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A Specific Instructor Evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explain why a multiple page Specific Instructor Evaluation form (SPIE FORM) was developed and how it was used. The intent of developing a SPIE FORM was threefold. The primary purpose was to gather feedback from students in order to improve both the class and the instructor’s teaching. The secondary intent was to provide students with a better means of having their say at the end of the semester about both the class and the instructor. The third purpose was to provide an additional evaluation of the instructor by the students as an aspect of a multiple measure of assessment for a future promotion and tenure case. The SPIE FORM poses questions that students respond to in multiple manners including yes & no responses, five point Likert scale ratings, and short written responses. Most often both the yes & no questions and the five point Likert scale questions are followed by the opportunity for the students to write more to explain their response. The SPIE FORM forms are much more completely filled out compared to standard evaluation forms. Furthermore, responses from students on the SPIE FORM forms are more easily interpreted and also sometimes are seemingly contradictory compared to the standard evaluations. The SPIE FORM looks into assessment of the class and instructor in a much more particular fashion and as such is a valuable tool that is more useful than standard evaluation forms.

Introduction

The acronym SPIE has been used to identify this practice while in use by the author and will be used in this paper. There is no connection between this paper and The International Society for Optical Engineering and none is suggested by use of any acronym. The SPIE FORM was created by one faculty member new to the teaching profession. This was done with a particular SPIE FORM for each different class taught. Each evaluation form was specific to each particular class. The SPIE FORM is titled “Invitation to the Final Exam.” The standard school evaluation form of 17 questions does not provide adequate assessment mostly due to incomplete responses from students and the difficulty in gaining meaningful insight from them.

The autho r began a position teaching after over ten years experience in the civil engineering field. The teaching position was in the disciplines of civil engineering technology and construction engineering technology and while previous work experience did include three semesters as a teaching assistant, no formal training in what a professor is supposed to do was a part of the author’s background. Work experience in industry is a requirement of the teaching position but no experience in teaching was required in order to be hired. Initial evaluations from students were not positive and were significantly below the department average. Doubts were raised about the validity of these ratings. The question, “it is really not that bad” was pondered. There was significant difficulty in developing action items to improve teaching while reviewing the standard student evaluation forms.

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Devine, D. (2006, June), A Specific Instructor Evaluation (Spie) Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--456