[ABACA]

Please critique this letter. Does my argument make sense? Is it stated clearly? What is hard to understand? Do the analogies I use help explain my argument?

Sir,

This e-mail is in regards to my concerns of the assessment process of teachers.

Every quarter, my classmates and myself fill out evaluation reports on our teachers. I feel that this process is detrimental to our education and to DePaul University.

Student Teacher Evaluations are Ineffective

The reason I attend DePaul University is to gain an education. The role of my teachers in this process is to present pertinent material to be studied, via lectures and other in class methods, and assignments, and to enforce the material is studied via tests on the material presented. A teacher that follows these processes will educate his students.

However, his students are not capable of effectively evaluating his performance as a teacher. To effectively evaluate his performance, the evaluator must have a thorough understanding of the subject being taught in order to assess that the material presented to the students is pertinent to the subject, and that the testing is stringent enough to enforce that the material is studied. Thus the only effective evaluators of a teacher are his superiors and his peers.

Student Teacher Evaluations hurt DePaul Students

Student evaluations of teachers are not only ineffective, they are also detrimental to DePaul University and its students. Students, as has been shown above, are not able to evaluate their teachers regarding their teacher’s ability to help students gain an education. What students are able to evaluate a teacher on are superficial things such as the teacher's personality, and on the grade they expect to receive from a teacher.

Teachers who give good grades liberally (and doing so render their enforcement of studying ineffective) are more likely to receive positive evaluations from students than teachers who do not give good grades liberally. When this is compounded with the fact that student evaluations of teachers are an important factor in tenure reviews for teachers, it creates a strong motivation for teachers to give good grades liberally, thus eroding a teacher's willingness to stringently test his students.

Student Teacher Evaluations Create a Hierarchy of Selfishness

Teachers that make their classes easy in order to receive good student evaluations are teachers who place their career over the education of their students. These teachers are also the most likely to receive tenure due to their good student evaluations. This process of letting the selfish rise to the top while the unselfish - those who enforce discipline upon their students through stringent testing of the materials presented - are let go creates a hierarchy of selfishness at DePaul. I feel it is no mere coincidence that my teachers who have been tenured faculty members have missed more classes, been least motivated to present materials in depth, and have been the least interested in their student's wellbeing (however, they are also generally stringent testers due to their relative immunity from the effects of negative student evaluation reports). I feel that the selfish behavior of tenured professors at DePaul can be attributed to the hierarchy of selfishness created by the student teacher evaluation process.

Student Teacher Evaluations Erodes Academic Discipline.

In the military evaluation reports go the correct way, from the top down. This is the correct way to evaluate because it is the way that enforces discipline. A private will drop and push out 50 on command from his NCOs because his NCOs evaluate his performance as a private and are integral in his promotion process. Likewise, officers are able to discipline NCOs because officers are integral in their NCOs promotion process. A private does not formally evaluate his officers because he is incapable of appropriately assessing his officer’s performance. Successful corporations use this same model of top down evaluations.

In an academic setting we have teacher evaluations of students in the form of grade points. GPA is one of the major motivating factors in creating academic discipline in students because top down evaluations work well in getting the best performance possible out of those subordinates. Students evaluating their teachers effectively erodes academic discipline. Just as an NCO who knows his privates' evaluations of him will be an integral part of his promotion process may not be as willing to discipline his privates, so to a teacher who knows that his students hold his tenure in their hands may not be as willing to discipline his students.

Thank you for your time, sir.

[Libero cane]

It's "pertinent".

[Darwinist]

I totally agree. Mind if I nick some of it and translate it into Icelandic? I´m in a similar situation at my uni.

[ABACA]

Originally Posted by Darwinist

I totally agree. Mind if I nick some of it and translate it into Icelandic? I´m in a similar situation at my uni.

Sure, go for it. If you have any good ideas on the subject, share them with me, too.

And thanks for the spelling fix.

[SinisterKungFu]

You misspelled "detrimental", "pertinent", "thorough", "receive", "eroding", and "hierarchy"

[Darwinist]

Originally Posted by ABACA

Sure, go for it. If you have any good ideas on the subject, share them with me, too.

And thanks for the spelling fix.

How about this: There are two ways to handle student evaluations, and both of them are bad: either you put a lot of stock in them, in which case you are liable to transport the least desireable teachers to the front of the line, or you put little stock in them and do most of the evaluating of teachers through other methods, in which case it´s hard to justify the time students spend on the evaluations in the first place.

Also, it is unfair to the student to expect him to be able to fairly and successfully evaluate his teachers. He may genuinely feel that one of his teachers is a bad one, but he personally likes him. Students face enough stress in the course of their studies without compounding that stress by requiring them to perform a function which is ultimately futile.

[computer fogie]

I agree with your points and it seems pretty well written.

[Gandhi]

I corrected / edited until the Student Teacher Evaluations Create a Hierarchy of Selfishness


Sir,

This e-mail is in regards to my concerns over the current teacher assessment process.

Every quarter, my classmates and I fill out evaluation reports on our teachers. I feel that this process is detrimental to both our education and to DePaul University.

Student Teacher Evaluations are Ineffective

The reason I attend DePaul University is to gain an education. The role of my teachers in this process is to present pertinent material to be studied (via lectures and other in class methods and assignments) and to ensure that the material is studied (via testing). A teacher that follows these processes will educate his students.

However, students are not capable of effectively evaluating teacher performance. To effectively evaluate performance, a student evaluator should have a thorough understanding of the subject being taught. This understanding is required in order to assess whether the material presented to the students is pertinent to the subject, and that the testing is stringent enough to ensure that the material has been learned. As a result the only truly effective evaluator of a teacher is his superiors and/or peers.

Student Teacher Evaluations hurt DePaul Students

Students are not able to evaluate their teachers on their ability to help students gain an education. The result is that students then evaluate teacher on superficial things such as the teacher's personality or the grade they expect to receive from a teacher.

Teachers who give out good grades liberally (and in doing so render their enforcement of studying ineffective), are more likely to receive positive student evaluations than teachers who do. As student evaluations of teachers are an important factor in tenure reviews for teachers, a strong motivation is created for teachers to give good grades liberally, thus eroding a teacher's willingness to stringently test his students.


.....the Student Teacher Evaluations Create a Hierarchy of Selfishness part needs some work as well. Not a bad letter -

I don't agree though, as a student I felt very well placed to give teacher feedback. Maybe there is just too much weight on them at your school. Also the military analogy is not the best imho, many organization are looking more a getting bottom up feed back as it has its place.

[ABACA]

Originally Posted by Greg Anderson

I corrected / edited until the Student Teacher Evaluations Create a Hierarchy of Selfishness


Sir,

This e-mail is in regards to my concerns over the current teacher assessment process.

Every quarter, my classmates and I fill out evaluation reports on our teachers. I feel that this process is detrimental to both our education and to DePaul University.

Student Teacher Evaluations are Ineffective

The reason I attend DePaul University is to gain an education. The role of my teachers in this process is to present pertinent material to be studied (via lectures and other in class methods and assignments) and to ensure that the material is studied (via testing). A teacher that follows these processes will educate his students.

However, students are not capable of effectively evaluating teacher performance. To effectively evaluate performance, a student evaluator should have a thorough understanding of the subject being taught. This understanding is required in order to assess whether the material presented to the students is pertinent to the subject, and that the testing is stringent enough to ensure that the material has been learned. As a result the only truly effective evaluator of a teacher is his superiors and/or peers.

Student Teacher Evaluations hurt DePaul Students

Students are not able to evaluate their teachers on their ability to help students gain an education. The result is that students then evaluate teacher on superficial things such as the teacher's personality or the grade they expect to receive from a teacher.

Teachers who give out good grades liberally (and in doing so render their enforcement of studying ineffective), are more likely to receive positive student evaluations than teachers who do. As student evaluations of teachers are an important factor in tenure reviews for teachers, a strong motivation is created for teachers to give good grades liberally, thus eroding a teacher's willingness to stringently test his students.


.....the Student Teacher Evaluations Create a Hierarchy of Selfishness part needs some work as well. Not a bad letter -

I don't agree though, as a student I felt very well placed to give teacher feedback. Maybe there is just too much weight on them at your school. Also the military analogy is not the best imho, many organization are looking more a getting bottom up feed back as it has its place.

Thanks a lot for your input.

I should distinguish in my letter between bottom up input on ways to make the students' experience better which I think is fine, and bottom up input that affects hiring and promotion.

[Spencikiss]

fuckin geek.