Teacher-Course Evaluations

Dear Students,

at Tulane we now do these evaluations on Blackboard and do not spend class time on them. Nevertheless they are crucial to our understanding of how effective our courses are. I am not satisfied with the format of the Tulane evaluations, nor have I ever been. I especially dislike the heavy emphasis on quantified scores and the lack of prominence of written student comments, from which I can learn so much more than a sample 'grade' I got for this or that category. I always read the comments and take them to heart. When professors come up for promotion and tenure at Tulane, the written comments of students are disregarded. I couldn't believe that when I was first informed of this. Everything has to be a quantified measure. How can you quantify a professor's books and articles? We have to get letters of evaluation from other scholars in the field, and believe me, the letters are written comments, not grades or raw scores.

Drew Faust, the lady prez at Harvard, was asked how their evaluations might change. She replied that we need to find out whether a class has effectively prepared the students for the next level in the field -- very pertinent to language classes. Further, she wants to know how the professor guides the students to analyze and evaluate raw information and to integrate information in an approach to a problem. Using information wisely, with healthy scepticism and a high regard for the integrity of facts is what we should somehow be able to teach. Another thing she said that appeals to me is: "We should ask whether the students will remember the class in a year's time, in five years' time, in ten years. (Thirty years?)

I suppose I flatter myself to think many students remember my Russian classes, even if they don't venture beyond 101. One student told me "Russian and I just didn't get along," but she and I became friends. I think that counts, doesn't it, as "remembering" the course? This girl was a talented artist and used to frighten us in the department with her self-designed Halloween costumes. I would gasp and my first impulse would be to stand in between her, her vampire fangs and bloody eyes shining, and Professor Naughton, who commented "Feral! Feral!" As though I could protect Professor Naughton from an evil vampire!

I think students will remember the Russian for hello, how are you, and I speak Russian. That in itself is a legacy of sorts.