.
In reality, I find this to be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching a large lecture course. Because students have had different prior experiences with the material, they often need different levels of scaffolding from me before they are fully prepared to tackle challenging problems on their own. In a class with many students, such individualized tailoring is extremely difficult. However, one strategy that I have found that can work is to break the students into smaller groups and to walk around among the groups so that I can check in with each one. In some cases, other group members are able to jump in and explain a concept differently and provide that additional support.
Two instructors who led my undergraduate honors seminar demonstrated the ideal that I strive for, but have not yet met. In this ideal, students discuss the course material with each other, without the conversation going through me (i.e., student -> student -> student rather than student -> me -> student -> me). My role would be to add occasional comments to summarize key points or to pose new questions to the group. To work toward this goal, I will continue trying to develop engaging and challenging problems for the students to discuss, particularly problems that don't have simple "right / wrong" answers. I will also use phrases such as "Jessica, what do you think about what Mary just said?" to encourage students to respond to each other, rather than to wait for me to comment each time.
Comments from Students:
- "I feel comfortable participating in class because there are lots of questions to get us thinking."
- "I like that the instructor kept us doing work (inside and outside of class). Everything covered during one lecture we got to apply it when doing class work and homework. Being that this class is only once a week, I personally feel that we can only benefit from being active outside of the classroom."
Engaging Students
Leading engaging lectures and effective discussions is challenging, yet I have studied under master teachers who make even the matrix algebra underlying factor rotation feel exciting. The key is their passion: enthusiasm really is contagious. I find that engaging students is also easier when they understand why the material is important and how it is relevant to their goals. Practice-oriented students are more engaged when they know why evaluating program effectiveness is important. Research-oriented students are more engaged when they know why they follow certain steps in SPSS or SAS and how they can use the analytic tools to answer their own research questions.
Finally, my methodology mentors have taught me that the best formula to reduce anxiety and promote feelings of competence is a judicious use of humor, a flexibility to draw on endless sources of teaching tools (e.g., using cantaloupe and chopsticks to illustrate factor rotation), and a constant assurance that things are easier than they look (e.g., all complex methods are just regression). Using this formula, I introduce challenging material by emphasizing the existing intuition the students already have to tackle the problem. Whether I am leading a lecture, meeting with students during office hours, or tutoring students in statistics, I strive to ask open-ended questions that guide students toward “Ah-Hah!” moments that promote their future problem solving efforts.
Finally, my methodology mentors have taught me that the best formula to reduce anxiety and promote feelings of competence is a judicious use of humor, a flexibility to draw on endless sources of teaching tools (e.g., using cantaloupe and chopsticks to illustrate factor rotation), and a constant assurance that things are easier than they look (e.g., all complex methods are just regression). Using this formula, I introduce challenging material by emphasizing the existing intuition the students already have to tackle the problem. Whether I am leading a lecture, meeting with students during office hours, or tutoring students in statistics, I strive to ask open-ended questions that guide students toward “Ah-Hah!” moments that promote their future problem solving efforts.
Comments from students
- "She is very good at using real life examples to illustrate abstract concepts."*
- "In class activities and the applications done outside of class is a great method of remembering and understanding the different concepts taught in class."
- "I liked that it was really based on learning and not memorization of boring facts. The assignments were all geared toward making me think and really apply what I’ve been learning. I feel that the things I learned in this course are things I can apply to whatever kind of job in this field that I end up with."
- "Her ability to incorporate real-world examples easily makes her one of my favorite professors this semester."
- "I think this class has a lot of information that will be helpful for me in the future and we were exposed to a lot of great examples of program."
- "[I like] the enthusiasm of our teacher towards the material."
- "She had great enthusiasm in assisting us with questions / study sessions."*
Providing feedback to students
On all written assignments, I give students feedback on their strengths and the areas that still need work. In my feedback, I try to be very specific so that students can improve their writing. If a student has included strong supporting details, I call attention to this, rather than just say, "Good job here!" If a student's response is unclear, I try to indicate what part is confusing, rather than just say "Unclear."
Because I believe that learning to write is a never-ending process, I encourage students to turn in drafts of their papers. The students often find the first paper to be challenging and they do not always earn the grade they had hoped to get. The optional drafts provide them an opportunity to be proactive about their future learning experiences.
To save my sanity, I use rubrics for all written assignments. I encourage students to review the rubrics before submitting their assignments and to use the rubrics to help them strengthen their papers. I also keep a running list of my comments for each paper and I cut and paste comments for individual students. This gives students specific feedback about their assignments and saves me time because I do not have to write the same comments multiple times. I also provide students with a summary of common problems across all of the papers.
Click below for examples of feedback to my students:
Because I believe that learning to write is a never-ending process, I encourage students to turn in drafts of their papers. The students often find the first paper to be challenging and they do not always earn the grade they had hoped to get. The optional drafts provide them an opportunity to be proactive about their future learning experiences.
To save my sanity, I use rubrics for all written assignments. I encourage students to review the rubrics before submitting their assignments and to use the rubrics to help them strengthen their papers. I also keep a running list of my comments for each paper and I cut and paste comments for individual students. This gives students specific feedback about their assignments and saves me time because I do not have to write the same comments multiple times. I also provide students with a summary of common problems across all of the papers.
Click below for examples of feedback to my students:
- General feedback to entire class about Paper 1 For an online course, so the feedback is more detailed than it would be for a face-to-face class in which we could discuss these points together.
- Feedback to student who earned 15/15 on the paper (identifying name removed)
- Information about how to revise drafts In the past, some students fixed grammar mistakes from their drafts, but did not address any of the comments. From this, I realized that some students need guidance about how to revise drafts, so I now include information about how to revise drafts as part of my feedback.
Comments from Students:
- "The individualized feedback on assignments really helps me understand where my weak spots are - not only do you explain where there are mistakes, but also give positive feedback about strong points in our assignments."
- "Her feedback on assignments is amazing. I don’t think I’ve met many professors as thorough as Kelly."
Changes I've made based on student evaluations and feedback
In response to student comments, I have begun making changes to the course and the way that I teach. I made some of these changes right away in response to mid-semester evaluation. I made others in between semesters and to some extent when I moved the course into an online format.
Created more engaging in-class activities ("Less in-class activities"; "More in-class participation and discussions"). Although several students suggested fewer in-class activities, I believe in their value both as a tool for students to practice applying course material and as a "check in" for me to see what concepts might still not be clear. However, I decided to change the content of these activities to require more in-depth discussion and problem-solving.
Moved in-class activities to the middle of class. ("The in-class activities done in the last few minutes of class made me feel rushed.") Initially, I had students complete in-class activities at the end of class, so that those who needed more time would have it. In response to comments such as this one and my observation that some students rushed through the activities so they could leave, I moved the activities to earlier in the class. This helped change things up and it allowed us to discuss the activities more, which became especially important when I changed the content of the activities (see above).
Created "FAQS" to address common challenges on the papers and posted example papers. ("Assignments should be more specific as to the amount of detail needed.") I have always posted rubrics ahead of time for the students. However, I found that posting additional information about how to complete the paper and providing examples of previous papers has helped the students better understand the expectations. Click here for an example of a paper FAQ.
Created study guides and test FAQs to help the students organize their studying for exams. (Suggestions: "Study guides.") I have always encouraged students to use the lesson objectives at the beginning of each lecture and posted reading guides to help them study. After several requests for study guides, however, I pulled all of the lesson and reading objectives together in one spot. This helps the students to organize their studying, without giving them a list of the specific items that what will be on the test. Click here for an example of a midterm study guide and here for an example of a midterm FAQ that I posted for the online course that I am teaching.
Eliminated exam that required a lot of memorization. ("[I didn't like] the amount of information you needed to know about specific details dealing with interventions.") Originally, I used three exams in the intervention course, one per unit. However, the second unit mostly focuses on "best practices" examples of intervention programs, and I found it hard to develop an exam that didn't require straight memorization. So, I took out this exam and replaced it with "Application Activities" that the students complete throughout the semester. These activities allow students to practice applying the course concepts and allow them to learn more about the current issues in intervention science.
Created more engaging in-class activities ("Less in-class activities"; "More in-class participation and discussions"). Although several students suggested fewer in-class activities, I believe in their value both as a tool for students to practice applying course material and as a "check in" for me to see what concepts might still not be clear. However, I decided to change the content of these activities to require more in-depth discussion and problem-solving.
Moved in-class activities to the middle of class. ("The in-class activities done in the last few minutes of class made me feel rushed.") Initially, I had students complete in-class activities at the end of class, so that those who needed more time would have it. In response to comments such as this one and my observation that some students rushed through the activities so they could leave, I moved the activities to earlier in the class. This helped change things up and it allowed us to discuss the activities more, which became especially important when I changed the content of the activities (see above).
Created "FAQS" to address common challenges on the papers and posted example papers. ("Assignments should be more specific as to the amount of detail needed.") I have always posted rubrics ahead of time for the students. However, I found that posting additional information about how to complete the paper and providing examples of previous papers has helped the students better understand the expectations. Click here for an example of a paper FAQ.
Created study guides and test FAQs to help the students organize their studying for exams. (Suggestions: "Study guides.") I have always encouraged students to use the lesson objectives at the beginning of each lecture and posted reading guides to help them study. After several requests for study guides, however, I pulled all of the lesson and reading objectives together in one spot. This helps the students to organize their studying, without giving them a list of the specific items that what will be on the test. Click here for an example of a midterm study guide and here for an example of a midterm FAQ that I posted for the online course that I am teaching.
Eliminated exam that required a lot of memorization. ("[I didn't like] the amount of information you needed to know about specific details dealing with interventions.") Originally, I used three exams in the intervention course, one per unit. However, the second unit mostly focuses on "best practices" examples of intervention programs, and I found it hard to develop an exam that didn't require straight memorization. So, I took out this exam and replaced it with "Application Activities" that the students complete throughout the semester. These activities allow students to practice applying the course concepts and allow them to learn more about the current issues in intervention science.
Comments from students (after changes were introduced):
- "I liked that we did application activities rather than exams. The material is difficult to test on so doing other activities was more helpful."
- "I liked the in-class activities. It allowed the class to interact with each other."
- "I liked how in each class videos were shown that related to the topics we were learning in class. It was not just all explaining. There were a lot of hands on activities."
- "I like having the class activities. It really helped me understand each class's material and be able to apply it."
Strategies for continued improvement
Faster pace, less repetition, and additional novel examples.The biggest adjustment for me when I taught my first course (a lecture course in intervention science) was that I was used to working one-on-one and in small groups with students during office hours and tutoring. In these situations, it is much easier to "read" how a student is doing. I found this much harder in a lecture course, and as a result, I spent too much time reiterating points the students already understood. The next time that I taught the course, I added more examples and I spent less time reviewing previous material from one week to the next. When I thought that the students weren't clear about a particular topic, I tried to find novel examples to discuss, rather than repeat the same information. When I developed the online version of this course, I added more examples and provided links to additional information so that students could learn more about the topics from other sources.
Bring in guest speakers, especially those who have experience in the field.My students really enjoyed learning about intervention programs from those who were actually conducting them. Many of my students will go on to become practitioners, social workers, and educators. Because I do not have much experience in these areas, I should continue seeking out speakers who can talk about what it is like on the "front lines." Several times, my students thought of questions they really would have liked to ask after the speaker had left. I plan to have my students prepare more before speakers come to visit so that students can develop more detailed questions ahead of time. I am still exploring ways that would make it possible to include "guest speakers" into an asynchronous online course.
More opportunities for student interactions and problem-solving tasks. The exact methods that I use vary considerably depending on the type of course that I am teaching. In face-to-face courses, I intend to use the "think-pair-share" method more often. This strategy allows students time to tackle a challenging problem, share their ideas with their classmates, and then participate in a larger class discussion. For online courses, I plan to add more discussion boards that will allow students to react to the material and explore their individual interests in more detail. Across all courses, I intend to design more activities that allow students to explore real-world problems and to have them work on problems that have multiple alternative solutions. I would also like to provide students with more opportunities to review each other's work.
Comments and Suggestions from Students:
- "I felt we spent too much time on some topics, re-explaining things. Make those who are struggling come to you.
- "Try not to repeat everything so many times."
- "The material could be more difficult and go deeper into the study of prevention."
- "The two times people came in, it added an experience which made it relatable, because of the field of work they were in and what we were learning."
- "[I liked] having guest speakers come in and tell the class about job opportunities in the field."
* Comments that are starred are from when I was a teaching assistant in a graduate methods course or the undergraduate research methods course. The remaining comments are from students in the intervention science courses that I taught.